Masks // Replace or Merge - select default

[grosse_koalition]

Lightroom Version Number

15.1

Operating System

1. macOS 26 Tahoe

Hi friends,
there's one thing (hopefully not only) I find quite annoying. Each time, I paste settings that contain a mask onto a picture, I am being asked, if I am sure and if the masks should be replaced or merged.
Maybe,. it's only me, but I LITERALLY NEVER wanted the masks to be merged, I want the old masks overwritten - replaced.
Does anybody know if there's a possibility to tell LR that "replace" should be the default behavior? - Ideally, I could switch off that question at all (and turn it back on, once I should ever need it).
Thanks for any hint, because this question is really nerves killing...
Best
Michael

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I don’t think there is, and that’s probably because replace is something other than you may think. If you paste a new landscape mask, and the image already has a sky mask, then replace will delete that sky mask. At least AFAIK, it replaces all masks, not just an old sky mask for a new one.

 

[clee01l]

I don’t think there is, and that’s probably because replace is something other than you may think. If you paste a new landscape mask, and the image already has a sky mask, then replace will delete that sky mask. At least AFAIK, it replaces all masks, not just an old sky mask for a new one.

This is how I understand the concept too. I always use Merge when the message appears knowing that I can redo the whole mask if I don't like the results.

 

[grosse_koalition]

Thank you for your answers I acknowledge that your workflows require to merge masks.
In my case, I really want to replace them - just have new masks instead of the old ones. So my question is: is there a way to change the default from "merge" to "replace". (or ideally: delete that (for me annoying) modal completely in the day-to-day workflow and store the merge-or-replace decision somewhere in the general settings)

 

[grosse_koalition]

One of my reasons behind that is: if you change the "Amount" of masks (to balance them better), it's not taken into account with "Merge" (sometimes in portraits I realize that the background was darkened too much, so I want to re-do that in various photos of a session, additionally to other changes...)

 

[clee01l]

So my question is: is there a way to change the default from "merge" to "replace".

I think the answer to that is "No". Adobe sees {Merge} as the safer option which is why I think they listed this as the default.

 

[grosse_koalition]

Thank you @clee01l !
I‘d really like to decide for myself, which „risks“ I‘m taking. I‘ll create a feature request at Adobe.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Check for an existing request first. I believe there is one already, so add your vote to that one.