So this is the part of the course where we finally get to introduce to you
the concept of masking. Now, this is such a powerful concept,
and this is the single biggest reason to bring your photos
into Lightroom Mobile in the first place. So what am I talking about? What is a mask, anyway? So a mask simply means a affect
part of the image, but not all of it. I want you to take this little area of
the image and apply an adjustment to that or take that little part of the image
and not apply that adjustment to it. Apply it to everything but that subject. So we can invert these masks. Now we start to target specific areas of the image,
and when we do that, we can walk away with a significantly more powerful
and impactful images in the process. So of all the ways that we can identify
and isolate our subject, one of the most powerful yet simple tools we have available to us
is selecting by subject. All of a sudden
we have a lot more creative control. We were identifying what we want
people to look at. We were targeting that thing
and we're using all of our sliders for the single purpose
of making that our primary area of focus. So for example, take a look at this before
and take a look at this after. That is the power and impact
that understanding and utilizing masking has for we're working on our edits
in our photography. Now it is worth mentioning
that masking is one of those options that is only available if you're a paid
subscriber to Adobe Lightroom. It's just something to keep in mind,
something to know about. And again, I truly do
believe that this is worth while. It is definitely going
to help improve your photographs. So having said that, let's jump in. First thing I want to do with this
image open is click where it says masking all the way
on the bottom on the left hand side. And if I open that up,
it's not going to do much other than give me this
plus icon on the bottom right. So when I click on that, it's
going to give me a whole bunch of different options
for different types of mask. I want to go through each one of them, but the first one is
honestly the most important. It just automatically finds
what it thinks is your subject and instantly creates a mask
so that we can apply local adjustments. So let's do that. Now. I'm going to click on select subject here and then it's going to isolate
that subject and instantly give me a mask. So let me show you what we can do with it. If I click on light, and I simply
just drag the exposure up and down. Look at what this does. Look how perfect that mask is. Think about the creative potential
that this allows us. This is exactly what we want to do
when we want to have photos that have maximum impact. We want to identify our subject
and make it stand out. One of the best things that we can do
to make our subjects stand out is to make it brighter. Here's the problem now. It's already as bright as it needs to be. So if I want to make my subject brighter,
what else can I do? Well, I can take what's not my subject
and make that not as bright. So with this mask in place, I want to draw your attention
to the left hand side of the frame. You’re going to see a little icon there
and if we tap that icon, you're going to see a few more options that we have
available to us in our screen. Now, I'm just going to
grab that little white vertical line there right
next to the trashcan and drag that out so you can see what these icons
actually mean. Now you're going to realize that
that icon at the top is invert. So if I click on invert, I'll drag
that vertical line back to the left there. Now we have the opposite of my subject. So I’m going to grab this exposure slider
and just drag it all the way down here
until I start to really like that result. And look at the difference there. So now if I tap and hold on the screen,
here's my before and here's my after, now we're really starting
to make our subjects stand out. So think about what we're doing here. Now,
why does this work? It's because the human eye cannot help
but look at whatever is brightest in the frame. So if you're not there to direct
the viewer's eye for them, their eye already knows what to do by making your subject
the brightest part of the frame. Now here's the thing. The human eye will also go to
whatever's warmest in the frame. It will instantly go to whatever's warmer
versus cooler in any photo. We just want people to engage
with the primary focus of our image. Well, we take the subject, we identify it,
we mask it, and we make it brighter,
but we also make it warmer. We don't necessarily
need to make this leaf any warmer. We can take what's not the subject, what’s not the leaf
and make it cooler. So let's do that. I’m going to click on color
right next to lights. I’m going to grab the temperature slider and I'm just going
to bring that down to -10. Now let's take a look at what's happening. Before and after. So now let's create a second mask here. I'm going to go ahead and click
on that masking icon again and I’m going to click on that
plus icon on the right hand side. And again,
I'm going to choose select subject. It's going to be the same thing
that it did before. It's going to select
and isolate my subject. What do we do next? Well, we naturally want
to take our subject and make it warmer. So I’m going to click on color
and grab my temperature slider. Now I’m going to drag this to the right
until I'm happy. Now we don't want to go too far. I think maybe around 20 or so. Right? Look at the difference here. I'm going to tap and hold on the screen
before and after. Now, this is really starting
to pop off the screen, isn't it? Utilizing warm versus cool will also direct the viewers eye
to where you want them to look. So now we're going to open up our effects
tab here and let's actually bring some detail into the area
where we want people to look. Now we have texture,
we have clarity, and we have dehaze. So let's start with texture. Now I'm going to zoom in a little bit here
so you can really see what's happening. I'm going to grab the texture slider and drag it to the right
until I'm happy with the result. I think somewhere around 40
is going to work pretty well. Now the next thing we want to do
