Problems with brush tool, my disappointment !

[robert blu]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic 12.5

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

Hi everybody, probably I am the only one but I feel disappointed and frustrated by the recent evolution of LR Classic.
What was an excellent tool with a simple editing program is now complex with too many options and seletions to be made. And if by accident you tick a wrong box or clik a wrong key and without desiring activate a specific shortcut than it is a probelm! Ok, sorry, rant over!

I used oft the brush tool for specific dodging and burning on certain areas like I used to do in the wet darkroom. It was very good. In a few clicks I could make the desired adjustements.
But now, I do not understand why it behaves in a very different way: I try to explain, if I want to incresa the exposure of an area I use to go with the brush on that area and increase it. The resulkt was all the brushed area was lighter. BUt now it only increas the exposure on the very light parts of the are, the middle and dark grey stay as they are. And most of times they are what need to be a little bit lighter. Think of a tree where you see the sky among the branches and desire to make the branches a little lighter, what happens the branches stay as they are and the sky becomes extremely lighter! Or an area where you have medium shadow and some light and you want to make them both a little bit lighter. This behaviour did not happen a short time ago.

Am I doing something wrong? Did I select without knowing work only on highlight? Do not correct shadows? It seems something like it is happening but I do not understan why!
Hope anyone can suggest me what to do, thanks in advance.

 

[Jimmsp]

.... BUt now it only increas the exposure on the very light parts of the are, the middle and dark grey stay as they are. And most of times they are what need to be a little bit lighter. Think of a tree where you see the sky among the branches and desire to make the branches a little lighter, what happens the branches stay as they are and the sky becomes extremely lighter! Or an area where you have medium shadow and some light and you want to make them both a little bit lighter. This behaviour did not happen a short time ago.

...

I guess I am not seeing that, and I use the brush a lot. On the other hand, I have not paid a lot of attention to that detail, as I tend to make a lot of adjustments in the brushed area, including shadows and highlights.
Your example of branches staying as is and the sky brightening sounds like an "auto mask" is on and you are brushing the wrong area.

You might try resetting preferences and see if something got out of whack.

 

[Califdan]

@robert blu - It does sound like you may be doing something wrong, but you didn't provide enough details for me to know where you may have taken a wrong turn. So, let me go through it a bit. Appologies if you already know this.

1) When you create a brush mask for the purpose of simulating wet darkroom dodge and burn, in addition to setting the brush size and feather, it is usually best use a low "FLOW". For example, 20 to 33. Then brush over areas multipl times to build up the effect. Like in the darkroom you'd wave your hand over the same area of an image multiple times to build the effect. If your flow is, say 20, then you'd need to brush over a spot 5 times to get the full effect, but an area you only brushed over 2 times would only get 40% of the effect

2) Turn on the colored mask overlay to see the strength of the effect on various places you've brushed.

3) To do a true dodge/burn, in the masks adjustment panel you should use the "Exposure" slider to change the overall amount of the dodge or burn. Using the highlights or shadows sliders will only affect the brighter or darker tones of the brushed area.

Is that what you were already doing? If not give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[robert blu]

@Jimmsp: thanks, for your suggestion. I resetted the preferences but did not work. I'll check more later.
@Califdan: Non need to apologise, all suggestions are welcome. Point 1 is ok, point 2 also ok but I prefer to see directly the effect, point 3 is ok .
I'll try again later, after I have resetted the preferences.
Thanks again for your suggestions, much appreciated

 

[Jimmsp]

Can you post an example of "branches staying as is and the sky brightening"; and the tone control panel shows the exposure value of the brush..
Take a screen shot of a expanded area, and be sure that colored mask overlay is showing.

 

[robert blu]

@Jimmsp : thanks again for uyour suggstion, crossing fingers it seems to work as I was used to. I think resetting the preferences did the trick but only after I switched off and on again the computer. Probably I had a kind of mask or a setting switched on without knowing it, perhaps I hit some key and activated a shortcut. I much appreciate your help, I had spent an afternoon in front of the screen trying this and that

 

[Jimmsp]

@Jimmsp : thanks again for uyour suggstion, crossing fingers it seems to work as I was used to. I think resetting the preferences did the trick but only after I switched off and on again the computer. Probably I had a kind of mask or a setting switched on without knowing it, perhaps I hit some key and activated a shortcut. I much appreciate your help, I had spent an afternoon in front of the screen trying this and that

Glad it is now working for you. As I said earlier, I use this a lot and love the tool. My mistakes often involve leaving the auto mask on or off when I wanted it in the other mode.