Lightroom’s new AI masking tools let you target areas like sky, mountains, water, and buildings in your photos without spending time painting masks by hand. If you’re working with images that mix natural and manmade elements, these features let you adjust only the areas you want. You can brighten a sky, sharpen a building, or bring out color in a patch of grass, without the usual hassle of doing it all manually.
Coming to you from Phil Steele of Steele Training, this practical video covers Lightroom’s AI landscape masking panel and what it can do for you. The big idea is simple: Lightroom’s masking tool can now spot categories like sky, architecture, vegetation, water, and both natural and artificial ground. The software detects these elements in your photo automatically, so you don’t have to select them pixel by pixel. If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated when certain AI masks are grayed out, Steele explains the main culprit: old process versions on your imported images. When you see a lightning bolt below the histogram, you just need to update the process version, which re-enables all the new AI tools.
The video shows how the AI doesn’t always get it perfect. For instance, in a sample image, the sky mask spills over onto a statue, and the architecture mask misses parts of the statue. You get to see how to correct these mistakes, either by painting with a brush or by using Lightroom’s “select subject” and “subtract subject” options. Instead of painstakingly painting every mask, you use quick shortcuts to add or remove sections, letting Lightroom’s AI figure out most of the work. The power here is in the ability to combine manual touchups with automated selection, keeping your workflow efficient and reducing the time spent on each photo.
Steele also walks through adjusting the different zones once the masks are cleaned up. He uses the sky mask to add dehaze and reduce exposure, then applies noise reduction only to the sky area. The architecture mask gets an increase in clarity and a bump in shadow detail, so you can pull out more from darker parts of buildings. For vegetation, the adjustments focus on increasing shadow and saturation just enough to make greens pop without making them look fake. You’ll notice that with these targeted adjustments, you can quickly bring out more drama and realism in your image, instead of using broad, one-size-fits-all changes that affect the entire photo.
There’s more in the video about the limitations of the AI and extra tips for fixing tough masking problems. You also see the before-and-after results to judge for yourself how much these tools can speed up your editing. If you want more control over your edits without spending all night at your computer, this breakdown is worth a look. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Steele.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, "Photographing the World: Japan II - Discovering Hidden Gems with Elia Locardi!”
I was somewhat excited when this got released, but it's needs some requirement. It works in some instances but in other instances it doesn't work. I tried using the landscape profile just as a straight profile... it very much comes out with that velvia look - too saturated. In terms of the masking it does an okay job in some instances but if you've got complex stuff in the foreground it will miss those. The sky mask hasn't changed and that's actually reasonably accurate but again I use linear gradient instead of these type of things, but it's good that they are adding things I'm not being critical. I'm glad they are adding things and if it works in certain instances that's good.