Lightroom Classic: Ability to apply develop settings via macro

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  • Updated 8 months ago
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Presets are great but limiting. I do a lot of bird photography and presets just do not provide the individualized attention that each photo needs and Auto Levels works poorly on bird shots in my experience. My default adjustments are to shift double click Exposure, Highlights, Darks, Lights & Shadows (not necessarily in that order) and then add an amount of Clarity and Vibrance with a preset.  If Auto Sync is on, it performs the task(s) on the 1st photo and then applies the same correction values to all the other photos. Not very ideal for subjects with different lighting or backgrounds.

So I propose either
1) Have a mode of Auto Sync where each photo in the selection would be individually processed
or
2) Provide a Macro ability where all those (and other) adjustments could be recorded and assigned to a Hot Key to be played back on each photo.
OR even better...
Both!

These would be incredible workflow time savers. It is very tedious to take each photo shift double click 5 small text areas and then cross the screen to add a preset.

Right now I am using a third party mouse and keyboard macro solution, which is fine, but it would be better if this capability was built in to Lightroom.

Thanks
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David Levasheff

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Posted 8 months ago

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8 months ago
Photo of Victoria Bampton - Lightroom Queen

Victoria Bampton - Lightroom Queen, Champion

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By shift double clicking, you're getting the auto values (apart from Contrast, which you're not using) so how about a single Auto click, followed by a 0 contrast in your preset.
8 months ago
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David Levasheff

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You might like to think so... Have you tried it? I think the results may surprise you.
2019-02-04T13:54:40+00:00
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Victoria Bampton - Lightroom Queen, Champion

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Yes, I've tried it frequently, and Todd has very nicely explained some of the things to look out for when using Auto. So which bit's tripping you up?
8 months ago
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Todd Shaner, Champion

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You can select any number of image files in the Library module and apply the 'Auto' button in the Quick Develop Tone Control panel. This will calculate and apply Auto Tone values based on each individual image file. If you prefer to do this in the Develop module create a Develop preset with just 'Auto Settings' checked. Then turn on 'Auto Sync,' select the files you want to apply Auto Tone to, and apply the Develop preset.

I am not aware of any way to batch apply the individual Auto Tone settings separately using Shift & Double-Click. Due to a long-standing bug I don't recommend using Shift & Double-Click with the current Auto Tone implementation for single or batch application. The Whites control and (to a lesser degree) the Blacks control Shift & Double-Click values will differ based on order the controls have been applied such as:

1) Single Shift & Double-Click setting applied.
2) In the order Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks
3) In the order Blacks, Whites, Shadows, Highlights, Contrast, Exposure

The Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows Auto Tone settings will always be the same, but not the Whites and Blacks values! Images that have clipped highlights (metal or glass reflection, sun in the frame, etc.) can cause the individual Shift & Double-Click Whites value to be incorrectly set to -100. Because of this you'll obtain the best Adobe Sensei Auto Tone results using the Basic panel 'Auto' button or a Develop preset with 'Auto Settings.'

There is also currently another bug that causes the batch Auto Tone values to differ slightly from the individually applied Auto Tone values. Fortunately with most images the differences are fairly small. This bug is due to  using the camera raw cache image data when applying Auto Tone to multiple files to speed up the batch processing. More here:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/auto-tone-of-a-batch-of-photos-gives-differen...

Please let me know if you have any other questions.
(Edited)
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