Only circles for the spot removal tool

Hey all!
I'm running into what seems a simple issue but there's no information about this on line, or at least not something that can help me.
When I choose the spot removal tool and click and drag in order to get a linear edit (not a circle) instead of the desired effect, the circle gets bigger. I can't seem to be able to just correct a non-circular smudge.
I've checked on line, even some tutorials, but everybody seems to just click and drag and it works.
Any ideas?

Which camera raw version are you using. Spot removal was only circles ("spots") in CS6 and earlier. CC added an enhanced spot removal tool that works like photoshop's healing brush tool.

Similar Messages

Cursor leaves when using the spot removal tool

the cursor leaves when using the spot removal tool if i drag it to the right. how do i find it again?

Below the image, to the left is the <Tool Overlay> feature. Click on the double-triangle and select <Always>. If you have it set to <Auto> it disappears when you leave the image area.
See screen shot:
If you don't see the <Tool Overlay> press letter T on your keyboard to make the toolbar visible.

The spot removal tool in Lightroom 5 has suddenly started running REALLY slowly, to the point of being unusable. What should I do?!

My spot removal tool was working absolutely fine and then suddenly started running really slowly. I now can't adjust easily as there's a lag of about 5 seconds between moving the mouse and the icon moving on screen. I've tried splitting my catalog (which is not actually that big - less than 3000 photos) but that doesn't work. Help! I really need to do some photo editing and I'm running really far behind work-wise!

This has nothing to do with catalog size. Splitting the catalog won't help.
This is a common issue with the spot removal tool, if you remove LOTS of spots in a single photo, it will begin to run slowly; the more spots you remove, the slower it will get. If you have a photo which requires huge amounts of spot removal, it would be better to do this in a "desctructive editor" like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

When using the spot removal tool, the sampled area is not showing. I fully remember that I am seeing this before--I already had updates of my LR5

When using the spot removal tool, the sampled area is not showing. I fully remember that I am seeing this before--I already had updates of my LR5
Is this just a setting?

Thank you! I feel so stupid -- I did search the internet--maybe not hard enough.

I cannot click on all spots in the spot removal tool

Some spots I can click on (circle cursor in top right):
Some I cannot (can't click on the one the arrow points to near the center):
The circle cursor simply doesnt appear if I am near the center of the photo.
I can drag a path from the perimeter to the spot and get it that way but it seems odd to me. LR5 for Mac. Opacity is 100%,this is not an issue of the effect not correcting the issue, I cannot cause the effect.
I presume I am missing something but cannot determine what it is.

So after some more investigatiion, none of the tools worked outside the center of the image editing window. There was an invisible rectangle in the middle of the window inside which I could not apply tools such as spot removal, red eye removal, graduated filter, etc. Restarting lightroom got rid of it.

The spot remover tool does not remove the selected item

When I use spot remover and click on the item I want to remove it hightlights it but does not remove the item

Is your Opacity set to 100%?
If you press the "H" key does it show where it is getting the replacement from?

Cursor disappears when using spot removal tool in Develope module

I'm not sure what else to say about this other than, the cursor is present everywhere in the develope mod, except when I move it over the picture. It disappears right at the edge of it. It still shows when you click to remove a spot, but you cant tell where it is before you click, rendering it useless. The only thing I've dont recently is try to update Adobe Reader 9.2.0, and it says it can't install correctly because some plug-ins have been disabled, and I haven't been able to figure out what the deal is with that either. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. Also, I'm running an older iMac 24" 2.16 Core 2 Duo Ver. 10.4.11 with 4 MB memory.
Thanks,
Jeff

Actually, I just figured it out. The Size slider for the spot removal tool was at zero, which caused it not to show up. Don't remember ever setting it that low, but hey, whatever works right? Thanks for your response

Spot remover tool / healing brush. How do I get the brush to show up and work??

It seems I can only get the spot remover tool to work on certain photos and in certain areas of said photos . On the one picture I really need this for--where the problem started--I had used it once without much success (it was working then, but I didn't do it right). So I left the picture and worked on another. When I came back to the first picture, I brought up an earlier version of it, before the initial spot removal, to work on. Now I can't get the brush to even show up on the frame, although other tools are working fine. I've checked on other pictures and it seems that many times the spot remover brush won't show up. WhY???

