Black and White & Creative Image Editing in Lightroom - Black and White in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Lightroom - page 184

Auto Masking
The Auto Mask feature in the Adjustment Brush tool can automatically create
and apply masks for the image as you paint with the Adjustment Brush tool.
As you click with the Adjustment Brush on the image, the Masking feature
analyzes the color and tone of the image area and applies the ef ect to only
those areas that match the same tone and color. By i nding the edges of an
area, the tool essentially tries to keep the adjustment contained within the
boundaries of the active painting area.
The Auto Mask feature can continuously resample image data as you paint
with the brush, recalculating the mask as you work. Several brush strokes in a
row will be linked into what is called a pin group, allowing the brush strokes
applied to be based on varying color samples.
Although this feature works best with high contrast edges and with images
that have clearly dei ned areas/regions, and not so well otherwise, it is
pretty cool to be able to make adjustments such as dodging and burning in
Lightroom. Again, Photoshop is far more powerful and ef ective with Masking
tools and features, but I appreciate how easy this feature makes some
adjustments.
The fundamental dif erence between Lightroom and Photoshop in this
implementation is that Photoshop allows the capacity for an individual “layer”
system for each adjustment, like dodge, burn, or contrast for example, while
Lightroom uses “point-based regions” for each adjustment. In Lightroom, this
means that every time you make a “new” adjustment it creates a “point”, which
is a little white dot around which that brush stroke adjustment is based. This is
essentially the anchor for the adjustment region, and you simply paint on the
adjustment you want.
You can also switch to the erase brush with the same controls (Feather,
Softness, etc…) or simply toggle it by holding the Option/Alt key.
Each “pinned” region becomes another adjustment on the image that can be
changed/rei ned at any point in time by selecting “edit”.
When you hover the mouse over a “pin”, the masked area is revealed in red,
like Quick Mask in Photoshop. However, this comes up only while you are
hovering over it and does not stay active for editing. Sometimes it is really
essential to be able to i ne-tune the edges of your adjustment area, and it is
dii cult to do this in Lightroom without having an Overlay View as Photoshop
provides.
In the following example I was able to apply dodging and burning techniques
to Jamie, the i sherman, as well as to larger areas in the background without
bleeding my adjustments into the sky areas or into the i sherman. The Auto
Mask feature worked remarkably well at auto-selecting areas of this image
based on color and contrast, but I did still need to i ne-tune the edges. This