Mask off an area and lighten the rest of the picture.

[kate2kate]

Is there a way to mask of an area and lighten the rest of the picture. For example, mask the bracelet and make everything in the picture light. But not lighten the bracelet. I am trying to make the background white/lighter while keeping the bracelet color the way they are. I have tried using the mask and painting around the bracelet but it always comes out looking fake.

[Curt Wrigley]

Lightroom classic has much better masking tools (auto mask in particular)

On your image i tried doing it with light settings.   I increased whites, and highlights/contract to get close perhaps.

[kate2kate]

So you painted around the bracelet using the mask, but you didn't use full white. I just want to make sure I understand. Thank you for the help.

[kate2kate]

 Forgot to mention that I am using Lightroom classic.

[Curt Wrigley]

Oh; I did no painting; I was simply adjusting light sliders.

If you are using Classic then you can do it much better.  Use the paint tool with the auto mask turned on. It will help you stay "inside the lines".  Paint the area you want white avoiding the bracelet; then simply adjust the exposure of the painted area up.    If you get some paint on the bracelet use the eraser to unpaint it.  Prss the "O" on the keyboard to see where you painted

This is the Lightroom Cloudy version forum btw

[martaca]

¿Cómo se acoplan las capas en LR Classic? Gracias

[Rob_Cullen]

Lightroom-Classic does not use or understand 'layers'.

In LrC v11 new Masking panel was introduced that applies local adjustment Tools (Brush, Gradients). This panel has the appearance of the Adjustment masks as layers.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/whats-new.html

[99jon]

If you have Classic then it's possible to use color range masking.

[kate2kate]

I will have to look up color range masking. I am a newbie and I am not sure what it is. If you happen to know a good tutorial that would be great.

[Todd Shaner]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFuHYJvBXIQ

Real simple using a Graduated Filter dragged off the canvas so it's applied to the whole image using a Luminance Range Mask. Follow steps 1-5.

[kate2kate]

Thank you! I will try this.

[kate2kate]

@Todd_Shaner I could use a little help with this. When I select the Graduated filter my screen looks different than your. The range mask is off and greyed out. How do I turn that on? And what is step 2 doing please? I appreciate the help. I have been struggling with white backgrounds forever.

[Todd Shaner · Accepted solution]

When I select the Graduated filter my screen looks different than your. The range mask is off and greyed out. How do I turn that on? And what is step 2 doing please?

After clicking on the Graduated Filter (Step 1) hover the cursor over the right side of the canvas. Next (Step 2) hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor slightly to the right. If necessary straighten or move the Graduated filter so that the three lines are not touching the canvas as in my screenshot. This will apply the Graduated filter uniformally across the whole image. I suggest watching the video at the link I provided if you are still having trouble. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFuHYJvBXIQ

[Rob_Cullen · Accepted solution]

I have a very short video that shows the Gradient Tool working with Range Mask 'Color'-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fp0nq2n27739jzr/Range%20Mask%20Trick.mp4?dl=0

[kate2kate]

Thank you. The video was great. Nice and easy.

[Todd Shaner]

WobertC thanks for creating the video. Just to avoid any confusion I used the Luminace mask, which is more suitable for brightening just the white background, but everything in your video applies.

[kate2kate]

Thank you for the help.

[kate2kate]

@Todd_Shaner

@WobertC

Is there any reason why the color or luminace mask would work on a picture. On some photo's I follow the steps and when I make the adjustment (up the whites) nothing seems to happen. I do before and after and the white stays the same. Sorry for so many questions I am a real newbie.

[Todd Shaner]

Please post a screenshot as below showing your settings and the image file.

[kate2kate · Accepted solution]

The first is a screen shot. The second is the picture. 

[Rob_Cullen]

Your biggest problem is that there are tones of luminance in the jewellery (esp. specular highlights) that are the same as the background.

It gets very difficult to use any type of masking to isolate the item from the background. The Gradient method I demonstrated in a video is very useful in some situations, but it has difficulty with your last images posted.

If your background is a pure white you might get a better start to editing if you expose in camera to render the background as 'white' in the image, then you will not need major adjustments in Lr. (or any at all!). In fact- in Lr, even just an increase of the global Exposure slider will, I think, achieve what you want. (Turn on the clipping indicators [J] to assist.).

[kate2kate]

Thank you. I was practicing the technique on my worst photo's maybe that is the problem. I will work on the photo's that are closer to white. I do have some. Thank you very much for your help. This technique is a life saver for me.

[99jon]

As well as pushing up the slider for whites try also increasing exposure & perhaps crop to size.

[Todd Shaner]

The 2nd picture you posted has light falloff probably from using a camera mounted flash. You can correct this by using a Graduated filter that is applied as actually intended to correct it. Adding a Luminace Mask helps preserve the detail in the bracelet. In the below example the Graduated filter placement and settings used help to make the lighting more uniform. It's not a huge difference, but looks pretty good to me!

The white paper background inflates the camera's metering, which leads to underesposure. As suggested in the future try using an in-camera exposure compenstaion of about +1.0 EV when shooting with a white background. Also look at other lighting techniques. Do a Google serarch on 'jewelry photography lighting.' There are lots of low cost lighting solutions.