Great. There are other keyboard shortcuts when using this tool like the forward slash key and holding down shift if cloning an area that is a straight line. And don’t forget you can click on the word reset. Take a look at this short video tutorial from Adobe TV.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/lightroom-5-advanced-healing-br ush-and-visualization-tool/

Keyboard shortcut for Spot Removal Tool

With my previous version of LR (2.1) I was able to activate/deactivate the spot removal tool using "N" on the keyboard. With 3.3 hitting "N" while the spot removal tool is active sends me back to Library which I guess is a form of deactivation but not the one I'm used to.
Has the shortcut for this tool changed?
Mac OS (latest version), LR 3.3

johnbeardy wrote:
Q
... as documented right here:
Beat

Spot Removal tool should be an extension of the Adjustment Brush

I am glad that LR is taking steps in the right direction to improve the Spot Removal tool with the new Healing Brush feature. However, I agree with others that the interface needs improvement. Though I am probably not the first, I feel I have the solution:
Integrate the Spot Removal tool into the Ajustment Brush tool. Here's why.
I think an improved interface for the Spot Removal brush tool (Q) already mostly exists in the in the form of the Adjustment Brush (K), and indeed the two tools should share the best of their respective features and controls. The current Adjustment Brush has most of the features we are looking for in the Healing Brush:
Pre-brushing Size of brush (already implemented in the Spot Removal tool)
Pre-brushing Feathering control
Pre-brushing Flow/Density control (already implemented in the Spot Removal tool as Opacity)
Partial erasure of selected brush stroke masks, while maintaining the above brush controls (by holding the ALT key in Windows, aided by making the Mask Overlay visible (O))
Pre- and Post-brushing adjustments of each Spot Removal brushstroke for White Balance, Tone (Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, etc), Sharpness, etc.
Adding the above features would be an incredibly useful approach to the Spot Healing tool, and would be a natural extension of the interface we already are familiar with. Both the Adjustment Brush and Spot Removal tools could be further improved by these additional features:
Post-brushing Size of circular brush (already implemented in the classic Spot Removal tool)
Post-brushing Size of painted brushstroke (supposedly already newly implemented in the LR5 Beta Spot Removal tool, though I haven't been able to get it to work on mine)
Post-brushing Feathering control
Post-brushing repositiong of painted brushstroke (already implemented in the classic Spot Removal tool)
In summary, the Spot Removal tool should really be an extension of the Adjustment Brush. They should live in the same control panel (with a Clone or Heal ON/OFF toggle switch). The Adjustment Brush could benefit a bit from the addition of a couple of the existing post-brushing features of the Spot Removal tool.
The two tools are really one tool, they just don't know it yet. Let's introduce them to itself.

A few weeks ago, I posted the silly graphic above. It is a Venn diagram of my interpretation of Lightroom 5 Beta's three main local adjustment tools' strengths, weaknessess, and overlapping powers. Each tool - the Adjustment Brush, the Spot Repair & Advanced Healing Brush, and the Graduated & Radial Filter - has one or more discreete powers or traits. The three tools each overlap a neighboring tool in an important aspect (e.g. the Adjustment Brush and the Advanced Healing Brush can each be used to paint any freehand shape to be adjusted). By default, the descreet "Super Power" of one tool is a "Super Weakness" of each of the other two, which lacks that power (e.g. the user can make additions or partial erasures to any mask overlay with the Adjustment Brush, but neither the Advanced Healing Brush nor The Radial Filter has this power).
In the very center of the diagram is the overlap of all three of the local adjustment tools. In this triple-overlapped zone, there is currently no existing tool. I theorize that there could be a special sort of new local adjustment tool, which combines all of the powers (and none of the weaknesses) of the individual tools of which it is composed. Inspired by the notion of cartoon supeheroes teaming up to combine their powers, I gave it the tongue-in-cheek name "Super Friends Awesomesauce Brush". However, my vision for such a tool is completely serious. Basically, I envision it as an "Advanced Adjustment Brush"
For example:
Paint a shape on the image with a feathered brush. (A transparent colored mask overlay guides the user in the same way that the traditional Adjustment Brush does, as lollololli correctly suggests above as an easier way to paint a selection.)
Pick up that brushstroke with the mosue and place it in another part of the image.
Enlarge or reduce the overall size of the brushstroke with the Size slider.
Increase or decrease the overall feathering of that brushstroke's edges with the Feather slider.
Erase with the freehand erasure brush the portions of the mask that you don't wish to interact with the image.
Convert that brushstroke into a healing repair.
Resize that repair shape larger or smaller, and/or change its aspect and rotation as needed. (Transformations to the shape of the target brushstroke, not necessarily transformations of the shape of the healed or cloned sample pixels)
Increase or decrease the exposure or color temperature of the repair.
Or,
Create a new Radial Filter on the image.
Adjust the exposure, white balance, Gaussian blur, etc. of the filter.
Subtract from that Radial Filter by erasing with a second erasing Radial Filter at the same pin-level
Add back to the Radial Filter with a freehand feathered brush as desired
Or,
Maximise the brush size and minimize the feather setting and paint a solid mask overlay over the entire image.
Convert the mask overlay to a Clone repair - you have now created a second duplicate layer of the entire image on top of the original (BTW you can already do this step with the Advanced Healing Brush set to Clone and size 100 in LR5 Beta).
Subtract from that clone repair with a Radial Filter erasure to create a "hole" that shows the base image underneath.
Make independent exposure, white balance, and sharpening adjustments for both the base image (seen through the Radial Filter subtraction "hole") as well as the cloned top layer.
Reposition and resize the Radial Filter erasure as needed.
Add to and/or erase from either the Radial Filter erasure or the cloned top layer with radial filter shapes or freehand brushstrokes as desired.
I see this proposed Advanced Adjustment Brush as a very powerful localized adjustment tool. Although It really isn't a new tool at all, because it is almost completely based on the existing local adjustment tools. Additional enhancements (more geometric shapes such as polygons) could take its flexibility even further.

