"PREVIOUS" FUNCTION NOT FIXED YET

Question

I find it strange that no-one complains about the "PREVIOUS" button feature, and how it altered after LR2 to carry with it the brushstrokes from the previous image. LR2 did not do this and it was far superior to what it is now, and what it remains to be in LR4B. The "PREVIOUS" command is meant to be a very quick and convenient method to apply the corrections from the file that was immediately worked on. Quick and convenient being the operative words. This is supposed to get the exposure,balance,sharpness,highlights,shadows,fill etc, and apply it to the next image. However, it also carries the brushstrokes, eg. individual area dodging and burning, individual area colour correction, etc as well. This would be fantastic if the composition and content placement of each image in a set is identical. In other words, if a person did not move, a landscape was shot without moving tha camera position such that all of those dodge and burn ares remained in exactly the same place. Also great as long as you never shoot both horizontal and vertical shots (landscape and portrait orientation) within the same basic shot set that received the same light and conditions. But that is not the case. When you apply the "PREVIOUS" command from one image to the next, it applies those brushstroke commands to the next image, and it is almost never in the correct position, requiring you to find the pins and delete these brushstrokes, which can be anything up to a dozen deletes per image. This has made the "PREVIOUS" command quite useless, and it went from my most valuable tool in LR2 to the most useless in LR3. I phoned Adobe and spoke to someone about it at the time, and I did receive a return call, but the person I spoke to didn't seem to think it was a problem, so perhaps it's just my working methods, but it was one major advantage over all of the other competitors, particularly Aperture. Anyway, I was hoping that this might have been corrected in LR4, but it is not. I think it is so blatantly obvious that it is a design fault that I have to think that no-one uses this "PREVIOUS' feature, ot they don't use it in conjunction with brushstrokes?? Or do I just use it differently to everyone else??

Answer 1

Yes, johnbeardy, Previous works fine for me too, other than the fact that it is not a time-saving, quick transfer of the previous image file's settings.
This is because it also brings with it the previous file's Local Adjustments ie. Brushstrokes and Graduated Filters.
As I stated above, this is fine, even desirable if all parts of the image's content / subject remain in exactly the same position for this subsequent shot,
but this is rarely if ever the case. If the subject or camera position has changed (which it almost always has) then the Brushstroke and/or Graduated Filter is applied
to the same position within the image frame, but the incorrect position for that photograph's particular subject matter.
This is where I believe the Previous Command is "faulty"
If one chooses to do this by using the "Sync" (Synchronize Settings) command, the dialog box that appears gives the user the opportunity to uncheck
the Local Adjustments to stop this from happening, and I find myself using this method quite often, and then proceed to apply Local Brush and/or Graduated
Filter Adjustments after using the sync command.
It would be far more convenient to just click the Previous button and then do those same adjustments after that.
johnbeardy, when you say that Previous works fine for you, can you tell me how you get around the Local Adjustments being in the wrong part of the image?
Or, do you not use Local Adjustments, as then this would not be a problem.
John.