Color banding masks are nothing new in Lightroom. However, they have become increasingly powerful over the past few years and you should absolutely use them in your work.
There’s a lot you can do with a gradient mask that’s more than simply changing the color. In this video, I explain why color gamut is more flexible than using HSL panels, how to use intersection or subtraction masks to enhance your image, or the ability to adjust haze in your image. your photos in a more natural way. This tool is often overlooked, I blame myself, but with the recent changes to Lightroom’s masking interface, I find it a lot more intuitive to use.
While my work is purely nature-based, there are a lot of use cases for using gradient masks for objects in your photos. Imagine you use a subject or subject selection mask to brighten someone in your photo, but a colored garment is becoming distracting, This is the perfect use case for the face color band mask.
It can even work in your black and white conversions if you want more control over certain colors instead of using the standard black and white balance found in Lightroom. Watch the video and try it on a photo you might have trouble with. I would love to see your results in the comments section below.
