Merge multiple brush strokes into one?

[dreed]

Is it possible to merge multiple brush strokes into one so that my Develop history doesn't have a bazillion add brush strokes as I add/remove detail and just one big merged mask?

[Schewe]

Nope...

[bns]

May I suggest the following workaround:
- create all brush strokes
- copy development settings, but only 'local adjustments/brush'
- make virtual copy
- reset development settings
- delete history
- paste develpment settings
optional step
- make snapshot, named 'brush strokes'

I use this procedure - in multiple steps - to visualize the impact of separate development steps (global, local, tone, color, spots, etc.), if I want to illustrate to people how I achieved a certain processing result.

cheers,
Boudewijn Swanenburg

[richardpeters]

It's certainly possible so far as the History is concerned: by either making a snapshot, rolling back your history, and then re-applying the snapshot -

or else more simply, by using Copy (ensuring Local Adjustments / Brush is checked), rolling back the History to your first brush stroke, and then using Paste.

Your bazillions of History steps will then be replaced with either "Snapshot: [name]", or else "Paste Settings".

But as Jeff has said - there is no way to not have these bazillions of separate steps recorded individually as they happen. And IMO that's a good thing; speaking as someone who is not, quite, always, perfectly, infallible with the brush... 

[dreed]

But as Jeff has said - there is no way to not have these bazillions of separate steps recorded individually as they happen. And IMO that's a good thing; speaking as someone who is not, quite, always, perfectly, infallible with the brush... 

Sure, I'm in the same boat...

But once all of the brush strokes have been made and you're happy, surely it must be possible to merge them into one...

Having lots of brush strokes has got to be bad for performance...

[richardpeters]

But once all of the brush strokes have been made and you're happy, surely it must be possible to merge them into one...

Having lots of brush strokes has got to be bad for performance...

Having lots of separate adjustment pins would indeed be bad for performance.

But making lots of separate dabby brush strokes onto the same adjustment mask, is no different in principle, than making a similar-looking mask from just a single stroke (by holding down the cursor and moving the brush around).

Each separate History step, along the way, does need to include a separate representation of the changed content of this mask - as a result of that particular stroke - as well as the means to reconstruct all of the other current adjustments at that moment. So those things will take up some added storage space in the Catalog.

But the current operation of Lightroom (what you see and interact with while working on the image) only needs to pay any attention to how those adjustments currently are. The presence or absence of History steps describing how it used to be, are beside the point - unless and until, you actually want to get back to how it used to be; or else, to compare how it is now with how it used to be. Those operations, and only those, depend on the relevant History steps having been retained.

Lightroom does not display its image by laboriously replaying all of the History steps. It goes straight to whatever the current settings are.

[dreed]

...
But making lots of separate dabby brush strokes onto the same adjustment mask, is no different in principle, than making a similar-looking mask from just a single stroke (by holding down the cursor and moving the brush around).
...

Then let it be displayed as such in the edit history.

I'm not particularly interested in the internal representation, rather I'm perturbed by the develop history being filled with "Add Brush Stroke" - all of which are not particularly informative (given that brushes are not labeled, there's no way to tell to which one any particular stroke belongs to.)

To compare it with other adjustments, if I make successive changes of exposure to -0.5, +0.5, -1, I can go back to the -0.5 and enter in -1 instead and rather than 3 steps I get 1. There's no equivalent for that with brush strokes.

[richardpeters]

To compare it with other adjustments, if I make successive changes of exposure to -0.5, +0.5, -1, I can go back to the -0.5 and enter in -1 instead and rather than 3 steps I get 1. There's no equivalent for that with brush strokes.

As I pointed out, you can paste in your latest image state including the completed mask, onto the history step of the first brushstroke toward that mask. This obliterates all the intermediate history steps (appearances of the mask), while keeping the end result from those.

Just like, keeping the -1 value while losing sight of the fact that the image has ever showed those other values.

If LR did have an option to report multiple successive brushstrokes as just one History step, (and why not - great) then we wouldn't see all of those bazillions. But working on a mask may still often be interleaved with other kinds of operation, or by brushstrokes made onto different masks, or by tweaks to the settings used for a mask - things which would still need to be elaborated, in the History sequence.

[dreed]

I found a workaround.

Once I've finished using the brush to mask in/out areas or objects
- find another picture to use as a dummy target
- do a "Synchronize Settings" (select only "Brush Strokes") from the one I've been working on (master) to the dummy
- in the master, select the step immediately before the "Add Brush Stroke"
- select the dummy image
- do a "Synchronize Settings" (select only "Brush Strokes") from the dummy back to the master
- in the dummy image, select the step prior to the "Synchronize Settings" in the develop history
- go back to the master into "D"evelop mode and voila! 100 or 200 "Brush" changes are now 1 "Synchronize Settings" step

At this point you can still edit the brush strokes individually further in the master if you so desire.

All of which helped me get the attached image out ... but on export hmm, maybe a bit over cooked...

[richardpeters]

Once I've finished using the brush to mask in/out areas or objects
- find another picture to use as a dummy target
- do a "Synchronize Settings" (select only "Brush Strokes") from the one I've been working on (master) to the dummy
- in the master, select the step immediately before the "Add Brush Stroke"
- select the dummy image
- do a "Synchronize Settings" (select only "Brush Strokes") from the dummy back to the master
- in the dummy image, select the step prior to the "Synchronize Settings" in the develop history
- go back to the master into "D"evelop mode and voila! 100 or 200 "Brush" changes are now 1 "Synchronize Settings" step

Or else, far more simply: paint your mask with lots of brush strokes.
Copy (all settings, some settings, doesn't matter so long as at least the local / brush item is checked).
Click back in the History to your first brush stroke.
Paste.