A Magic Photo Pop Using Curves In Lightroom Masks
Recently Adobe added Curves to the set of adjustments available in Lightroom masking. And it’s great. The power of curves - localized to a specific area of your image. Pairing these two controls gives you an amazing amount of control over the tones in your image.
Curves in masks also opens up a host of potential for presets. I made a finishing preset to add a finishing pop to my images leveraging curves and luminance range masks. Here is a before/after of using this preset. The change is subtle yet helpful.
Before the Overlay Pop preset
After the Overlay Pop preset
Download the ‘Overlay Pop’ preset featured in this video.
La Jolla Black & White May 13 2023
Contact Scott to commission a print or license this image.
Snow in shadow often picks up a strong blue color cast. Some blue belongs there—the area is in shadow, after all—but too much can overwhelm the photograph.
In this video, I’ll show you how I use a targeted Lightroom mask to reduce that blue cast while preserving the depth and shadow in the mountains. The same approach can help with many other color-cast problems in landscape photography.