# Copying spot removal (for dust bunnies)



## LRList001 (Nov 14, 2017)

Operating System: N/A
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): 6.13

Can anyone enlighten me on how to apply spot removal corrections to multiple images?  Specifically I want to get LR to use the spot removal locations to multiple images so as to disguise the tiny dust spots on the sensor that show up when I haven't cleaned the sensor enough.

My approach was to fix an image (about 25 dust bunnies), then copy the develop settings - just the spot removal (and the process version) and then apply (paste) those develop settings to the next image (which on this occasion was a version of the same image, ie for dust disguise, identical to the source image).  Nothing happened at all.

What is supposed to happen?

TIA


----------



## Cerianthus (Nov 14, 2017)

Should work : are the pins visible ? I did a quick try copying only spot removal and it worked. 

You could also save a preset with your settings so you dont have to remember which image you did all the spots.

(or clean your sensor)


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 14, 2017)

Cerianthus said:


> Should work : are the pins visible ? I did a quick try copying only spot removal and it worked.
> 
> You could also save a preset with your settings so you dont have to remember which image you did all the spots.
> 
> (or clean your sensor)



The pin count is odd.  Six pins are visible, the remaining 20 or so show the circles of the spot corrections, as if each spot has many corrections.  Maybe I should try a less ambitious number of spots, see how that goes.  Stand by.
Yeah, cleaning the sensor is an option for new images, but it is what it is for these.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Nov 14, 2017)

Copy/paste should work, but it's easier to select all images, make sure that the most selected image is the one with the spot removals, and then use the 'Synchronize Settings' button.


----------



## clee01l (Nov 14, 2017)

What you have done does indeed work. You can turn on the tool overlay to see the source and target circles. However there are limitations that you need to consider.
Assume that you have a nice sky bordered by trees. There is a nice dust spot in the sky and you click on it to designate it as a target, LR or you pick a source and that cleans the spot for that photo.  When transferred to another photo the source spot might no longer be in sky but in trees.  This is why it is some times easier to do photos individually.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Nov 14, 2017)

True, but my method in that case is to still use synchronize, and then check each image for those spots in the trees. If there is such a spot, you can simply remove the spot correction in the following way: click on the circle, then hit the Delete key. If you have a lot of dust bunnies, this is still much faster than doing spot removal separately for each image.


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 14, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> Copy/paste should work, but it's easier to select all images, make sure that the most selected image is the one with the spot removals, and then use the 'Synchronize Settings' button.



Thanks for the suggestion, though for me it is only the spot removal I want to sync, so I'm not sure this would be a great idea.  If I did want to sync all settings, then yes, I could give it a go.  I'll try it out anyway.


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 14, 2017)

Cerianthus said:


> Should work : are the pins visible ? I did a quick try copying only spot removal and it worked.
> 
> You could also save a preset with your settings so you dont have to remember which image you did all the spots.
> 
> (or clean your sensor)



Ok, so I have tried with rather fewer spot corrections and indeed it worked 'as advertised'.  I'll experiment to see what it is I am doing wrong with the problem edit.  I note that I only get pins if I drag the spot, so that explains why only some of my areas have pins.


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 14, 2017)

clee01l said:


> What you have done does indeed work. You can turn on the tool overlay to see the source and target circles. However there are limitations that you need to consider.
> Assume that you have a nice sky bordered by trees. There is a nice dust spot in the sky and you click on it to designate it as a target, LR or you pick a source and that cleans the spot for that photo.  When transferred to another photo the source spot might no longer be in sky but in trees.  This is why it is some times easier to do photos individually.



Agreed.  The quickest workflow can be to re-do the edits or apply previous ones.  This has to be an image by image decision.  In this case the dust bunnies are small (I'm sure I am not alone in being hit by a big dust bunny occasionally though).


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Nov 15, 2017)

LRList001 said:


> Thanks for the suggestion, though for me it is only the spot removal I want to sync, so I'm not sure this would be a great idea.  If I did want to sync all settings, then yes, I could give it a go.  I'll try it out anyway.


It seems you don't know how synching works. Synching is exactly the same as copy/paste, just faster and easier. You decide which edits are synched and which edits are not synched, so just uncheck everything except spot removal.


----------



## lowolf (Nov 15, 2017)

you Sync Settings to copy spot removal since normally would be in same location on the images.


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 16, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> It seems you don't know how synching works.



Spot on



> Synching is exactly the same as copy/paste, just faster and easier. You decide which edits are synched and which edits are not synched, so just uncheck everything except spot removal.



I suspect a resource problem.  I have just created a huge number of spot corrections and both sync'd them and copy/pasted them, worked both times.  I'm not sure I see the advantage of sync, I have never found it difficult to copy/paste edit settings.  A personal preference thing?


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Nov 16, 2017)

It may be a personal preference indeed. But you can use Auto Sync as well, that is even faster.


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 16, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> It may be a personal preference indeed. But you can use Auto Sync as well, that is even faster.



I like to work in a more defined way I suspect.  I'll make changes and then apply them.  Having the machine attempting to sync my changes before I have finally decided which changes I want to make isn't how I go about things.  Sync sounds like the wrong workflow for me.  I have never minded letting a batch of edits process while I take a break.


----------



## msmack (Nov 20, 2017)

In Sunc, Uncheck all, then check only spot removal.   That will remove the spot in all the images.  Then you can go back to first image and make other changes


----------



## LRList001 (Nov 20, 2017)

msmack said:


> In Sunc, Uncheck all, then check only spot removal.   That will remove the spot in all the images.  Then you can go back to first image and make other changes



Thanks


----------

