How To Mask In Lightroom: All You Need to Know
How many times have you wanted to make a quick adjustment to an image but didn’t want it to affect the rest of the photo? Lightroom is able to mask out specific areas of an image so that you can apply adjustments without affecting other parts. This blog post will help guide you through how to mask in Lightroom classic and how the masking tools work.
What is the mask tool?
The mask tool allows you to select an area of your photo and Lightroom will apply adjustments to just that area. This is a great tool for making local corrections, such as dodging and burning or applying noise reduction without affecting the rest of the image.
Where is the mask tool in Lightroom?
All of Lightroom’s masking tools are located in the Develop panel under the adjustments section as shown below:
How to mask in Lightroom?
You have two main options now in Lightroom when it comes to masking; You can auto mask or manually mask using one of their tools.
Auto masking in Lightroom
Adobe has added AI technology which will auto select either the sky or the main subject (and yes, it works on non-people, and multiple). As you can can see the mask panel is the same whether you’re using Lightroom classic or Lightroom CC.
While the auto mask is a huge convenience for beginners, it’s also a little sad for those who spend time mastering this skill. That being said Lightroom doesn’t always get it right, so you’re skill going to need that steady hand at some points.
Alternatively, you can use; the brush, colour or luminance range, linear or radial gradient to create your own mask.
Masking tools
Using the brush tool for masking
The brush tool is just like the old local adjustment brush allow you to select any area of your image and only edit that area.
You can make numerous brush tools, but I recommend you rename them so you don’t get confused.
Brush masks are also pressure sensitive so it’s useful to use either a Wacom or Apple pencil.
You also have full control over brush size allowing you to make more precise edits.
This is the tool most to brighten eyes and teeth in portrait edits, however it can be
Using colour range for masking
Another option is to use the colour range feature which allows you to select anything from a specific hue or tone to multiple hues/tones at once. This actually makes it really quick and easy if you need to mask out a lot of similar tones.
Linear gradient for masking
The linear gradient works great if you need to make an adjustment that goes from one colour tone or hue, to another colour/hue and doesn’t involve something containing lines (such as people). The only frustrating thing about this is Lightroom’s current implementation means that you can’t edit the gradient once its been created (you need to delete it and create a new one).
Radial gradient for masking
The radial gradient is great if there’s something in your photo that needs to be masked out but contains several lines. Lightroom will automatically adjust these line so they don’t get included when applying the gradient mask.
Colour range for masking Lightroom also has the option to use the colour range feature which allows you to select anything from a specific hue or tone to multiple hues/tones at once. This actually makes it really quick and easy if you need to mask out a lot of similar tones, but my main issue with this, is Lightroom’s current implementation means that you can’t edit the gradient once its been created (so I recommend using linear or radial gradients instead).
When should you use the Colour Range tool to make a Lightroom Mask?
Here a few examples of how you can use the colour range mask to get creative.
Once your mask is created Lightroom will then show you what areas are being affected by the masking tool in red (You can change the overlay colour to meet the needs of the image). To toggle the mask overlay on/off, just hit O. Lightroom also has a really nice preview window which shows exactly what changes will be made when you use any of Lightroom classic’s masking tools.
Does Lightroom’s mask replace Photoshop?
For many people, Yes. It was the #1 reason for me to switch from Lightroom to Photoshop, but for others wanting to create more complex compositions. It still has a place.
