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Lightroom’s masking tools are complex. So today I’d like to simplify some of the advanced masking techniques I use, to give you the confidence to try them out for yourselves.
I’ve got two photos to share with you. The first is a simple landscape photo. I’m going to show you how I improved it with a few simple masks, in a way that makes it easy to copy and paste those settings to other landscapes.
The masking techniques get more advanced with the second photo. It’s a good example of how masking makes a big difference to your photos if you take your time, think about your aims and use advanced masking techniques to achieve them.
I’ve added both photos to my Adobe Community profile so that you can see all the settings used. You can also use the Remix tool to practice masking techniques, and download the settings used as a Develop Preset to use with your own photos.
Note: I used Lightroom Classic for these examples, but most of the techniques work in Lightroom desktop, Lightroom web, Lightroom mobile and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) as well. The exception is intersecting masks, which isn’t available in Lightroom mobile and Lightroom web.
The masks based developing workflow
In my new ebook Mastering Masks I explained the mask based developing workflow. It’s a developing workflow that uses masks to do most of the work. Here’s how it works. There are three steps.
1. Find an interesting subject and make a great composition. This is the foundation. Masking is not for fixing badly made photos. It’s for making your best photos even better.
2. Apply White Balance and Profile, plus any technical adjustments like Lens Corrections. You might also need to adjust Basic panel sliders like Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Blacks and Whites.
3. Use masks to make the photo as good as you can. Use the principles of visual weight to guide the eye through the photo.
Keep this in mind as we go through the examples. If you’re not clear what visual weight in composition is, then check out my article Visual Weight, Composition and Mass. It explains everything you need to know.
Lightroom masking technique example #1: Simple landscape
Let’s start with a simple landscape photo. This is how it looked after the second step. I set White Balance, applied a Profile and adjusted Basic panel sliders to arrive at this.
Now it was ready for masking. But before using masks, or doing any developing work in Lightroom, you should ask yourself what you’d like to achieve. Give yourself a goal to aim for.
My aims were simple with this photo. I wanted to add mood by darkening the sky and the foreground. This is the result after doing that with masking.
Now let’s look at the masks I used for the photo. I started with a Sky mask. Lightroom used AI to make a mask covering the sky. This is what it looks like (I set Overlay Mode to Color Overlay on B&W to make these screenshots). The red area is the mask.
A Sky mask covers the entire sky, from the top of the photo to where the sky meets the horizon. It often slightly overlaps the foreground. But darkening the sky usually looks more natural when the effect is graduated. So the next step was to intersect the Sky mask with a Linear Gradient.
I clicked the ellipse (three dot) icon next to the Sky mask in the Masks panel and selected Intersect Mask with > Linear Gradient from the menu. Then I made this Linear Gradient mask across the top of the photo.
The final mask was a combination of the Sky and Linear Gradient masks. It looked like this.
You can adjust the coverage of the mask by moving the Linear Gradient up and down.
If you’re new to intersecting masks, this diagram will help. It shows how an intersected mask is made by overlapping two masks. In this example, that’s the Sky and Linear Gradient masks.
Learn more: How To Intersect Masks In Lightroom Classic
This is how the mask looked in the Masks panel.
These are the adjustments I made. I moved the Highlights and Exposure sliders left to darken the sky, and the Temp slider left to add some blue for mood.
The second mask worked in a similar way, but applied to the foreground rather than the sky. Here’s how I did it.
1. I made a Sky mask and inverted it (ellipse icon > Invert), so it masked everything but the sky.
2. I intersected it with a Linear Gradient.
3. I subtracted a Subject mask. That’s because I wanted to darken the ground without darkening the pony.
This is the resulting mask.
This is what the mask looks like in the Masks panel.
These are the adjustments I made.
Here are the before and after versions again, so you can see the difference.
This masking technique is simple and versatile. I didn’t have to intersect the Sky mask or the inverted Sky mask with a Linear Gradient. I could have used Linear Gradients by themselves. But this way I can copy and paste the settings and apply them to other photos. The AI powered masks make sure they work on as many photos as possible.
