RANGE MASKS

Range masks are available in both Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. Your choices are to select from either a Color Range mask or Luminance Range mask. Both are so useful that most  photographers who post process will use one or both on many of their images

For illustration purposes we are starting with the raw image (first image below) that has had some basic global Lightroom adjustments applied to the image (second image below). 

You will find the selection for range masks once you click on the dashed Masking circle on your side panel. When you then click on Range you may select either Color Range or Luminance Range. When you do so, then place your cursor over your image for an eyedropper will appear. Use the eyedropper to sample the color or luminance you would like to apply modifications to.

We will start with a Color Range adjustment. Let’s say I want to modify the red colors in the middle of the image to make them a bit more orange. A selection of the red colors in the middle of the image has been made.  When you have the Show Overlay box checked, your selection is shown in the color. I have chosen a bright lime green to help you see this, but you can choose a color you want by clicking on the colored box. Compare this image to the previous image to see how red areas have a light green overlay. Your color range selection can be refined using the Refinement Slider. You may use the slider to increase or decrease the range of your selection. Now that the selection has been made, the Temperature selection has been moved toward yellow to make the reds more orange. You can play with the Refine slider and the Temperature slider to achieve your goal.

Many photographers will use the Color Mixer applied to the entire image to achieve similar results. When doing so,  select the Reds, then modify the Hue to make the reds more orange. Using the Color Range mask with overlays provides better visualization and additional controls on your adjustments. Also, note that your range mask can be modified easily if you want to just apply the Color Range mask to some of the reds in the image. If areas are selected, say on the periphery of the image, that you don’t want to change, select Subtract in the mask panel. Then select the brush and brush away the overlay where you don’t want it applied.

Now lets use a color range mask for the green trees with the intent to brighten the trees. Select Range/Color Range and use the eyedropper on a tree. All of the trees will be selected on an overlay. In previous lessons, I have mentioned how we want to draw the viewer’s attention to the center of the image. So let’s deselect the trees on the periphery. Using the above technique, select Subtract, then select the Brush Tool. Modify the size of the brush tool with the bracket keys and use it to erase the overlay on any trees you don’t want to emphasize. Notice how the overlay has been removed from some of the trees around the edge (trees do not have lighter green overlay). Once you have done this, move the temperature slider and perhaps the white slider to give the trees toward the center a bit more snap. Don’t overdo it!

NOTE: If you learned how to use the Radial Filter in a previous lesson, you could have selected the center area with the radial filter, the intersected that mask with the Color Range mask to achieve a similar active area. This is a powerful way to use masks on masks.

Let’s do a third Color Range mask. Select a darker grey area with they eyedropper. By the way, grays are not an absence of color but a fairly even amount of reds, greens and blues. Now move the color temperature a bit to the blue side. Again, don’t overdo it. Because you are saturating those shades more with blue, this will bring more attention to the center of the image as long as you only apply the action to the center areas. So use the brush to remove the overlay on the periphery or use the Radial Filter with a Color Range mask to achieve the desired results. Note that if you have overdone adjustments with any mask, you can go back to the mask and modify it with the Refine slider or you may increase or decrease any of your adjustment sliders.

To adjust the luminance of an area of your image, you will be selecting a range of brightness. To help visualize what you can and can't do, I have changed the image to black and white. Where the histogram had overlapping reds, greens and blues in the mid-tones, these colors are now grouped in the middle. A selection of the medium to dark grays in the trees would also select the same luminance of reds and blues in other parts of the image. It will be frustrating to try to make changes using the Luminance Range in the midtones of this particular image. It is the lights and darks where we can be more selective. 

For the luminance range masks I have chosen to work in Adobe Camera Raw, which is why the mask numbering below starts over in that application. 

The overlay shows the selection of bright luminance. This overlay is depicted in miniature as Mask 1 in the Mask Panel on the right side. The goal here was to get something closer to 100% luminance into the image, at the same time bringing the viewer not just to the center of the image but encouraging a look around. A decision was made to not lighten any of the lights on the most distant mounds, since luminance naturally decreases with distance. To do this, Mask 1 was modified with the refinement slider and a subtraction brush before achieving the results shown in mask panel in the second image below. 

For most images, you will want at least a small area of luminance that is almost totally black. Work in the same way as you do for the lights, but in this case you will be less concerned about keeping the viewer's eye in the center of the image. This change has been made in the image immediately above. 

A hint for adjusting the lights or the darks using range masks is to keep your eye on the two small squares in the upper corners of the histogram. If the triangles in these small squares change color, you should back off until the color goes away.

There are other ways to adjust lights and darks, such as the using the Curve sliders. These sliders do not give you the ease of selecting parts of your image to work with using Intersecting masks or the Brush tool with Add and Subtract actions. 

Most of the work and illustrations from this lesson were completed in Lightroom (Classic). These changes could have been made in Adobe Camera Raw. More often than not I will make initial changes, especially global changes, in Lightroom, then move the image into Photoshop where I can easily create a new layer for each set of changes to the image. Then, any layers can be reduced in opacity if that is desirable before combining layers for a finished image for the web or for print.

To finish this image for presentation, I have made the following additional changes:

1. Under Calibration, moved the Blue Saturation slider a bit to to the right. See Make it Pop!
2. Brightened an area near the lower left corner to help provide more light leading to the center of the image. See Leading Light
3. Removed some minor edge distractions. See Border Patrol
4. Placed a slight vignette.
5. The original image was not super sharp, so noise and sharpness were adjusted.

If you weren't able to work on one of your own images while reading through this article, be sure to do so soon. You will love the results you achieve!