Streamline Your Workflow With Lightroom Masking Presets

Creating custom presets in Lightroom Classic can significantly streamline your editing workflow, especially for repetitive tasks like enhancing eye details in portraits. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to create your own.

Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this concise video demonstrates how to create a masking preset in Lightroom Classic. By developing a preset, you can automate the application of specific adjustments, such as enhancing the irises in a portrait, which Morganti shows in detail. This approach not only speeds up your editing process but also ensures that each adjustment is applied uniformly across multiple photos. Morganti explains how to tweak existing presets to suit your personal style, adding a touch of customization that can elevate the quality of your work.

In the video, Morganti uses a portrait of his son to illustrate the process. He starts by making basic adjustments to the photo, such as modifying highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks, and using the remove tool to clear up skin imperfections. He then dives into the masking tool, selecting the irises and pupils for enhancement. While Lightroom Classic offers a default "Iris Enhance" preset, Morganti prefers to add more texture and sharpening to achieve a more striking effect. By creating a custom preset with these additional adjustments, he ensures that future edits can be done quickly and consistently, saving valuable time during extensive editing sessions, such as those required for wedding photography.

Morganti’s method for creating a custom preset is straightforward. After applying and tweaking the initial adjustments, he saves the current settings as a new preset, which can then be applied to any similar mask in future edits. This approach is particularly useful for photographers who frequently perform the same types of enhancements and want to ensure consistency and efficiency in their workflow.

Moreover, the video emphasizes the importance of personalizing your presets to match your editing style. Morganti demonstrates how a simple tweak to the default settings can result in a significantly improved look, tailored to your specific preferences. This customization ensures that your edits stand out and maintain a professional quality, even when done quickly. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Morganti.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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