Issue with spot removal tool

[ptulula]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic 8.4.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

I'm having a sporadic issue with the spot removal tool. Occasionally, the spot is not totally removed but sort of smudged (not as pronounced but very visible). My opacity is 100, feather is 0 and size is more than large enough to cover the spot. See attached screenshots.
This only happens on some pictures and only on some spots of some pictures (can't discern a pattern of when it does or does not do it). Any idea?

 

[dpirazzi]

I've seen this too, though not recently.

These days I'm spending a lot of time with the spot removal tool (cleaning up digitized slides) and have not noticed the behavior. Settings are usually feather around 20 and opacity at 100. Still on LR 8.4.1.

Sorry, not much help.

 

[Dennis R Smith]

Check your "Opacity" and "Feather" sliders on the spot tool -- Opacity should be 100 or close to it and
Feather should be low (maybe not 0, maybe 10-20).

Otherwise, make sure the spot size is large enough to more than cover the spot you want to get rid of.

Then try playing with those 3 items (Opacity, Feather, Size).

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Dennis, he already said the Opacity is 100, Feather 0 and the brush is big enough. Lightroom copies over the spot, so first thing to check is what it selected as source. Maybe the source contains a small spot too.

 

[Dennis R Smith]

Dennis, he already said the Opacity is 100, Feather 0 and the brush is big enough. ...

Sorry - missed that, and its not even Monday morning! So I agree then, the only thing left seems to be the source.

 

[ptulula]

Dennis, he already said the Opacity is 100, Feather 0 and the brush is big enough. Lightroom copies over the spot, so first thing to check is what it selected as source. Maybe the source contains a small spot too.

The source does not have a spot. I checked that.

 

[Califdan]

Also check your "Heal" vs "Clone" setting. they work differently and many times switching helps.

 

[ptulula]

Also check your "Heal" vs "Clone" setting. they work differently and many times switching helps.

Yes. Tried both and I get the same results.

 

[Zenon]

This is from Adobe's Optimize Performance document. The first parts talk about speed. Read the "Note" part at the end. Not sure if this will help.

Optimize Lightroom performance

Spot Removal tool, local corrections, and History panel

The Spot Removal Tool and Local Corrections Brush are not designed for hundreds to thousands of corrections. If your image contains many (hundreds) of localized adjustments, consider using a pixel-based editing application such as Photoshop for that level of correction.
If you have many corrections, check your History panel. The History panel has no limits, and it isn't deleted unless specified. If you've been creating many local or spot corrections, your history could be long, which can slow Lightroom's performance as a whole.
Clear the History panel by clicking the X on the right of the History panel header.

Order of Develop operations

The best order of Develop operations to increase performance is as follows:

1. Spot healing.
2. Geometry corrections, such as Lens Correction profiles and Manual corrections, including keystone corrections using the Vertical slider.
3. Global non-detail corrections, such as Exposure and White Balance. These corrections can also be done first if desired.
4. Local corrections, such as Gradient Filter and Adjustment Brush strokes.
5. Detail corrections, such as Noise Reduction and Sharpening.

Note: Performing spot healing first improves the accuracy of the spot healing, and ensures the boundaries of the healed areas match the spot location.

 

[ptulula]

Note: Performing spot healing first improves the accuracy of the spot healing, and ensures the boundaries of the healed areas match the spot location.

Interesting. I had always been told that in lightroom (unlike photoshop ) the order of actions did not matter. I'll keep that in mind in the future. In this case, there are not that many changes to the image so I'm not sure it would make a difference.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Spot healing is the exception to the order doesn't matter rule. This is more so when using the output of one heal as the source for another, but geometric adjustments have been known to complicate matters too.