# Duplicating an Adjustment Brush



## Glenn NK (Apr 19, 2013)

Our Lightroom Queen stated in her intro to LR5 (and I quote verbatim):

*Adjustment Brush strokes can’t be moved, but duplicating them is still useful for increasing the effect, perhaps where you’ve maxed out a slider (i.e. negative sharpness to create blur). Just add a duplicate adjustment in exactly the same place to build up the effect.*

Well, I got it to work all right by using CTRL + ALT and dragging the pin.

Problem was I didn't think it was working because there is no indicator that a second pin and brush has been created - so I kept trying.

I ended up with about twelve extra pins + adjustment brushes.  Which really slowed my machine to a crawl.

Hopefully there is some indication that a new pin and brush has been created and I just didn't notice it.


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 19, 2013)

That's an excellent point Glenn.  I'll bug it!


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## Effeegee (Apr 19, 2013)

Just nudge (drag) the extra(s) out of position to check and then reposition


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 19, 2013)

Well, this is interesting. Are we all still talking about the Adjustment Brush, if so I'm with Victoria....I cannot *move *an adjustment brush, I can only duplicate it (ctrl+alt+click). Because it duplicates only, there is only one pin to be seen, and the only indication it has been duplicated is by the "Duplicate Adjustment" entry in the History panel (plus the visual indication of the effect being increased). So when you are talking about seeing extra pins or nudging them out of position, I start wondering if I'm missing out here by not doing something correctly.....or are we talking about the Spot Removal Brush or Radial Filter, not the Adjustment Brush?


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## Glenn NK (Apr 19, 2013)

TNG said:


> Well, this is interesting. Are we all still talking about the Adjustment Brush, if so I'm with Victoria....I cannot *move *an adjustment brush, I can only duplicate it (ctrl+alt+click). Because it duplicates only, there is only one pin to be seen, and the only indication it has been duplicated is by the "Duplicate Adjustment" entry in the History panel (plus the visual indication of the effect being increased). So when you are talking about seeing extra pins or nudging them out of position, I start wondering if I'm missing out here by not doing something correctly.....or are we talking about the Spot Removal Brush or Radial Filter, not the Adjustment Brush?



This is precisely the problem and Jim has described it precisely.

I'm referring to the Adjustment Brush - which I have been using rather extensively to blur and soften backgrounds of flower photos.   Rather than focus stack, I use smaller apertures to increase DOF, but this brings the BG "garbage" in focus which is distracting.  So I "paint" the entire BG with a brush and move the Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, and Clarity sliders to the far left (100 percent negative).  If I want a black BG, the Exposure is set to minus 4.

But, often some of these settings aren't quite enough - so I've been creating a second brush and pin, and repeating everything - which takes considerable time.

The easy creation of a duplicate brush sounded really great - but I've already noted the problems.

Another question is: "can I put different adjustments to the two pins/brushes or must they be complete duplicates"?

What the pins need are numbers and a side panel that allows one to select Pin 1, Pin 2, etc. and adjust each differently if desired.

Then their usefulness would increase tenfold.

* My ultimate wish list item would be to have the HSL sliders on a brush.*


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 19, 2013)

You can have different adjustments - you can even erase part of the top pin.  It's just not possible to access the bottom pin to edit it again (at least for now).


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## Glenn NK (Apr 19, 2013)

Victoria Bampton said:


> You can have different adjustments - you can even erase part of the top pin.  It's just not possible to access the bottom pin to edit it again (at least for now).



My interpretation:  the first pin is not accessible once a second pin is created (duplicated from the first), and only the last pin (top one) is accessible for further adjustments.

Is this correct?

And what do you mean by "you can even erase part of the top pin"?  By using the negative (Alt) brush?


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## Victoria Bampton (Apr 19, 2013)

Yep, got it in one.


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## Glenn NK (Apr 19, 2013)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Yep, got it in one.



Thanks for all the help and information Victoria - you are definitely an asset, and I hope they pay you well.


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## Glenn NK (May 13, 2013)

Has there been, or will there be, any further development on the question I first raised WRT to duplicate brushes?


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## Victoria Bampton (May 13, 2013)

I haven't seen any public announcements on that for LR5 Glenn, but that doesn't mean it's completely off the table for the future.


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