Lightroom for Landscape Photography: Luminosity Masks

The introduction of the masking panel is one of the biggest updates that Lightroom has received since it was launched, and it’s easy to see why! The ability to isolate your adjustments to a localized area of your frame - whether it's a range of light, color, or a specific subject - is the key to higher-quality processing... and thus, higher-quality final prints.

And today, I’d like to talk about one of my favorite masking techniques for landscape photography...and that is the LUMINANCE range selection.

This is probably the most POWERFUL selection method in the masking panel since it creates a selection - or rather, a STENCIL...based on the LIGHTNESS VALUE of your pixels. And that selection? It can be used to improve so many different adjustments here in Lightroom.

Now I've been using luminosity masks over in Photoshop for well over 15 years now...and one thing I can tell you for certain is that the flexibility, accuracy, and QUALITY that this selection method gives you is absolutely phenomenal...so it's fantastic that this power has finally been brought to the Lightroom Develop module.

Sign up for my ENTIRE Lightroom course on the masking panel for FREE:
►►► https://creativeraw.com/lightroom-beh...

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

You can also sign up for my FREE "Darkroom Foundations" course, which contains additional lessons in Lightroom and Photoshop...just for landscape photographers:

►►► https://creativeraw.com/creativeraw-c...

And if you found this video helpful, you can read more about my full "Darkroom for Landscapes" program here:

►►► https://creativeraw.com/membership/

In it, you'll find premium courses and tutorials on creating exceptional landscape photographs in Lightroom and Photoshop. 50+ hours, hundreds of curated video lessons, expertly organized and presented.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:44 Luminance Range Options: Value Scale
4:44 Overlay Mimics Content of Photograph
8:12 Why Use Luminance Range Selections?
11:10 Luminance Range Slider Controls
15:35 Switch to White on Black Overlay to Finish
16:21 Sign up for my FREE Lightroom Masking Course
18:00 Feathering Control with the Slider
23:42 Example of How Feathering Enhances Quality
25:02 Feathering Protects Against Clipping
28:39 Using Eyedropper to Find the Lightness Value
30:58 Luminance Slider: Triangles and Handles Explained
34:46 Selecting Multiple Lightness Ranges
36:44 Lightness Range is Based on Original Source File
39:55 Reminder: Sign up for my Free Masking Course!