Today’s Question: Suppose I use the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom Classic CC on a photo, then crop the photo so that the spot removal areas are no longer visible. If I then decide to sync the spot removals over a number of other photos, will the that work, or will it not work because the spot removals have been cropped out of view?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, when you synchronize Spot Removal tool adjustments across multiple photos in Lightroom Classic CC, all cleanup spots from the source image will be reproduced even if those areas fall outside of a crop in one or more of the images.
More Detail: When you synchronize adjustments for multiple photos you have selected on the filmstrip while working in the Develop module, you can choose which adjustments to include as part of that synchronization. After selecting the images you want to synchronize, you’ll want to click on the thumbnail for the image you want to use as the basis of the synchronization.
Next, click the Sync button at the bottom of the right panel in the Develop module. This will bring up a dialog where you can choose which specific adjustments you want to include in the synchronization. For example, you might want to synchronize all available adjustments except for the crop, so that each image can be cropped individually.
If you include Spot Removal as one of the adjustment options to be synchronized, all cleanup spots from your source image will be duplicated in the images you are synchronizing. The specific results will be customized based on each image, but the source and destination areas will be duplicated across all selected photos.
Even if a cleanup spot appears outside the current crop for the source image or one or more of the destination images, all cleanup areas in the source image will be duplicated to all of the selected destinations images when you apply a synchronization that includes the Spot Removal option.