Inconsistent functioning of spot removal tool on 2 computers - how do I correct the problem?

I have LR 5 loaded on my HP Pavillion desktop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit version. I am able to use the spot removal tool as advertised (i.e I get the second like shape bubble on a different part of the image from where it will take the sample). I have a bcakup version of LR 5 running on my Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit version. When I use the spot removal tool on the laptop all that appears after I have selected the spot to be removed is a bubble that has the sample. If the sample is from the incorrect location I am unable to move it and change it (i.e. you do not get the two like shaped images like I get on the desktop). I have to delete teh selecton and start again and hope that it gives me a good sample - clearly not the way it is advertised to work.
I checked the version of LR 5 and they are identical on both machines - Lightroom 5.3 [938183]
Can anyone explain why this is happening and how to correct the problem on the laptop?
DavidsFITS

1. Try trashing or resetting the preference file on the Laptop
2. If that doesn't work, try an uninstall and the reintall of your version of Lightroom.

Spot removal tool has auto-placement :)

I just noticed this little nicety: one need not click-and-drag to tell the spot removal tool what to use as a source. Just double-click, and the program picks a likely nearby source spot for you.

This is not really a new feature because the spot removal tool was able to do this in version 1.0. But what is new is this.
If you use the Heal mode and define a set of points to repair using a single click each time, when you sync the develop spot removal settings across other images, Lightroom will carry out an auto spot removal (like the spot healing brush in Photoshop) and use its own internal logic to decide where to sample from in each of the synced images.
So to summarise, in Lightroom 1.0, LR synced the exact relationship between the source and sample spot circles. In Lightroom 1.1, LR recalculates the sample circle point for each individual image. Of course, this does not guarantee that Lightroom will successfully auto remove every blemish when you sync a bunch of images, but it can sure make synchronised spotting more effective. Just remember that this will only apply to spot circles created using a single-click.
Martin

Lightroom 5 Spot Removal Tool Lags and is not usable (Temp Workaround?)

Lightroom 5 Spot Removal Tool Lags and is not usable. The Spot Removal Tool really is pretty essential to the usability and workflow of Lightroom 5. Checking the other tools alongside the Spot Removal Tool, it appears that the Red Eye Correction Tool is also affected. Might it have something to do with the Process Version? I noticed when working with some older image files (using the 2010 Process Version), the Spot Removal Tool worked as previously experienced. Current images that have been "upgraded" to the New Process Version (2012) are now incapable of utilizing the Spot Removal Tool due to its very laggy and sporadic response. I've never experienced an issue like this with Lightroom (LR user since LR2). Mac OSX 10.7.5, 3.4GHz i7, 8GB 1333MHz DDR3
I've also noticed that reprocessing an image can revert the Spot Removal Tool to "useful" again (reverting from 2012 to 2010, then back to 2012). Doesn't always work and doesn't always "stick", as closing and reopenling LR usually reinitiates the laggy Spot Removal Tool.
I haven't seen anyone mention the Process Version as a potential culprit, nor have I seen any reliable workarounds. Reprocessing an image (or set of images) at least works for me for a while, though it would sure be nice to not have continue reprocessing images every time I open/use Lightroom 5.
LR5 is great and is all I need for the majority of my images. Unfortunately for me, though, that usability also necessitates the Spot Removal Tool's unhindered functionality.

