Now, there's no denying it,
the update Lightroom got not so long
back with the new masking section was a big deal.
But with this kind of hidden button in Lightroom,
I'm doing less and less in Photoshop.
This changes everything.
Now I never thought it would happen
but more and more I'm finding I can do edits in Lightroom
that I never would have considered
or been able to more to the point in the past.
But when the new masking section was added,
there became so many more possibilities.
But there's something else, something you might have missed.
And that's this
kind of hidden button
that appears when you hold down the Option key on Mac or Alt
key on Windows, and it's called Intersect.
So what is it?
Well, let's
just say in this picture, I want to darken
the sky a little to give it even more drama.
I'll go to the masking section and then choose Select Sky,
and straight away Lightroom does a great job
selecting the sky, which you can see by this red overlay.
Now it's selected I can make
some adjustments, so I'll just bring down
the exposure a little on this one.
Now, yeah, it darkens the sky down, but to me
it kind of looks a bit fake,
it looks on real
because it's
the same kind of darkness in the top and the bottom.
To make it
look more realistic I'd really want it to be darker at the top
and then get brighter towards the bottom
when it goes across that horizon line.
That's exactly where Intersect comes in really handy.
I'll hold down the Option key on Mac or Alt key on Windows
to bring it up and then click.
Then I can choose a masking method.
In this example, I'll choose linear gradient and click
and drag down from the top,
so you can see the gradient we're now creating,
which is denser at the top than at the bottom.
And this is how the darkening
now looks much more at the top than at the bottom,
so it looks a lot more realistic.
And of course I can change the gradient
if I want by clicking and dragging the controls.
So what's happening here is, we’re
first of all, selecting the sky and then darkening it
and then using Intersect to add another mask
so that we're kind of saying to Lightroom,
“I love what you've done,
but I only want it to be visible where I put this second mask”.
Let's do it again on this image.
In this one I want to add a bit more punch,
a bit more drama to the sky.
So I'll come over to the masking section and choose Select sky.
Again we see the Red overlay showing us that Lightroom
has successfully masked that area.
I'll bring down the exposure a little.
I'll use the Dehaze slider, which I love, and also
the clarity slider and then add a touch more saturation.
Now when I do this, although the sky so far is looking good,
we can see that I'm getting a glow
on the horizon line like a halo,
and that just doesn't look right. It looks fake.
And like with the previous image
with that distant horizon line, I want that to be
a little bit brighter than the top
and also in this one
where I've added a bit more clarity to the clouds,
which is how they would be more defined
in real life, kind of closer towards me,
I want that to soften off towards the distance.
So again, I'll use Intersect.
So I'll hold down the Option key
on Mac or Alt key on Windows and click.
Again I'll use a linear gradient.
I'll then click and drag down from the top,
so this second mask is denser at the top than at the bottom
as it fades out. And this is the result.
If we turn that intersect mask off and on.
A much more pleasing look to the sky.
And this is with all the masks off and on.
Now though let's
take a look at using Intersect on a portrait.
Here's a picture
I took of my friend Stephen Cook during daylight.
In the original edit, which I did in Photoshop,
I wanted to make it look as though it was a night
time scene where there was a street light
in the top left corner
and then a cool look inside the car
and on the other side of Stephen.
So here's how I did it in Photoshop,
but then I'll show you a much easier and quicker way
how I now would do it using Lightroom.
So in Photoshop I'll go to Layer new fill
layer and gradient, and I'll call this lighting.
Now I'll click to choose a gradient,
so I'll look for
the orange gradients and I'll choose this third one along
and then I can click to change the color of this pink
to a cooler blue.
Something like that will be fine.
I'll then click okay and then click okay again.
Now I can change the direction
of the gradient, but obviously I can't
see the image underneath,
so I'll then click okay, and in the Layers panel,
I'll change the layer blend mode to soft light.
I can then double click to open the gradient
and then click and drag on the picture
with my move tool to reposition it.
But I want a bit more control of this now.
