Masking not working

[Richard24877674qg6o]

Dear Community When I open a new photo in Light room Classic and click on masking and lets say its a brown bird in a blue sky I click on select subject and it don't mask the subject in red it picks up the sky. 

Please what is going on I dont  want any work around I want the reason why and I want a fix I'm really frustrated paying for something I cant use. 

[dj_paige]

Subject masks are not perfect, sometimes they do not select the subject. That's one of the drawbacks of artificial intelligence, which is what Adobe is using to identify subjects. 

[hanomanob]

What is the percentage of the total pixels of the Photo? Could it be that there are not enough "bird"-pixels?

[Richard24877674qg6o]

The photo is a CR2 file from a Canon 5D mk 4 a 32mp. image. If I open the file in LR the web base program it works ok. but when I open the file in LRC that's when I get this problem.

[Ian Lyons]

It would be helpful if you could share the CR2 file using Dropbox or similar. This will allow others to check whether the issue is image or computer related. 

[Richard24877674qg6o]

Open LRC, Open a already imported photo. Or import one. So we're at a fresh start working on a .CR2 file.

Image is a brown bird on a blue sky in flight.

Click the develop mode.

Click on mask tool, select subject, The subject doesn't show up in red as it should ! The sky dose! This is ass about face ! but the subject dose have the the subject icon showing up. And if you use just one slider the Exposure one for this test the bird gets its exposure change not the sky well that's ok then. And the mask itself looks Ok in the panel box (should be in right hand corner of photo) as it should white reveals black conceals

Now lets press DONE.

Now press RESET so back to the beginning.

New mask ! select sky ! The bird comes up in red not the sky! (Ass about face) but the sky has its icon. Now using the exposure slider again the sky gets its exposure change not the bird well that's ok then. And again the mask itself looks ok in the panel box as it should white reveals black conceals.

Now lets press DONE.

Now press RESET so back to the beginning again.

Now lets use the linear gradient mask from the top ! pulling down the mask ! The mask isn't in red as it should be ! the whole photo is. In the panel box it shows up as it should white reveals black conceals using the slider again it works ok.

So what is going on ? To me it looks like it's all ass about face. I did have a copy of LRC that wasn't exactly legal before but that was all deleted before I went onto subscribe to the legal side. But I cant see that being a problem can you ? I have deleted LRC 3 times now and reinstalled ! Still no good I have deleted the whole ADOBE package and reinstalled still the same problem.

[richardplondon]

This may just be a mask overlay preference setting. 

At the bottom of the Masks panel is a checkbox "Show Overlay" and to the right of this a coloured square (current colour of mask overlay) and a three-dots menu button. Click on the coloured square to open the Overlay Settings (or else select this from the menu). In the dialog that opens (which has a colour selector) an option at the bottom lets you choose whether the mask overlay should show affected areas, or unaffected areas.

The usual setting - the default - is "affected". This option means that when you start (say) a new Brush mask, you are painting on (say) red mask overlay, and it is these red areas which will get the adjustment. Or, a "subject" detection will show the subject in red, and the subject will get the adjustment.

With "unaffected" the moment you begin brushing on a new Brush mask, the whole image turns red except that wherever you've painted with the Brush, a "hole" is made in this red overlay. Those holes - the areas where you've removed the red - get the adjustment. Or, a "subject" detection will show everything else but the subject in red, and the subject will get the adjustment.

IOW the outcome is exactly the same: it is just mask-previewed differently.

IMO the "unaffected" option refers to the notion of cutting OUT from a stencil, while the "affected" option presents this more as painting ON the effect.