# LR5.2 Adjustment Brush behaviour



## davidedric (Nov 6, 2013)

Hi,

I am still getting to grips with LR5.   I'm seeing slightly odd behaviour with the adjustment brush, and wonder if others have noticed, before I try and nail it down further.   It may be intended behaviour, but it's a bit confusing.

It concerns using the Alt key to erase a brushed area.   If I brush out an area, and I can change the size of the brush during the edit by using the [ ] keys.  If I press the Alt key then the brush does not stay at the current size but reverts to an earlier size (it seems to be the previous size - I haven't pursued it further), which is irritating.   Further, the [ ] keys do not function.   I can slide the mouse pointer over the panel and adjust the brush size there, but it doesn't seem very smart design.   Any comments?

Dave


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## Selwin (Nov 6, 2013)

Hi Dave,
Lightroom stores the last used settings of your brush for your convenience. Not just the size is stored, but the settings for feather and such as well. LR stores the settings for the Erase Brush separately. So when you press "alt", LR shows the last used settings of the Erase function. These can differ from those of the normal A brush. So then the brush size changes instantly to the size you last used when erasing. This is normal intended behavior, which has been there at least since LR4. On my system, the [ ] keys do work in both brush modes, it's hard to tell from here why yours aren't.

Hope this helps.


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## davidedric (Nov 7, 2013)

Thanks, Selwin, that clears up the size thing.   Maybe the [ ] problem is a Windows thing?   If I have sound on I get the "can't do that" bleep noise.   It's something I can live with, but maybe post as a bug somewhere, since my system is pretty up to date.

Dave


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## Selwin (Nov 7, 2013)

Glad to be of help. You may want to post your [ ] question in a new topic with Win7 and [ ] in the title. You will get help from Windows users for sure.

To be honest you helped me too, because I knew of [ ] in Photoshop CS but I didn't know they also work in LR. Never tried it because the mouse scroll wheel also changes the brush size and I find that to be a lot easier. Vice versa, sometimes when editing in Photoshop CS I find myself turning the scroll wheel to adjust brush size, but that doesn't work.


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## Hal P Anderson (Nov 7, 2013)

Lightroom evidently doesn't understand Alt-square bracket, but using the scroll wheel on the mouse will change the size of the brush, even with the Alt key depressed.

Also, you can click on the "Erase" 'button' instead of holding the Alt key, and your bracket keys will do what you expect.




Hal


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## davidedric (Nov 7, 2013)

> To be honest you helped me too, because I knew of [ ] in Photoshop CS but I didn't know they also work in LR.



And I didn't know about the mouse wheel!   And forgot about the erase button!

Sounds like a win-win.   Thanks.


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## Selwin (Nov 7, 2013)

Hi Hal,

This is why it's all the more remarkable that on my system (OSX Mountain Lion, LR5.2) the [ ] keys actually do adjust the brush size. So it is either intended behavior by Adobe, or it is a malfunction.


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## Hal P Anderson (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't know for sure, but it could be that Alt + [ doesn't send anything meaningful on a Windows machine, in which case Adobe would have a tough time making the brackets do anything meaningful while the Alt key is pressed. 

On the other hand, maybe it's just a bug.


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## Selwin (Nov 8, 2013)

Yes, but the brackets [ ] always work, also when not pressing Alt. I mean they always adjust the brush size in the brush mode (A,B,Erase) that you are in.

In the context of the Adjustment Brush, the Alt key is only used to easily switch to Erase while working in the image, so that you don't need to press A, B or Erase all the time.

My question then is: on Windows systems, when not pressing Alt, does [ ] adjust brush size?


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## davidedric (Nov 8, 2013)

Yes, [ ] work fine when not pressing the Alt key.

Dave


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## Selwin (Nov 8, 2013)

Ok thanks David,
So knowing what we all know at this point, on Windows systems, you can use Alt to easily switch between A and erase. And you can use the scrol wheel on your mouse to quickly adjust the size of the brush. The fact that the [ ] keys don't work while pressing alt doesn't seem a big loss to me as I have done without them for many years and always efficiently used the brush feature.


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