# Adjustment Brush causing speckles/data loss



## Rgramn (Jan 2, 2016)

If I use the Adj. Brush to dodge or change the exposure, random speckles are created. The speckles are not always black, but once created no other adjustments will effect the speckles so it seems like some type of data loss.  The speckling does slightly occur using the brush for clarity, highlights and shadows in both + or - levels.  If I adjust these effects in the global settings it doesn't occur.  I believe this started prior to updating to windows 10, so I can't exclusively blame that, but it has seemed to have gotten worse. Maybe this is because the resource files are getting larger? I do have AMD graphic cards, but it seems odd that its only the adj. brush.  Using a converted DNG file from Sony A99 raw.  Another friend did not see these issues on his older computer running Lightroom CC with a old Nvidia GPU, so I don't believe its the camera data.














Here is my system info (I do have two (2) AMD 290s):

Lightroom version: 5.7.1 [994254]
License type: Perpetual
Operating system: Windows 8.1 Home Premium Edition
Version: 6.3 [9600]
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 4.2 GHz
Built-in memory: 32706.1 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32706.1 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1734.9 MB (5.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1809.1 MB
Memory cache size: 724.9 MB
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 4
System DPI setting: 96 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 3440x1440


Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7.1
Library Path: C:\Users\Rob\Desktop\Palmetto\Palmettoa\Palmettoa.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Rob\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom


Installed Plugins: 
1) Behance
2) Canon Tether Plugin
3) ColorChecker Passport
4) Export to Photomatix Pro
5) Facebook
6) Flickr
7) Leica Tether Plugin
8) Nikon Tether Plugin


Config.lua flags: None


Adapter #1: Vendor : 1002
    Device : 67b1
    Subsystem : e289174b
    Revision : 0
    Video Memory : 8147
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
    Device : 8c
    Subsystem : 0
    Revision : 0
    Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 44100
Build: Uninitialized
CardID: 26545
Direct2DEnabled: false
GPUDevice: D3D
MaxTexture2DSize: 8192
OGLEnabled: true
Renderer: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
ShaderModel: 11.1
Vendor: AMD
VendorID: 4098
Version: 1002:67b1:e289174b:0000


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 2, 2016)

Turn off "Auto Mask" and the spots will disappear.


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## Rgramn (Jan 2, 2016)

Well then, that was simply.  Much appreciated.


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## Tony Jay (Jan 2, 2016)

More to the point: 

If one still needs to use the adjustment brush with auto-mask activated make sure to go back over the area in question and directly target the areas that the adjustment brush has ignored.
Auto-mask has a certain threshold that interprets differences in tone and colour to decide whether those areas are to be included.
Even in a blue sky that is supposedly monotone it is not unusual to see a speckled effect when applying the adjustment brush with auto-mask activated.
This is just because of tonal variations from shot noise.
This effect will be magnified in parts of an image where there is much more variation in tone and colour.

I employ the auto-mask capability all the time but it does require some attention to detail to makes sure that all the areas that need to be included are included and conversely, that all the areas that should be excluded, are in fact, excluded.

Tony Jay


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 2, 2016)

+1 for Tony Jay.


> Auto Mask- Confines brush strokes to areas of similar color.


 (Extract from Help file)
*The "similar color" is selected precisely under the [+] in the middle of the circular cursor when you first click to brush.


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