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The Intersect tool in Lightroom: the ‘secret’ masking tool you definitely need to start using

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It’s no secret that Adobe Lightroom has become an incredibly powerful standalone photo editor in its own right over the last few updates. Often, I don’t feel the need to edit in Photoshop at all these days. One of the major updates has of course been the improvements in AI and the masking options. There are several to choose from now, but what happens if those don’t quite suit exactly what you want to do?

In this video, Nigel Danson walks us through using the Intersect option when masking. Essentially, this allows you to use a combination of two masks at the same time to better achieve the effects you want. So what is this “secret” tool and how will it benefit us?

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Smart masking is coming to Luminar NEO

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Despite the war still raging in Ukraine, folks at Skylum have been working hard to deliver updates to its latest image editing software, Luminar NEO. In the update 1.0.6, we get some bug fixes, an improved histogram, and to top it off: smart masking.

The latest Luminar NEO update comes with the long-anticipated Mask AI feature. As you can probably guess, it’s an AI-based feature designed to make masking easier and much faster than before.

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Adobe shows off powerful new masking tools coming to Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw

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Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw have never really been all that good at masking. They’ve had some basic rudimentary masking features through the brush and gradient features, but not in the way that something like Adobe’s own Photoshop provides. Well, now, it looks like that’s about to change.

They’ve posted a sneak peek today of new masking features that will be coming soon to Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw and they look pretty impressive. If you’re already doing basic selections in Lightroom or ACR, this’ll speed up your workflow massively. And for portrait and wedding shooters, you might not even have to go into Photoshop at all anymore.

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Take your photos to the next level with Lightroom’s luminosity and colour masks

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Luminosity masks are an extremely valuable tool within Photoshop, particularly for landscape photographers who are often dealing with high dynamic range scenes that can leave scenes looking a little uneven. Sure, you can leave it up to semi-automated HDR software to try and pull all that detail out of a raw, but luminosity masks allow you to do it with a very specific level of control.

Well, you may not know that Lightroom now has luminosity masks built right in, allowing you to make fine-tuned adjustments to different parts of your image, based solely on their existing brightness level. In this video, photographer Alex Armitage shows you how they work and how you can use them to even out your landscape shots.

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How to use masking and augmented sky in Luminar Sky Replacement

A few days back, I compared Photoshop and Luminar AI Beta’s sky replacement feature. When I turned to Luminar AI, I struggled with a mountain that was too warm for my taste. It turns out, I managed to overlook an important sky replacement tool; the masking brush. In this article, I will show you how to use masking to improve the sky replacement algorithm. Further, I also have a closer look at what Skylum calls Augmented Sky.

Skylum’s goal with Luminar AI is to create a processing software for the casual user who doesn’t want to spend hours editing an image. The developers have designed the software to help photographers make quick and precise adjustments using the power of AI.

It’s time to employ masks and play around in Augmented sky.

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Use this quick tip to get more precise cutouts in Photoshop

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When you mask an object out in Photoshop, it may happen that you miss a few spots, no matter how hard you try. In this video, Jesús Ramirez of Photoshop Training Channel shares a simple tip, yet effective that will help you avoid this mistake every next time you’re making a cutout.[Read More…]

How to mask anything in Lightroom in a few seconds

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Lightroom’s Auto Mask option is a useful tool that can save you a lot of time. But this video from Signature Edits shows you how you can make the Auto Mask feature even faster and more efficient. This way you’ll be able to mask even very complex images in a few seconds, which will save you even more post-processing time.

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How to use channels to create masks in Photoshop – a comprehensive tutorial

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If you are doing any kind of compositing or digital work that requires masking and object extraction you owe it to yourself to watch this video. Stefan Kohler of RawExchange is giving an 80 minutes tour of masking and object extraction that goes from the very basics of masking all the way to techniques used high-end retouchers. And best of all, it’s 100% free. just head over and watch it on youtube.

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10 tips to make selections that cut out anything in Photoshop

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Photoshop’s selection tools seem to evolve and change with every new update. Techniques and technology evolve to make selections a little easier than they were before. At least, that’s the theory, sometimes they just get more frustrating. But, there’s still no one technique that works for everything.

This video from Nathaniel Dodson at Tutvid is a long one. At 37 minutes, you’re not going to be finding any instant fix magic bullets. But, he goes through several different selection methods to explain how they all works, how to use them and what kind of images they work best on.

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