When Should I Use A Color Range Mask In Lightroom?

Lightroom
Written by Scott Davenport
Be A Better Visual Story Teller

My last post about the Lightroom color range mask generated some questions. The biggest one - when should I use a color range mask instead of the HSL sliders?

You should use color range masks when HSL adjustments affect more colors than you want. HSL offers some control over separating colors. To guarantee no impact outside of only the hues you want to impact, you need to reach for a color range mask. I have an example that shows where HSL falls short and the color range mask is the solution.

Adjusting the yellows and greens in HSL has too much impact. The grass is enriched but the yellow flowers get too green.

A color range mask limits adjustments to only the greens, protecting the yellows. The mask Hue slider enriches the greens and delivers the desired result.

In some cases, HSL is perfectly fine. In this same photo, adjusting the saturation in the sky with HSL works great. Why? There are not many blue hues in the photo. Working with HSL yields the desired adjustment with no side effects.

HSL is still useful. It’s perfect for adjusting the blues of the sky in the same scene.

So… HSL has its place, just like color range masks do.

More Tutorials In My Lightroom Learning Center

Horse, San Simeon, California
Contact Scott to commission a print or license this image.

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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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