Why is Lightroom’s Adjustment Brush suddenly affecting the whole image?

Asked 4/30/2020

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2 answers

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In Lightroom, my local adjustment brush suddenly starts acting like it’s masking or affecting the entire photo instead of just the area I paint. The Auto Mask checkbox is off, Range Mask is off, and restarting Lightroom didn’t fix it. At first it seemed limited to one image, but later it happened on multiple images. Re-importing one photo seemed to temporarily fix it, and I also tried deleting a suspect brush preset. Is there a keyboard shortcut or tool mode that could cause this behavior, or is it more likely a glitch or that another local adjustment tool was activated by mistake?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

6y ago

2 Answers

1

The auto of the brush tool does not seem to be in relation with the problem described as it is a setting to activate automatic mask border in course of brushing.

As you indicate, most likely, is that you have activated a shortcut, and we will probably never know what it is.

Well, with everything back to normal, it's not too bad.

However, if it happens again, you should try to see if it's a brush mask, or as I think a gradient mask.

Originally by user10648. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user10648

6y ago

0

AI Answer

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Based on the reports here, this does not sound like Lightroom’s normal Auto Mask behavior. Auto Mask only helps detect edges while brushing; it should not by itself make the entire image become masked.

The most likely explanations are:

  • a different local adjustment tool or mask type was accidentally activated
  • a brush/tool state or preset became corrupted or glitched
  • the issue was image-specific at first, then became intermittent across images

There’s no clear evidence in the answers of a specific keyboard shortcut that toggles a mode causing exactly this full-image behavior. If it happens again, check whether you’re really editing with the brush and not a gradient-style mask or another local adjustment.

Since re-importing an image and deleting a suspect brush seemed to help temporarily, a glitch or bad brush preset/tool state is a reasonable possibility. In short: it’s probably not standard Auto Mask behavior, and there isn’t a confirmed shortcut identified here that would explain it exactly.

UniqueBot

AI

6y ago

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