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Unleashed Edit: Masking Angel

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Photographing your subject against the sky can give you real challenges when it comes to exposure. Often you have to choose whether to expose for the subject, or expose for the sky. But what if there's another solution?

Editing the sky and the subject independently then combining the two is a good solution, but it relies on following two golden rules, to make it look believable - the most important of them being accurate masking. In this tutorial, learn how to mask the subject using two different methods.

Please note: this tutorial uses a previous version of Lightroom that does not have the improved masking tools of version 11 and onwards. The new tools make the masking process much faster, but give a similar result in terms of quality.

Instructor: Charlotte Reeves

Video length: 25 minutes

Software: Lightroom and Photoshop

Skill level: Intermediate

What you'll learn

  • The one thing you need to do when shooting so you can have the best of both worlds when it comes to perfect exposure of sky and subject
  • Two golden rules when creating believable edits of dogs and skies

Lightroom

  • Analysing the histogram to make sure all the tones in the scene are present
  • Using Lightroom’s (pre-version 11) masking tools to select the sky
  • Creating different editing effects for the subject and the sky
  • Why you should give yourself a reality check when doing this style of edit
  • Evaluating the masking quality
  • When and how to use Virtual Copies
  • Why you should build your Photoshop edit using multiple exports from Lightroom

Photoshop

  • A step by step guide to masking fur in Photoshop using Select and Mask
  • Combining multiple exposures to create an exposure composite
  • Tips for blending multiple exposure layers for a more natural result
  • How attention to detail can make a big difference to the finished result
  • Which program do you get a better masking result in - Lightroom or Photoshop?
  • The crucial things you need to consider when deciding which technique to use

Unleashed Edit: Masking Angel

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  • 25 minute professionally-produced editing tutorial video
  • RAW file to download and play along at home with
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