Photo How To

A solid understanding of how to employ Masks is essential if you want post-processing results that are the best they can be. These easy-to-use tools enable you to make selective adjustments to specific parts of an image and achieve optimum color, exposure and balance.

But here's the catch: There's a common mistake made by users of new AI Masking tools that can really compromise your efforts. Fortunately there's a solution to what today's instructor calls "the #1 mistake you're making with Lightroom AI masking," and that's what you'll learn how to resolve in the nine-minute tutorial below.

Chris Parker is a professional landscape and wildlife photographer and very adept instructor based in Jacksonville, FL. He kicks off today's episode like this: "If you're relying 100% on Lightroom's AI masking, then the quality of your images is not as good as it could be. In fact, if you don't fix this mistake from the beginning, the rest of your edits will be more difficult." This warning grabbed your attention in a hurry, right?

Parker pulls up a selection of landscape images, all with similar problems, and then provides what he insists is "the quickest and fastest way to fix them." His first example is a nice landscape image Parker made in Arizona's beautiful Superstition mountains. He already made the necessary global adjustments to the original file, before jumping into masking for some very important selective enhancements.

As you'll see, he applied both an AI Sky Mask and Landscape Mask to further enhance the shot, and at first glance everything looks great. But watch what becomes apparent as he zooms in on the photo and examines details along the edges. In short, the result is a big disappointment. One problem is that the AI Sky Mask selected more than the sky: namely, the top of a prominent saguaro cactus rising above the foreground.

Parker's other two images have different, but equally objectionable problems. He then provides a clear explanation of why all three photos are so disappointing thanks to a singular mistake when employing Lightroom's AI Masking technique. The remainder of the lesson is a simple solution that's very easy to achieve.

Once you're done watching pay a visit to Parker's instructional YouTube channel where there are many more post-processing tips and tricks to be found.

And be sure not to miss the earlier tutorial we posted from another expert with a three-minute beginners guide for mastering Tone Curve tools when editing photographs on the desktop, a tablet, or even with your phone.