You can try it out for yourself by going to this photo on Adobe Community. Open the photo and click the Save as Preset link. This saves the settings used as a Develop Preset. Once it’s synced you’ll find it in the Saved from Community group in the Presets panel in Lightroom Classic.
Lightroom masking technique example #2: Adding light, shadow and warmth
I used several advanced masking techniques on the next photo to add light, shadow and warmth. Here’s the before and after again, to remind you what we’re working with. The first photo (left) shows how it looked after the second step of the masks based developing workflow. I set White Balance, applied a Profile and adjusted Basic panel sliders to get here. The second photo (right) shows the result after masking.
Before I started, I decided that I wanted to use masks to add light, warmth and depth to the photo. I used seven masks altogether. Are you ready? Here’s how I did it.
Mask 1: I wanted to apply a local adjustment to the flower first, so I created a Subject mask.
Lightroom included part of the flower in the background in the mask. I didn’t want it there, so I subtracted this Brush mask.
That gave me this mask.
It looks like this in the Masks panel.
I moved the Highlights and Exposure sliders right to brighten the flower. I also moved Clarity right to bring out its textures.
Mask 2: Next I wanted to mask the background. I did this by duplicating and inverting Mask 1.
It looked like this in the Masks panel.
I moved the Highlights and Shadows sliders right to brighten the background.
Mask 3: Next I masked the background in the bottom half of the photo. I started with a Linear Gradient.
Then I subtracted a Subject mask.
Giving this result.
This is the mask in the Masks panel.
These are the adjustments I made. I moved the Temp slider left to add blue, and the Tint slider left to add green. I wanted to add blue to the bottom half of the background to contrast with the warmth I was going to add with the next mask.
Mask 4: Then I masked the top right of the photo. I started with a Linear Gradient, pulled down at a diagonal.
I wanted to apply the effect to the background, not the flower, so I subtracted a Subject mask.
Giving this result.
This is the mask in the Masks panel.
These are the adjustments I made. I moved the Highlights and Exposure sliders right to brighten the masked area, and the Temp slider right to add warmth.
Mask 5: Next I wanted to darken the outer edges of the photo with a vignette to push the eye towards the flower. I started with a centered Radial Gradient mask.
Tip: Hold the Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (PC) key down and double click in the center of the photo to place a centered Radial Gradient filter automatically.
I wanted to apply the effect to the background, not the flower. So I subtracted a Subject mask from the Radial Gradient.
This is the result.
Here’s the mask in the Masks panel.
This is the adjustment I applied. I moved the Shadows and Exposure sliders left to darken the vignette, and the Highlights slider right to lighten the brightest part of the vignette. That was the top right corner that I had already lightened.
Mask 6: Next I wanted to emphasize the textures of the center of the flower, and brighten it. I used Select Objects to mask it.
This is the mask in the Masks panel.
Then I moved the Clarity slider right to bring out the texture, and the Shadows slider right to lighten it.
Mask 7: Next I wanted to add another mask to emphasize the lighting effect I created with an earlier mask. I started with a Radial Gradient placed in the top right.
Again, I wanted to apply the adjustment to the background, but not the flower. So I subtracted a Subject mask.
This is the final mask.
This is the mask in the Masks panel.
These are the adjustments I made. I moved the Exposure and Highlights sliders right to brighten the masked area. Then I moved the Temp slider right to add warmth, and the Clarity slider left to soften it and create a glow effect.
Here’s the before and after again so you can see the result of applying these seven masks.
Don’t forget to check this photo out on Adobe Community, where you can see the masks I used for yourself.
Mastering Masks
Lightroom’s masking tools have changed the way photographers develop photos forever. My newest ebook, Mastering Masks, teaches you how to create stunning photos using masks and local adjustments. It covers all the latest tools and techniques, and has fourteen Case Studies for you to follow.
Click here to learn more or buy