is clarity. And what happens if we increase clarity? Well, we're going to increase details, but
also increased contrast in the process. I’m going to grab that clarity slider
and drag that to the right. Maybe somewhere around
20 here is going to work pretty well. And then dehaze, now you're going to start
seeing that there's an order. And typically the way
I apply these sliders, I usually do a little bit more texture than clarity
and a little bit more clarity than dehaze. So I'm going to click on that dehaze,
I think around 10 is going to do it here. Now let's zoom back out. I'm going to double click, I’m
going to click that checkbox here. Look at that detail that we brought out
here. There's one last detail
that we want to take care of, and that's details, that's the sharpness. We really want to use sharpness
in a very specific way as a local adjustment
to make our subject stand out. I’m going to click back on our mask and you're going to start
seeing multiple masks start being applied. Now, this isn't something to shy away
from, it's just something to understand that Lightroom
will keep track of your masks for you and it gives you a little bit of a preview
of what these masks look like. Whatever is white inside
that mask is where that mask is being applied or what's being affected
as we move those sliders. So if we look at that top mask here
and that leaf is white, that means that the adjustments
are being applied to that leaf. If you look at the mask underneath,
it hits that background that's white. That means the adjustments
are being applied to the background. So if we want to sharpen the leaf, I'm
just going to tap on that first mask here. It'll show me, right, that little red blip appeared
that showed me this is your mask. Now I can apply sharpening once
I have that mask activated. So let's go ahead and do that. I'm going to click on detail here. I am going to zoom in. Any time you apply sharpness,
you do want to zoom in. I think that's a good amount there. And now we're just going to grab that
sharpness slider and drag that to the right,
but we’re not going to go too far. I think around 50 or 60 should do it. Maybe we'll do 60 here and that's just going to give us
just a little bit more bite to the photo. We're going to click that checkbox
and now we're in a really good place. So the next thing we want to adjust
is a vignette. What that's going to do as we covered previously, is just focus the eye
even more towards the middle of the frame. So let me show you
how we're going to apply this. I'm going to click on Effects
and I'm going to drag my vignette slider to the left just a little bit here. I don’t want to go too far,
but I think around, let's do -20 or so. There we go. Now if I just tap and hold on the word
effects, there's our before and there's our after. Now let's just adjust the midpoint
to really dial this in. So I’m going to grab our midpoint here
and I'm going to bring this back. I'm going to move this to the left
until I'm happy with the result. So this isn't as immediately obvious. I'm going to go back and forth
just to show you what this is doing. I’m going to dial in to
maybe somewhere in the middle. Let's go a little bit further. Let's go to 20. There we go. Now let's take a look at what we have. I'll tap on the screen. Here's our before and after so far. Okay. So we have our vignette applied. What else can we do to improve this photo? What else we do to make this subject
stand out? So what stands out to me is it’s
just a tiny bit too bright. So I’m going to click on light here and I’m going to adjust the exposure,
just darken it down ever so slightly. Let's say -0.3 right? It's about a third of a stop darken out. And I think that really is an improvement. It's just a little bit
too bright for my taste. I also want to increase the contrast
just a little bit too. So grab that slider and drag
that to the right just a little bit. I think around 30 will do it. And we want to add just a little bit
more saturation and contrast to the photo. Still, in order to do that, I'm not just
going to grab that contrast slider. If I want to take it a little bit further, I'm going to go to my effects tab here
and now let's grab that dehaze slider. I'm going to click and hold on that slider and drag it to the right until I'm happy. Too far
we start to add some unnatural color here, but I think around 60, yeah,
that's looking pretty good. So really what's catching my eye
now is that color, right? That's really starting to stand out. So the last move I think we should make
is address that color. I'm going to click on that color tab here and I’m going to swipe up a little
until I see my vibrance and I’m going to drag that to the right just to increase the saturation
of the colors just a little bit more. Let's go to 3. So in summary, what do we do here? Why is this so effective? Why does this after image
look so much better than the before? What we did specifically in
this video is introduce you to the power and the concept
of utilizing local adjustments, utilizing the auto masking available
to us in Lightroom Mobile. And then we utilized light. We use luminosity contrast, we used
color contrast, and then we used details. So all these sliders have one singular
purpose to make our subjects stand out. And that's exactly how we walk away
with an image that we're absolutely going to love. This video is a free preview of the iPhone Editing Academy online course. In this course, you'll discover
everything you need to know to edit your photos to perfection using
the device that's always in your pocket. Whether you want to breathe new life into your old images
or make your best photos even better. You'll find out exactly how to do that
on your iPhone. I'll show you the latest photo
editing tricks that will transform even average photos into stunning
masterpieces in just a few minutes. So if you'd like to learn more about creating incredible
photo edits on your iPhone, please take a look at the full version
of my iPhone Editing Academy course. You'll find the link in the description
right next to this video. So click on that link now and I'll see you
inside the full version of this course.
