Use The Overlay Modes To Check Your Lightroom Masks

Lightroom masking is powerful and helps photographers emphasize subjects and craft stronger images. The mask overlay defaults to a red color showing an area the is mask. Depending on your photo, that red overlay may be difficult to see. There are three other color overlays for masks in Lightroom - green, white, and black. Cycle through these using the keyboard shortcut Shift-O to double check the precision of your mask.

See this technique in action in the short video with this article.

The default red overlay shows the mask bleeding into the rock. It is less obvious in the sky, because the sky has a similar color to the overlay.

Switching to a green overlay shows the unmasked areas in the sky more clearly.

Silhouetted Sunset Photographer In La Jolla 2
Contact Scott to commission a print or license this image.


Scott Davenport

Scott Davenport is a landscape photographer and photo educator and based in San Diego, California. He leads photo workshops, writes photo books, hosts podcasts, makes tutorial videos, and feels weird referring to himself in the 3rd person.

He also can't help getting his feet wet photographing at the beach.

https://scottdavenportphoto.com
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