Update 04-18-2023 — Camera Raw now offers the ability to use AI/ML to automatically generate two new types of people masks based on facial hair (beard & mustache) and clothes.
- There are three new presets in the Adaptive Portrait preset group: Darken Beard, Polished Portrait, and Enhance Clothes.
- The Eye icon (the Toggle Visibility button) was added to the Masking tool’s Light, Color, Curves, Effects, and Detail sections.
- The Brush tool displays a preview when adjusting the size and feather sliders. Note: the Healing tools also displays previews when adjusting sliders.
—
Update 12-12-2022 — In Camera Raw v15.1, to prevent the Masks panel from toggling between showing and hiding the panel when edits are made to the image (e.g. brushing, scrubbing adjustments, etc.), click the More icon (the three dots) at the bottom of the Masks panel and disable “Auto Hide Masking Panel”.
—
Discover how to take your photographs to the next level by enhancing selective areas of an image. In this video, Julieanne Kost shares tips, tricks, and techniques for making the most out of Adobe Camera Raw’s new masking tools including automated selections based on Adobe Sensei (Select Subject, Object, Sky, People, and Background), manual painting tools (brush, eraser, linear and radial gradients), and Range Masking (color, luminance, and depth). She also walks through Syncing, Copy/Paste, and using Adaptive Presets – all guaranteed to make your workflow more efficient. And, be sure to check out the masking shortcuts below!
Masking and Local Adjustments Tool Shortcuts
- Tap M to select the mask options.
- Drag the grabber handle to relocate the Mask panel or, drag and drop it into the Adjustment panel to dock it with the panel.
- After creating an initial mask, tap “N” to create a new mask of the same type as the currently selected component. Use the Shift key to add a new Brush, Linear Gradient, or Radial Gradient component and Option (Mac ) | Alt (Win) to subtract a component. For example, Shift + K adds a brush component to the current mask, and Option +K (Mac ) | Alt +K (Win) subtracts a brush component from the current mask.
- Hold Shift to toggle the Add and Subtract buttons in the masks panel to Intersect (or, use the More Options icon (…) to select the “Intersect Mask With” command). Note: Intersect automatically creates a mask component in Subtract + Invert mode.
- By default, Camera Raw resets the sliders for each new adjustment. To keep the same adjustments, at the bottom of the Masks Settings panel, uncheck the “Reset Sliders Automatically” option.
- Command + Option + R (Mac) | Control + Alt + R (Win) resets the adjustment sliders options for the tool.
- Tap “X” to invert a mask.
- Use the “Preset” drop-down menu (in the Mask Setting panel) to save presets for frequently used settings.
- Use the Amount Slider to decrease/increase the slider adjustments for a mask (each slider will be adjusted relative to it’s setting).
- Press the Delete key to delete the selected mask component.
- Command + Option -drag (Mac) | Control + Alt -drag (Win) the pin to duplicate the adjustment.
- Right -click (Control -click on Mac) the selected adjustment’s pin to select additional options from the context sensitive menu.
- Y toggles the visibility of the Mask overlay. Shift+ Y cycles through the different mask overlays (Color, Color Overlay on B&W, Image on B&W etc.).
- To temporarily display the mask overlay, hover the cursor on top of the adjustment tool’s pin in the image area or over the mask thumbnail in the Masks panel. When a mask contains multiple components (brush + graduated filter for example), hovering the cursor over the individual component’s mask will display the mask for that specific tool while hovering the cursor over the composite mask’s thumbnail will display the mask created by combining all of the individual components (tools) with in the mask.
- V toggles the visibility of mask pins and tools. In images that have more than one mask, Option + V (Mac) | Alt + V (Win) toggles Show Unselected Mask Pins.
- To quickly select another mask (without having to use the Masks panel), press the “A” key to temporarily display the pins for unselected masks, and click on the desired mask pin.
- To delete all masks, click the reset icon in the upper right of the Masks panel.
When using the Brush Tool (K):
- “[“ or “]” (left/right brackets) decreases/increases brush size. Add the Shift key to decrease/increase the feather (edge softness). Or, Control -drag left/right to decrease/increase the brush size. Control + Shift -drag left/right to decrease/increase the feather (edge softness).
- Flow sets the speed at which the brush applies the adjustment. Lowering the Flow amount enables a slower build up of an effect and can reduce the number of individual pins needed to modify an image as one can apply different amounts of the same adjustment in different areas without having to create a new pin for each different amount. Tap “+ “ (plus) or “-” (minus) to increase/decrease Flow.
- Density caps the amount of the adjustment that can be applied (even with multiple strokes). Use the numeric keys on the keyboard to change the Density amount. Tapping one number assigns the percentage of the hit number (1 = 10%, 2= 20% etc. and 0 = 100%). Tapping two numbers quickly will give you that exact amount (5 + 4 = 54%).
- Hold Option (Mac) | Alt (Win) to toggle between the Brush and the Eraser. To keep the brush and eraser size the same, click the More icon (the three dots) at the top of the Brush panel and disable “Separate Eraser Size” .
- Shift -drag constrains the Brush to a straight line. Click once, then shift -click to have Camera Raw draw between the two points. Note: You can change brush attributes between the first and second clicks and Camera Raw will interpolate between the different settings.
