Why does Lightroom lag badly with lots of spot removal edits, and how can I improve performance?
Asked 1/2/2016
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2 answers
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Lightroom CC becomes very slow when I use the Spot Removal tool on an image with a very large number of corrections. On two different Windows systems, the same TIFF file shows heavy cursor lag while editing, especially once many spot fixes have been added. I’ve already tried increasing Camera Raw cache size, moving the catalog/cache, and disabling automatic XMP writing, but the problem remains. Is this mainly a hardware issue, or is Lightroom simply not well suited to hundreds of spot removals? Are there any practical ways to speed this up?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
3
For the amount of spot removals I did, I believe I should have used Photoshop instead:
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.
Originally by user25248. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user25248
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is likely more a Lightroom workflow limitation than a simple hardware problem. According to Adobe’s guidance, the Spot Removal and local adjustment tools are not intended for hundreds or thousands of corrections. When an image becomes a “minefield” of spot edits, Lightroom can slow down significantly even on faster machines.
What can help:
- use the 64-bit version of Lightroom
- increase Camera Raw/cache size
- disable automatic writing of changes to XMP
- keep plenty of free disk space
- build and use Smart Previews, which can improve responsiveness
But if the image truly needs a very large number of spot corrections, the best solution is usually to move that job to Photoshop or another pixel editor. Lightroom is strongest for non-destructive global edits and moderate local adjustments; heavy retouching with many individual spot fixes is better handled in Photoshop.
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