The Masking Panel

Camera Raw and Lightroom are treated to a major editing update in their latest versions

Local adjustments have long been one of the best features in Adobe’s Camera Raw and Lightroom programs. But now things have moved up a gear with Select Sky and Select Subject, two hugely helpful new masking tools that sit alongside the existing Adjustment Brush and Radial and Graduated Filters. These new tools let you automatically target areas with a single click, so you can add drama to a blown-out sky, lift the tones in your subject and make powerful local enhancements.

The improvements don’t end there. The brand-new Masking Panel changes the way local adjustments are organised and edited. The old system would give each new edit a simple pin, but now there’s a dedicated panel that makes a group from each mask. Crucially, this allows you to add or subtract from the initial mask using any of the other local tools. Then there are the Color Range and Luminance Range commands that let you single out specific colours or brightness.

If you’re accustomed to using local adjustments, this new modular approach will take some getting used to, but it ultimately gives you greater control.

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