- Tap “W” to toggle the Auto Mask option (Auto Mask detects edges based on contrast and color to help apply adjustments to a selective area).
- Camera Raw supports pressure-sensitive devices such as Wacom and Microsoft Surface Pro tablets. Pressure applied to the pen affects the Flow. Turning the pen over and using the “eraser” side automatically switches the brush to the eraser mode (if your pen supports this feature).
When using the Linear Gradient (G):
- Drag the center pin to reposition the gradient. Shift -drag the center pin to constrain the movement to the horizontal or vertical direction.
- Shift -drag the rotate icon snaps the rotation to 15-degree increments.
- Tap “X” to reverse the direction of the linear gradient.
When using the Radial Gradient (J):
- Drag the center pin to reposition the gradient. Shift -drag the center pin to constrain the movement to the horizontal or vertical direction.
- Shift -drag constrains the gradient to a circle.
- Shift -dragging any of the four handles of an existing Radial Gradient will preserve the aspect ratio of the ellipse.
- Shift -dragging the boundary of an existing Radial Gradient constrains the rotation to 15-degree increments.
- You can drag a Radial Gradient beyond the image area.
- When first adding a Radial Gradient, double-click in the image area to set the bounding box of the Radial filter to “Fill” the image bounds.
When using the Range Mask features:
Tap Shift + C to select Color Range. Use the Color Range option to create a selection based on the colors in an image.
- To select the desired range of colors to adjust:
- Click to sample a color.
- Shift-click to sample up to 5 colors.
- Shift-drag to sample an area of colors.
- Option -drag (Mac) | Alt -drag (Win) the Refine slider to preview the targeted range as a greyscale mask in the image area.
Tap Shift + L to select Luminance Range. Use the Luminance Range option to create a selection based on the brightness values in an image.
- To select the desired range of values to adjust:
- Use the eyedropper tool to select a specific value.
- Use the eyedropper tool to drag-select a range of values.
- Use the Luminance Range interface (in the panel) and drag to resize and/or reposition the rectangle to define the range that is being effected. The area within the rectangle will be fully adjusted. To avoid abrupt transitions between the areas that are adjusted and those that are not, drag the vertical line (the outer marker) to adjust the smoothness of the fall off (how quickly the selection transitions from the selected tonal range to the unselected range).
- Option -drag (Mac) |Alt -drag (Win) the in the Luminance range options to see the Luminance map in the image area (or enable Show Luminance Map in the panel track).
Tap Shift + D to select Depth Range. Use the Depth Range option to create a selection in an image based on the distance from the camera. Note: Depth Range is only available only for those photos that have embedded depth map data. As of now, this is limited to HEIC files captured on Apple iPhone using the Portrait mode. If there is no available depth info for an image, the Depth Range option is disabled.
- To select the desired depth range to adjust:
- Use the eyedropper tool to sample a single area.
- Click-drag with the eyedropper to sample a depth range.
- Use the Depth Range interface to select the area to be masked. The area within the rectangle will be adjusted. To avoid abrupt transitions between the areas that are adjusted and those that are not, drag the vertical line to adjust the fade range.
Navigating the Masks panel:
- Option + up/down arrow (Mac) | Alt + up/down arrow (Win) targets the mask above/below. When you reach the top or bottom of the list, it will wrap around. If a mask only has a single component, it will be selected automatically.
- If a mask has more than one component, use Option + right Arrow | Alt + right arrow (Win) to select the first component. Then, use Option + up/down arrow (Mac) | Alt + up/down arrow (Win) to move through the components
- Deselect the selected mask or component by pressing Option + left arrow (Mac) | Alt + left arrow (Win).
- Hold Option + Y (Mac) | Alt + Y (Win) to temporarily enable the mask overlay for the currently selected mask component. Note: this shortcut can be combined with the up/down arrow keys to display the mask overlay while targeting different masks.
When Copying and Pasting Masks:
- When you copy and paste a mask to a different image, if the destination image has any masks, you will have the option to Merge the masks (add the pasted masks to the existing masks) or replace the masks (deleting any existing masks).
- When copying/pasting AI driven masks (Select Subject, Sky, Background, Objects, and People) masks from one image to another, the masks will be recomputed automatically.
Saving Masks as Presets
- Masks can be saved in presets. AI driven masks (Select Subject, Sky, Background, Objects, and People) will be recomputed automatically. .
- When presets that include masks are applied to images, the masks are additive (they won’t replace existing masks).
- Masks that include AI/ML masks (Select Subject, Sky, Background, Objects and People can not be applied during the Import process nor in the Raw Default Settings.
Presets
- Masks can be saved in presets. AI driven masks (Select Subject, Sky, Background, Objects and People) masks will be recomputed automatically. If there are masks in the image prior to adding a preset, the masks will be merged.
- When presets that include masks are applied to images, the masks are additive (masks will always be added, they won’t replace existing masks).
- Masks that include AI/ML masks (Select Subject, Sky, Background, Objects and People can not be applied as Raw Default Settings.
Click here (225+ Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks for Adobe Camera Raw) for more information on Camera Raw.
