P: (Masking) Enable a pen tool to local adjustments

[Jeena22389650a1ho]

this would be a huge help. The auto mask feature is sometimes very useful, but other times, I felt myself weighing the pro's and cons of bringing the image into photoshop simply to be able to use the pen tool. I really wish Adobe would consider bringing the pen tool to the LR adjustment brush menu's

Thanks

[richardplondon]

I would be very surprised. 

What could be practically done with such a pen drawn boundary in LrC? You still could not separate areas for layer compositing as you can in PS, and there is no transparency possible as there is in PS. All a pen method could contribute within LrC AFAICT, would be achieving a different character of edge as the boundary for a local adjustment. There would still not be any kind of a "cut line" within what's produced.  

IMO Photoshop is, and will continue to be, the natural home within the Adobe ecosystem for all such matters and techniques (with Illustrator perhaps).

[Conrad_C]

[edit, 2023] I upvoted this…I know the struggle. Even with the AI masks, sometimes it’s a major hassle to try and select a specific window that’s shaped like a perfect rectangle, for example, when an AI tool always wants to select bits of something else and won’t let them go. This can lead to time-consuming rounds of Add or Subtract to get it right. In cases where something could be selected with a few clicks with a simple polygon or Pen tool, it would be great if the trip to Photoshop could be avoided.

Just keep in mind that the way they add features is not because of any single criterion like upvotes; they are always weighing the priority of feature requests relative to market demand, other feature requests with higher priority, features to add because the competition has them, bugs to fix, and so on.

It’s possible the Lightroom team doesn’t want to burden photo editors with the learning curve of the traditional Pen tool. If that is the case, they might consider the simpler Pen tools that other Adobe teams are looking into, such as the Curvature Pen tool in Photoshop, or the new Quick Pen tool in the Illustrator on the Web beta.

[Earth Oliver]

Sorry, but that probably will never happen. 

[BenWilliams]

My Challenge & Possible Feature

Lightroom has some great masking features, however In my experience, the masking in Lightroom is often far from accurate. I'm layering masks, subtracting a mask and adding another mask often to get a straight line and tbh it seems a lot of effort - especially on clean shapes like the products I sometimes get. A path masking tool with anchor points and feathering in my head makes so much more sense on many scenarios I use Lightroom for and would save no end of time - perhaps I'm not the only one?

Maybe I'm missing a way of working that generates clean lines, and I am always happy to take some recommendations on a way of doing something better - or if I've missed a way that will change my Lightroom masking life please let me know!

[Sean McCormack]

@BenWilliams While I am a pen lover, I don't hold out hope on this.. 

However, if it's lines you want, use the Brush. Click your first point and then Shift click your end point. Lightroom will create a clean line between these with an edge based on your Feather. 

[richardplondon]

For more or less distinct edged product photographs, one technique to consider could be using Automask on the brush tool. When activated and the brush is dragged, results are blocky and not very useful IMO. But when the brush radius is increased a series of individual dabs (single clicks without dragging the mouse, referring particularly to the small crosshairs in the middle of the brush circle preview) can quickly built up a quite good mask in my experience. Adding and erasing based on similar colours inside and outside the desired area, also painting or erasing without automask as tweaks or infills are needed. The underlying image's adjustments can be temporarily made more contrasty if that helps AutoMask to detect the appropriate boundary, and then put back to their former appearance.

One especially nice part of this method IMO is that however a subject edge appears locally blurry or crisp in the photo, that variety of character will be naturally and directly reflected in the area masking that is made.

Without having laboriously worked your way around each area perimeter varying the feather!