How to adjust Exposure with Area masks in Lightroom – Guide
If you have a photo where the highlights are perfectly exposed, but you’ve lost detail in the shadows, you can adjust the Exposure slider to increase the brightness of your highlights. However, this can ruin your shadows if you need to set it too high. If you instead target the shadows with an area mask, you can increase those shadows without disturbing the rest of the image. To do this, apply your graduated filter to your entire image and then turn it into a luminance range mask.
To use a graduated filter as an area mask, first make sure the “Area Mask” option is set to “Luminance” in the Gradient Settings window. This will turn your gradient into an area mask that only affects the exposure of the image, not the color. There are three options for controlling how your mask affects image exposure: luminance, color, and depth. Luminance is the simplest option and lets you control just the exposure of the image. To use it, simply enter a value in the “Luminance” field and click OK. Color lets you limit your customization to a specific set of qualities. There are three options: luminance, color, and depth. To use it, select one of these options from the drop-down menu and enter a value in the “Color” field. Depth lets you control how much detail is preserved in areas that fall outside of your mask. To use it, select one of these options from the drop-down menu and enter a value in the “Depth” field. ..
Why use range masks for landscape photography?
light balancing
One of the biggest challenges in landscape photography with a wide-angle lens is dealing with extreme dynamic range. When you’re shooting in the golden hour, your foreground is often underexposed and the sky can be overexposed. This is where the Lightroom series mask tool comes in very handy. For example, you might want to lighten the shadows in a certain area of the foreground, but leave the shadow levels unchanged for the rest of the image. Depending on the scene, the Luminance or Color Range mask lets you make a super-fine local adjustment to focus only part of the foreground in your landscape photos, leaving the rest of the image untouched. Likewise, you can selectively adjust the lights in the sky to recreate the stunning light you’ve captured.
color correction
Landscape photographers often have to contend with color balance issues when shooting with a wide-angle lens. White balance can be off in deep shadows, and adjusting it can be difficult. By using an area mask, you can isolate areas that need more precise color correction, which makes it easier to get the look you want in your photos. ..
You can use area masks in Lightroom to selectively adjust color saturation in different parts of the image. This means that you can adjust the color saturation in different parts of your landscape photo without having to worry about affecting the overall tone.
bringing the details
When photographing waterfalls, it is important to take into account the fluctuations in light. This can lead to a loss of detail in the photo, as well as a loss of texture. One way to deal with this is to use area masks in Lightroom. Area masks allow you to selectively adjust highlights in the waterfall, which can help preserve its detail.
Now that I’ve seen how powerful it is, I’m going to use it a lot more, and to make your life easier I made a short video tutorial on how to use this tool. ..
How to use range masks in Lightroom
The Lightroom area masking workflow starts by selecting an area to make adjustments to with a filter or brush. Once you’ve selected the area, you can adjust it using Luminance or Color Range masks. This allows you to fine-tune your landscape photo. As you can see in the video section above, masks in Lightroom can bring out detail, contrast, and color anywhere in the image. They work in tandem with Lightroom’s filters and brushes, allowing you to make fine adjustments right where they’re needed.
Final note
This guide will show you how to adjust exposure with area masks in Lightroom. If you have any questions about this article, feel free to ask us in the comments below. Additionally, please share this article with your friends if you enjoyed it! ..