I want to be able to kind of
have the light coming down from the top left hand corner
and really control where that blue light is,
and we can do that so easy using Intersect.
I'll go to the masking section in Lightroom and choose
linear gradient and increase the temperature.
I'll then drag out a gradient from the top left and then
down and across.
I can of course change the settings on the fly too,
so I’ll add a bit more warmth
to this light using the temperature slider.
I’ll then add another mask and another linear gradient,
but this time I'll use the temperature slider
to add some blue to make it much cooler
and I'll then drag across from the right hand side.
Now I can use Intersect.
So I'll use a brush and then I can brush in a mask
so that the blue gradient appears
where I want it to on Steven and on the inside of the car.
But I still keep the gradient effect in the areas
that I brush it into.
And this is of all the masks off and on; way quicker
and way less steps with way more control.
Now let's try something else.
So with this fungi,
I want to
make the underside of it
brighter, and rather
than having to be extra careful using just a brush,
I can use intersect to make it way easier.
First of all,
I'll come to the masking section and choose select subject.
Then I'll go to the adjustments and just increase the exposure
so that the entire fungi gets brighter.
But here's where Intersect really helps.
I'll hold down the Option key on Mac or Alt key on Windows
and then click on Intersect and I'll choose a brush.
I'll change the size of the brush, and then very easily
I can brush over the fungi in the areas that I want
to reveal the brightening without spilling over.
Intersect is restricting the brightening of the original
mask to only appear where I'm brushing in this second mask.
I can also change the settings on the fly
and actually I'll just brush
in some of the brightening down the front of the stem
or stalk or whatever it's called, but I can do that
really loosely without worry of spilling over.
And here's before and after.
So in this last example, which is on a portrait,
I want to show you an effect that was only ever possible
in Photoshop before, but now in Lightroom with Intersect,
we can do it way quicker, way easier, have much more control,
and I actually think looks better.
So in Photoshop,
what I want to do is increase the highlights
either side of this male subject.
And here's how I originally did it.
First of all, I'll duplicate the image in the layer stock
and then go to select and subject,
and then I'll add a layer mask.
Then I'll go to the
fx icon and choose inner glow.
Here I can set the color of the glow or the light
and then use the opacity,
choke and size sliders to finesse the look.
When I'm happy, I'll then just click, okay.
Now, obviously at the moment the effect is going
all around him, so we need to mask it out.
But this is a layer effect.
So to do this I need to turn the layer effect
into a regular layer and I do that by
right clicking on it and choosing create layer.
That effect is now a layer at the top of the layer stack.
So I’ll add a black layer mask to this layer
to hide the contents by holding down the Option key
on Mac or Alt key on windows and clicking on the mask icon.
Then I'll use a brush
at 100% opacity with a white foreground color
and 0% hardness and brush the effect in.
I can
then use layer opacity to get it looking exactly how I want.
Now that's quite a few steps there,
but here's how we can do it in Lightroom way easier.
I'll go to the masking section and choose select subject.
And just like with the fungi, I'll use the exposure
slider to brighten him up.
Then I'll activate, Intersect and choose a brush,
and then I can simply use the brush around the subject
where I want the brightening to appear
without being extra careful because this intersect brush
is only going to appear where the original mask selected
the subject.
I can then use the sliders to easily change the effect
to add more or less brightening, and here’s before and after.
All of this
made so incredibly easy with Intersect.
Oh and just so you know, it's not just hidden by holding
down the option or alt key., you also find it
in the masking section.
So there you go, really powerful stuff
that makes the masking in Lightroom,
which was already good, just so much better,
meaning that we jump in and out of Photoshop even less,
which is just mind blowing.
Now, before I go, there's one thing
I want to let you know about,
and that is that you can now get your free pass
for the Lightroom Virtual Summit 2022.
This is a week long event online with 15 instructors,
45 classes and over 33 hours of Lightroom Loving,
plus lots of bonus content too, that we’re all providing.
I've added a link in the description
where you can register and get your free pass.
Anyway, I hope that's been useful.
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