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Transforms are not correctly applied to Local Adjustments and Filters!

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Joined
Jul 3, 2019
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29
Location
Corroios, Portugal
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version
Classic
Lightroom Version Number
Lightroom Classic (v9.2.1), Camera Raw (v12.2.1)
Operating System
  1. Windows 10
I’ve discovered some major flaws in Adobe’s implementation of Local Adjustments and Filters (Graduated and Radial) and how they respond to Transforms (and Lens Corrections). I did not test Spot Removal, but they too most probably also suffer similar problems.

When applying Transforms, using either the predetermined selections or manually setting the various values, such as Rotation, Scale, Aspect and the others, not all of them have the desired effect on the Adjustments and Filters; which can cause your edits to be undesirably affected, especially when they are applied to larger areas of your photos or when using large brush sizes.
  • Local Adjustments are simple multi-point round (not oval) “dabs”, that make up the brush strokes (as I mentioned in another thread), and they are correctly adjusted for Scale, Offset and Rotation, but are not correctly adjusted for Aspect nor Vertical/Horizontal perspective transformations.
  • Radial Filters are correctly adjusted for Scale and Offset, but are not for Rotation, Aspect nor Vertical/Horizontal perspective transformations.
  • Graduated Filters, however, seem to be the only ones that are affected by all the transformations but they are not adjusted very well.
So, the warning is, if your images need to suffer a major transformation, you may need to apply it before the Local Adjustments and Filters (and probably Spot Removal too). This however, is not ideal, because it will slow down processing. I usually first apply Spot Removal, then Local Adjustments and Filters, before I apply Lens Correction, Transforms, Detail and Effects adjustments, in order to improve processing speed while I am removing spots or making local adjustments.

I did these tests in Lightroom Classic, but most likely applies to the Lightroom CC and Camera Raw as well.

Original.jpg
Transformed.jpg
 
Looks like I may have been practicing the wrong order of operations, according to Adobe's suggested best practices to optimise workflow:

Optimize Lightroom performance
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.
 
In theory, it should "just work" but I have seen it reported before.
 
Interesting! I have often wondered exactly how this works, but have never had the time or enthusiasm to test it for myself.

Also, my understanding is that regardless of the order of Develop operations, the order in which Lightroom applies the adjustments to the image is fixed - is that correct? So although there may be a preferred order of Develop operations for performance reasons, the order won't affect the result at all?
 
Also, my understanding is that regardless of the order of Develop operations, the order in which Lightroom applies the adjustments to the image is fixed - is that correct? So although there may be a preferred order of Develop operations for performance reasons, the order won't affect the result at all?
In theory, yes, but in practice, not!

If I apply the Local Adjustments and Filters AFTER the transformations (geometry adjustments), then I will be applying them in the correct places (visually speaking) and with the correct orientation taking into account what the transformations have already relocated to the new visual position, that I am editing. So even, if the software is working backwards from my visual reference to record my actions in absolute terms, at least it is already in the correct place and will not suffer the side effects that I detected in my testing.

In this way, I would only detect the "bad" implementation if I changed or disabled the geometry adjustments and then notice that my Local Adjustments did not map correctly to the original, and I would have to tweak them again.
 
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