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Feature Request: Background Adjustments to New Layer

Permanently deleted user
Who else would benefit from this? Any ways to improve it?

I would really love a feature that could take all the adjustments I have applied to an image and change them to a new Layer. Why?
- sometimes I want to turn down all the effects using the opacity slider
- sometimes I want to use masks to turn off all the adjustments in an area (e.g. I change my mind and don't want the sky affected.
- sometimes I want to go back to doing base, background adjustments, but only see those new adjustments by turning on and off my previous adjustments (i.e. the new layer)

How would one initiate?
- In layers, while the "background" layer is selected, the "new layer" function would have an additional option of "new filled layer of background adjustments" or similar.
- a toolbar button I could add or remove from my workspace
- right-click an image in the image browser

What would it to?
- Create a new, filled, adjustment layer
- Copy all adjustments from the "background" layer to this new layer
- Remove all adjustments from the background layer

Known workaround: Currently you can save adjustments as a new User Style, but this is a convoluted workflow:
1) Save as new (temp) style.
2) Choose style name.
3) Reset all adjustments that can be applied to a Style (not all can!)
4) Apply style to new layer
5) Delete (temp) user style.
This whole thing takes 10-20 clicks and some typing. Not ideal.

NB: I haven't seen this in the v12 doc'n and doesn't exist in v11, so hopefully I'm right in assuming it's still needed with v12.

PS: I know this is a user forum. I know how to use the PhaseOne Support feature. I also know that some of the best and brightest of PhaseOne monitor this forum, and if people reply to a Feature Request post it'll get their attention more than a support ticket would. This also gives other users the opportunity to suggest improvements to the idea. No flaming or stupid replies please. You know who you are.
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • SFA
    Not all tools that work on the background are Layer compatible and there are a few that are unlikely to be layer compatible. You have hinted at that potential problem in your "Known Workaround" section.

    The alternative approach that you could use today would be to split your work flow to use only non-layer enabled tools on the background layer and layer enabled tools only in layers.

    So if you make your first layer, for example, a filled layer with everything that you would normally do to the whole background you would start out with what you want as far as I have interpreted your suggestion.

    Would that work for you?



    Grant
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Well, I could try to remember to always create a new layer before editing and to not apply adjustments on import. Or maybe I could have my automatic adjustments IN a layer, I haven't tried to see if that works in the Import Wizard. Problem is, you always have to switch to that layer. It's a nice thought to just use all the sliders, then have them all applied to a layer.

    That said, a completely reasonable alternative would be an opacity slider for the background "layer"
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  • IanS
    [quote="Robby-D" wrote:
    Well, I could try to remember to always create a new layer before editing and to not apply adjustments on import. Or maybe I could have my automatic adjustments IN a layer, I haven't tried to see if that works in the Import Wizard. Problem is, you always have to switch to that layer. It's a nice thought to just use all the sliders, then have them all applied to a layer.

    That said, a completely reasonable alternative would be an opacity slider for the background "layer"


    I am not sure how much support such a feature request would actually get? Personally I do, as I suspect many do, only basic adjustments on the background layer such as white balance, general exposure level and crop - not much to vary with an opacity slider. Do you think you are trying to carry-out too much global editing on the background layer prior to moving to layers?

    The obvious solution to your issue would seem to be, to create a new filled layer (Ctrl Shift L or set your own single key shortcut) and start editing on that. Doesn't seem to be too onerous to achieve your desired workflow?

    Ian
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  • Class A
    [quote="Robby-D" wrote:
    That said, a completely reasonable alternative would be an opacity slider for the background "layer"

    I like your original proposal better because whenever I wish I could turn (a subset of) my background layer adjustments into a layer it is because the adjustments affect some area that I wish to exclude (by using a mask that excludes that area). For instance, the Skin Colour tool sometimes affects colours other than actual skin colour no matter how narrowly one defines the colour range.

    [quote="IanS" wrote:
    I am not sure how much support such a feature request would actually get? Personally I do, as I suspect many do, only basic adjustments on the background layer such as white balance, general exposure level and crop - not much to vary with an opacity slider. Do you think you are trying to carry-out too much global editing on the background layer prior to moving to layers?

    I have contemplated making the same feature request because even though I know I could avoid the issue of not being able to mask out background layer effects by always starting at a filled default layer, I still forget now and then or simply do not expect to ever need a mask for a background layer adjustment until I discover I do.

    @Robby-D
    You should make your feature request via the official bug report and feature request form.
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Given v11's and v12's switch to a layer-focused model, it would be nice for C1 to give us some more tools for working within layers. Thinking about this more, I wish I could move adjustments between layers, split adjustments out of a layer to a new layer, etc.

    [quote="Class A" wrote:

    I have contemplated making the same feature request because even though I know I could avoid the issue of not being able to mask out background layer effects by always starting at a filled default layer, I still forget now and then or simply do not expect to ever need a mask for a background layer adjustment until I discover I do.


    Agreed. 95%+ of the time I'm fine with the background layer for adjustments. It's one thing if you've picked out one single photo from a shoot as a true winner, but when your workflow is to output a whole bunch of photos, it's often enough *for most shots* to simply work with the background layer. What typically happens in my workflow is I have one of the set that I want to give special attention to, and sometimes I want to put all my existing Background edits into a new layer.

    [quote="IanS" wrote:
    I am not sure how much support such a feature request would actually get? Personally I do, as I suspect many do, only basic adjustments on the background layer such as white balance, general exposure level and crop - not much to vary with an opacity slider. Do you think you are trying to carry-out too much global editing on the background layer prior to moving to layers?


    There are two problems here. Firstly, I'm having to create a new layer (or select it / switch between) all the time, which is less efficient. Second, not every edit can be done within a layer, so now I'm adding complexity and time for the vast majority of my photos where I don't really need it.
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