Masking Problem

[Darrell_1960]

I've been using the latest masking tool ever since it was introduced. I've never had a problem. But now, this just started the other day, for some reason. When I select "Subject" from the mask tool, it selects the "Subject", highlights it in my color overlay (black) but  edits the background. I have to click the "Invert" box for LRc to edit the Subject. It's crazy. I was hoping it was a bug and that today's update would fix it. Did I inadvertently click something else the last time I used the masking tool? 

[Sameer K]

Welcome to the Lightroom Community. I'll help you figure this out. You might have selected a different mask overlay by accident.

Try changing the mask overlay mode to 'Color overlay' & check if the masks are inverted when created.

If that does not help, reset Lightroom Classic following the second (manual) method from this article: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
Sameer K

[Darrell_1960]

Thank you for your time. That didn't work. What sort of worked is, I went into "Color Overlay Settings" and changed from "Affected Area" to "Unaffected Area". Now, when I select "Subject", the background is highlighted in my color overlay setting, and I can edit the "Subject". But when I change back to "Affected Area", my subject is highlighted in my color overlay (black), but when I try to edit the subject, the background is edited. This is just weird.

[richardplondon · Accepted solution]

Could this be a matter of masking preview style?

To eliminate that, in the mask preview options (reachable from the three-dots button next to the colour square in the masks panel or else at Tools menu / Mask Overlay / Color Overlay Settings) you can set what the masking overlay is to denote: 'Affected Area' / 'Unaffected Area'. That is a difference of visual convention only. Something to check at least.

I have not heard otherwise of a selection working inverse to what's expected.

While noting: a mask component may be intentionally set to Subtract from, rather than Add to, the area of another mask component's selection.

[Darrell_1960]

I did what you instructe, and it sort of worked. I went into "Color Overlay Settings" and changed from "Affected Area" to "Unaffected Area". Now, when I select "Subject", the background is highlighted in my color overlay setting, and I can edit the "Subject". But when I change back to "Affected Area", my subject is highlighted in my color overlay (black), but when I try to edit the subject, the background is edited. This is just weird. The best I can figure is, I must have made a change to the "Affected Area". I'm not proficieent enough in LRc to figure what I did wrong. Does this issue sound familiar at all? As long as my subject is no highlighted in my cover overlay, I can edit the subject. And it only does this when I select "Subject". If I select "Background" it works fine.

[richardplondon]

That does sound strange. The most important thing is to be able to make the adjustments you want. So to get the (possibly confusing in this instance) matter of the overlay out of the way, you can press O. This hides the mask overlay - you see only the image with a live preview of your local adjustments applied. 

So in this mode without the mask overlay - if you make a whole brand new mask (selecting Subject) and move an adjustment slider, e.g lowering Exposure - is it the Subject that gets darker?

And if you make a whole brand new mask (selecting Background) and lower Exposure, is it the background that gets darker?

[Darrell_1960]

Ok. I pressed "O" and when I moved the "Exposure" slider, the whole image was brightened or darkened, whether I selected the Subject or Background. I did as you  instructed and created a new mask for the Subject, and the whole image darkened or lightened when I moved the "Exposure" slider. It did the same thing when I created a new mask for the Background also. Now I really am confused.

[richardplondon · Accepted solution]

This business of the whole image darkening or lightening, is because you are moving sliders in the panel titled "Basic". These, and the panels further down, are all global adjustments. The local adjustment sliders appear in a different panel, which is part of the Masking interface.

Sometimes this different panel shows collapsed so that you see only a header for choosing a local adjustment "effect" - a named local adjustment preset. Depending on your LrC version, expanding this would need clicking a triangular arrow button next to the word "effect" - where highlighted yellow below - to open up the full interface. This behaviour seems to have been removed from the version I am now running, so there is no such collapse / expand button for me and instead I can collapse subsections of the local adjustments panel.

But this collapsing of the whole thing has caught a lot of people out over time: if the first Exposure (say) slider that they see as they scan down the interface, is the one in Basic (the global one, highlighted green below).

As the screenshot below shows, the relevant Exposure slider is the one (highlighted orange) that controls your currently active Mask only.

Still the global adjustments remain usable below. So you can fluidly re-balance global adjustments, live, against whatever you are doing with the local adjustments.

[Darrell_1960]

I feel so dumb. I just recently, accidently, found "Solo Mode" in the panel view and switched to it because I got tired of scrolling down to the slider (s) I wanted. So I was using that "Exposure" slider out of habit. Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to such a simple issue.

[richardplondon]

You are most welcome. So - is masking behaving as expected for you? (select Subject, subject receives adjustments) - you had indicated that maybe it was not doing so.

[Darrell_1960]

Yes it is, thanks for asking. It works just like it's supposed to. 🙂 It's funny how we miss the simple solution because we think it's a complicated thing and we go that route. I saw "we", I'm really bad about it. I'm the guy who can't get his car started, I check all the engine issues, have it towed to  a mechanic only to find out it's out of gas. Exagerating, but you get the idea. 🙂

[Darrell_1960]

And thank you for taking the time to make an excellent screenshot.

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

I just updated today and my masks are being very weird. Do you still have add/subtract? Mine are gone!

[dj_paige]

Yes, Add and Subtract are still there. They will not appear until you actually do something to activate the mask, such as draw a brushed region, or create the linear gradient, and the like. You may have also deselected all masks, you have to select the specific mask you want to add or subtract from, before Add or Subtract appears.

If that's not the answer, then please start a new thread rather than tacking this onto a thread about a different topic.

[Darrell_1960]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. 🙂

[ImaRetiredTeacher]

Yes, I've used them plenty  and was in the process of doing what I always do, when things went awry.

Thanks for your resonse.

[richardplondon]

n/a deleted