For some reason, it's clear that not everyone is experiencing such a massive slowdown / bottleneck when it comes to the Spot Removal Tool. If all users experienced this issue to this degree, they would have been clamoring for Adobe to address and rectify it immediately.
With all due respect, Sean, to make a suggestion like that proves you do not experience / have not experienced this issue / don't understand the severity to which this issue can affect workflow; simply "turning off noise reduction and lens correction" is definitely not a fix. If 16GB of RAM doesn't fix the issue, do you really think simply turning off noise reduction will? And as Bert Nase points out, to do that to large volumes of images increases workflow in a program designed to streamline workflow for large volumes of images.
1- One option is to change the process version in your first photo (2003/2010), then copy-paste that develop setting to the rest of your images. This will get all of your images to the point in your workflow where you can use the Spot Removal Tool on each image. Once spot removal is done, reconvert each image back to the current process version (2012) then re-accomplish the spots that reconverting lost.
2- Configuring presets is one work-around option, though you will need at least couple of them tailored to your workflow.
3- Changing your import settings to an earlier Process Version is an option, then accomplishing Spot Removal on each photo, then updating the Process Version on one and copy/paste to the rest, then re-accomplishing for each photo the spots lost in the conversion and continuing your workflow from there.
Readers of this thread can use the link above, but it can introduce its own issues, too. As noted, switching back-and-forth between Process Versions can delete some of your already-corrected spots and you'll have to re-correct them. Worse, a window prompt asking to create a virtual copy or proof will occasionally begin popping up.. closing the window, clicking "cancel", or choosing any other option in that pop-up window won't be "remembered" and the window pops back up with any further "click" on the image. Lightroom has to be shut down and the computer restarted for the issue to reset.
Yes, it's very frustrating and time consuming to say the least. So, unfortunately there is no fix, still only work-arounds. Hopefully this issue will be addressed and remedied in either the coming release of 5.2 (doubtful) or the Cloud version of Photoshop + Lightroom.

LightRoom3 LR3 - Spot Removal tool soooo sloooooow

LR3 is generally working fine for me.
It was slow to start with, but I saw that it was doing a lot of disk acivity in the background when I upgraded from 2.7 -> 3
I left it alone to do it's think and it's been fine for the last week.
BUT .... one thing thats changed (for the worse) is the spot removal tool.
It's so slow it's beyond a joke.
It almost looks like it's trying to completely render the image where I'm only interested in a small part of it changing.
Where I could adjust to the pixel and release it to re-render, now I get to move the spot destination swab for about 4 seconds then it stops .... and I have to wat for almost a minute for it to finigh picking it's nose (or whatever it's doing) before it comes back.
Then I have to try fine tune it again, but if I don't get it right then I either have to guess it or wait another minute before it lets me move it again.
I have an i7 CPU and virtual CPU #4 goes 100% while it hangs. All the rest bounce about at 10-15%
So frustraiting. What should be a quick atch/repair tool has become unusable.
My only workaround is to export to CS and patch/clone in there ... unless it's sensor dust in which case it can take up to 20 minutes just to de-spot a picture and batch process across a set.
PC spec:
XP64 SP2
i7 CPU
12Gb DDR3 1866
SSD primary and scratch disk (same one partitioned)

Right .... I think I might have cracked it.
I noticed that TIF files were much worse than .NEF or .DNG.
The Raw files would be a bit more tolerant and I tried setting the write to .xmp to [on] and it improved a bit, but after a bit of editing it would become sluggish again on all tasks ...
If I switched off the [xmp] write AND the "Include metadata changes in TIFF/JPG PSD files" it becomes a lot more responsive.
All I have to do is Ctrl+S after I'm done and the Metadata is written (within a second).
I think that LR keeps trying to constantly update the metadata and catalogue + render all together and it couldn't keep up (even though I use SSD and have an i7 with 12Gb 1886 memory).
I also had an extra boost by telling the system to create 1:1 previews of the files I'll be editing. This takes some time depending on the source data sizes and compression (go make some tea), but it improves performance by doing all the initial start-point rendering in advance rather than on the fly.
I can now work at normalish speed again (Yay!). It is still a bit more clunky than LR2.7, but it's useable again and it is faster in other areas.
NOTE: By switching off the auto-update XMP and Metadata features, you could potentially lose edit updates to your files and updates don't transfer when the files are opened in other apps.
To avoid this you only have to do the Manual save of changes to the files by pressing Ctrl+S or manually in the menu:
Metadata | Save Metadata to File
After you do that all other apps pick up the updates to the files

Spot removal tool all but unusable

after only a few clicks with the tool and I start getting the beach ball, seems useful only for one or two sensor spots, any real use and it's not even worth it. I read where someone said to turn off lens corrections while using the Spot Removal tool and it helps but still the sluggishness.
I am working from a velociraptor that has all my applications while the catalog is on another volume on the same tower, does that have anything to do with anything?
Is there a way to reset LR similar to Photoshop (mashing down all the modifier keys at startup)?
MacPro 8-Core, 14GB ram, SL 10.6.7, LR 3.4 / 64.

Hi,
The problem has been solved. I wasn’t using the “H” key. I’m new to Lightroom, but thanks anyway.
Kind regards.
John

Only circles for the spot removal tool

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