Lightroom Masking

by Parker Grimes

October 29, 2021 12:05 AM

Editing

Adobe Lightroom Classic version 11 was released a few days ago. It introduced an amazing feature that allows you to edit your photos using masks right in develop mode. It is powered by artificial intelligence to automatically detect the subject of your image or detect the sky and intelligently apply a mask that allows you to edit just that selection. Of course, this is stuff you could do in Photoshop, but bringing this functionality to Lightroom is a big deal, having it be AI-powered is also a big deal.

I’ve found that Lightroom is pretty darn good at detecting the subject, even with a busy background. Here are a couple of examples:

The image on the left is straight out of the camera, no edits. The image on the right used the subject masking to adjust shadows and exposure.

Straight out of the camera, no adjustments made.

Subject masking in Lightroom. Adjusted exposure and shadows.

Sky masking in Lightroom. Adjusted clarity and dehazed.

Lightroom Masking Final Edit. The subject exposure and shadows have been lifted and the sky has been dehazed and added a bit of clarity to give it more detail.

What a fascinating modern age we live in.