Make auto tone respect the crop

[mimakaev]

I noticed that auto-tone in lightroom is not respecting the crop: it is applied to the whole image even if the image is cropped.

Is there anything that can apply auto-tone to the cropped image only?

[JP Hess]

I don't think so. Even though Lightroom shows the image cropped, the entire image is still being "seen" by Lightroom. But I'm curious to know why this is a problem.

[Just Shoot Me]

In LR the actual image file is never touched. All adjustment, including a cropping of the image, are just Applied to the image file and displayed in LR. The only time the adjustments are burned into a image file is when it is exported to another file.

If you apply a crop then in LR all you see is the cropped area. So I don't know how you are seeing that the Auto Tone is being applied to the whole image.

[mimakaev]

You can see it if you crop the dark corner of the image, and then hit the "auto tone" button. The image will stay dark.

The image file is indeed never touched. The Adobe engineers still have a choice on how to calculate auto-tone adjustments: based on the entire image, or on the part of the image that is cropped. It seems to be calculating it based on the entire image... which makes it useless if you rely on crop a lot.

[JP Hess]

Still not understanding your dilemma. Just do all of your adjustments first including auto tone, then crop  and use post-crop vignetting if necessary to lighten the corners.

[mimakaev]

I want to crop the photo and then apply auto-tone to the cropped area only. But after cropping the photo, auto-tone is still applied to the whole photo.

For example, if I crop out the sky, I would expect auto-tone to increase the exposure. But it does nothing.

[JP Hess]

OK. You have your wishes. I personally use the radial filter for the kinds of adjustments you are talking about. But if you want to voice your opinion in the forum where the Adobe people monitor and consider requests, here is the link:

Photoshop Family Customer Community

I guess I really can't relate or empathize with your concern because I never use the auto tone feature..

[johnrellis · Accepted solution]

For reference by anyone reading this in the future, there is a long-standing feature request in the official Adobe feedback forum: Lightroom: Auto-tone analysis should apply post-crop, scanned photos a problem | Photoshop Family Cu... .  14 people have me-tooed the request (including Mimakaev).