Perfect Sunlight Accents With Lightroom And Intersecting Masks

I talk about Lightroom masks and the intersect feature a lot - and that’s because it’s such a powerful pairing. Use a radial mask with an intersecting luminosity mask to create perfect sunlight accents for your landscapes. It is easier than you think!

The technique is:

Add a radial mask over the area you want to accent
Intersect the radial with a luminance range mask
Refine the luminance range mask to affect only the tones (usually the upper midtones)
Adjust the sliders to add warmth and brightness. Generally, a nudge to Tint toward yellow and a slight increase in Exposure is enough.

And if you have other areas in your landscape that need a sunlight kiss, add another radial. Then, in the Masks window in Lightroom, drag that radial below the luminance range intersection.