How do you (easily) exclude the sky from adjustments?

[tbuguk]

As a landscape photographer, I frequently need to make adjustments (sharpness, texture etc) to the foreground without causing these adjustments to create artefacts in the sky.  At the moment I have to either (a) make adjustments to the whole image, then try to 'undo' these for the sky by using the graduated filter with a colour or luminance mask to isolate the sky.  But reversing the adjustments tends not to remove all of the artefacts. And, because it is a graduated filter, the corrections are not applied evenly to the sky.   Or (b), I have to use the Adjustment Brush to painstakingly select the non-sky areas.  

What would make the process so much simpler would be to be able to use the graduated filter and range mask to select the sky, invert this to select the rest of the image and set the gradient to zero, so that the mask is applied evenly to the rest of the image. 

In the absence of such a feature, has anyone found an efficient way of doing this?

(Lightroom Classic 8.3.1)

[Just Shoot Me]

Photoshop.

Which is included in your Photographers subscription.

In LR Adjustment brush and only do the adjustments to the areas you want by placing pins in those areas.

[tbuguk]

Thanks.  I get that I can use the adjustment brush (see my option (b) in my question).   The key part of the question is "easily".  It seems to me that LR provides us with an easy way (a couple of seconds) to select the sky when we want to adjust that (graduated filter + range mask).   But there seems to be no similarly easy way to select and adjust the non-sky parts of an image, which is the more common scenario.  Which an invert option would give us.  So, as you say, we have to use the adjustment brush, which takes minutes, rather than seconds, per image.

Or, as you again say, we have to load into Photoshop, which takes time, doesn't have simple texture and clarity adjustment and uses destructive editing.

I guess I'm just surprised that (and wondering if) there isn't an easier way to do this, given that it's presumably a problem that all landscape photographers have to deal with? 

[Just Shoot Me]

Only destructive on the TIF or PSD file that is created from the original RAW file.

Which can be discarded and start over if you like.

[99jon]

The radial filter has the option to invert.

[JohanElzenga]

99jon  wrote

The radial filter has the option to invert.

It does, but unfortunately you won't be able to use that in this case. 'Invert' is apparently applied before range mask. I tried this:

1: Add a radial filter (with invert checked so the filter works inside the oval) that covers the entire sky;

2: Add a range mask to select only the sky by color;

3: Uncheck 'invert' again.

The result is not that the rest of the image is now selected (as you might have thought), but nothing is selected.

Pity, because it would have been a great work-around.

[99jon]

Thanks for trying this. I seem to get good results using a large radial selection even outside the bounds of the sky. I think it works best with just the sliders but I’m also able to use Luminosity to apply a black mask to the sky to ensure only the foreground is selectively adjusted.

[elie_dinur]

Create a mask that covers the entire image evenly either with a big hard brush or a very large filter (Grad or Rad). Use a brush set to Delete and Auto Mask to remove the mask over the sky.

[99jon]

Graduated filter also works well by simply dragging up from the bottom of the image.

[tbuguk]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. 

99jon:  I'd tried to use radial filter to achieve the same results but found the same issue as identified by JohanElzenga, 

Graduated filter from bottom up only works (I think) for a reasonably low and well defined skyline.  If there are foreground objects like trees or mountains in the top of the image then (a) it's not possible (as far as I can tell) to drag the graduated filter high enough so that the active part covers the whole image; (b) you then need to pick all of the colour/luminosity ranges in the foreground to exclude the sky; and (c) the effect would only be applied in a graduated way.

elie_di:  Again, I find this approach becomes very tedious unless the skyline is clear.  If there are trees or buildings, it takes ages to brush out all of the bits of sky.   Compared to the few seconds it takes to select the sky in such situations, it seems odd that there isn't a simple way to do the inverse.

As I suspected, it seems that there isn't a simple solution to this. I guess I'll make a suggestion to Adobe to enable a range masked graduated filter to be inverted.

[tbuguk]

Thanks to davidg too

[GoldingD]

In use of the range mask, forgot to mention the amount slider, in conjunction with showing the mask, and/or holding down ALT it can be helpful in seperating that sky from those trees, play with it

[lecycliste]

This works fantastically well. Thanks for the suggestion. 

[lecycliste]

That is, masking/painting the entire frame with a brush (type K) then choosing Subtract and next choosing Select Sky gives you a mask including everything *exceot* sky. Works fantastically well. 

[johnrellis]

"That is, masking/painting the entire frame with a brush (type K) then choosing Subtract and next choosing Select Sky gives you a mask including everything *exceot* sky. Works fantastically well."

An easier way: Add a Select Sky mask. Right-click the mask and do Invert.

[GoldingD]

My take, slightly different

Apply a local adjustment, either the Adjustment Brush, the Graduated Filter, or less likely the Radial Filter

If using the Adjustment Brush, do not enable Auto Mask

Using the Adjustment Brush, apply it to the area you need to cover, you do not need to be carefull. Then turn the Range Mask on, typically select Color, select your color using the target tool (eyedropper) avoiding any sky. You can either click/drag for an area, or Shift clcik to define multiple color samples. Might need to use the erase. Remeber to click on O to see the mask. To make a huge mask, instead of dragging it all over the place, Zoom out first.

Using the Gradiant Filter, in an diferent way. Instead of draging from top to bottom, clcik near a corner, say the top left corner and drag diaganoly out. THis creates a mas where the gradiant occurs outside the frame, inside the frame is one solid mask. Some find this quicker when you want a big mask. Turn that Range Mask on, select color, etc..  Note for Erash, you need to click on the brush tab. (might want to turn Auto Mask on for Erase)

Using Radial Filter, not my practice

[JohanElzenga]

Another thing to remember is that you can use the color sampler to select colors for a range mask in two ways. First, you can simply click. Shift-click adds another color sample, the maximum is five samples. You can also drag a rectangle rather than just click however. Every color inside that rectangle will be selected that way, and again you can do this up to five times. That should make it possible to select all colors in the landscape, except the blue sky.

[GoldingD]

Should have included some how to links:

Learn How to Use the FANTASTIC Range Mask Feature in Lightroom Classic 7! - YouTube

How to Use The Range Mask on Landscapes and Portraits - YouTube

[tbuguk]

davidg, you're a genius - dragging the graduated filter out from the image is something I hadn't thought of.  And thanks for reminding me about the ALT-range slider.  Thanks - you've saved many hours of my life.