Hi everyone! Adobe snuck a new masking feature in to Camera Raw recently. It’s based on the Depth Range feature that’s been around for a while but chances are that you’ve never seen anyone talk about it because it wasn’t available for most of your photos.
But that’s changed in the most recent update a couple of weeks ago. Now you can create a Depth Range mask for all of your photos and it can be a fun tool to help work with things in your photo from a depth perspective (front, middle, back).
We’ll take a much deeper look in to this feature in this week’s video. Enjoy!
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I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
My conception of depth masks was akin to the focus range [areas in and out of focus] on whatever camera and lens along with the exposure that one is using. This depth mask appears to be giving the appearance of depth through the manipulation of light and color. It seems, to me, to be a shortcut. Instead of using the other methods of masking, which probably take longer, this method appears to be doing it with a couple of clicks and slider adjustments. Am I missing something?
Hi Gene. I’m not totally sure what you’re asking. It’s not a shortcut compared to other tools. Each tool has a purpose and none of them have a purpose of selecting depth like this tool does. And as I say in most of my masking videos… there are 10 ways to do the same thing. Thanks.
Thank you for the info! I was having a hard time understanding Depth Masks.
You are the Best teacher Matt! I’ve been using your courses for years and really appreciate your style of teaching. I get so many valuable tidbits from you – THANKS!
Thank you. Very clear.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the informative video.
I can see a lot of potential in this, but I hope Adobe take it a stage further and allow us to create a mask from the depth map, would be a lot more useful, unless there’s already a way to do this?
Matt – thanks for this. You are such a clear explainer without annoying loud background music which some people seem to think is absolutely necessary.
Hello,
I need to know about Adding Depth in my photos
Thanks
Thanks for that. I will give it a try
Excellent demonstration.
very good video hopefully it will get to Lightroom Classic soon
As usual, a well-prepared, well-delivered, helpful video. Thanks Matt!
Thanks Matt, I love your video’s, always well made and instructive.
Thanks for bringing this new feature to my attention, must have missed this in the Photoshop updates announcement. Seems that they are following the introduction of this feature in On1 and Luminar. Will you be upgrading your masking course to include this?
Hi. I will upgrade the course when it’s available for Lightroom as well. Thanks.
Thanks. I’m also interested in that update.
Thanks for bringing this new feature to my attention, must have missed this in the Photoshop updates announcement. Seems that they are following the introduction of this feature in On1 and Luminar. Will you be upgrading your masking course to include this?
Another great teaching video Matt. Coupled with the adjustments you have explained in your newest Masking Course one can indeed remain in ACR for almost every adjustment necessary. No “destructive” editing needed.
I appreciate the time and effort that you take to bring these teaching videos to all of us.
Thanks!
Will take some experimentation to get full understanding of how best to use this tool but i can see where it can be very useful.
Thanks for a brilliant introduction to this new feature, Matt.
Great instructional Matt, thanks!
Very cool, and thanks for the great (as always) explanation. Even though I don’t use PhotoShop, this is way cool — can’t wait until this becomes part of LightRoom!
Excellent! Clear and concise, showing useful applications of this new feature.
You instructions and explanations are abundantly easy to follow and enjoyable. I appreciate you so much. I’m going to get your masking course now. Thank you, Matt.
So less need of using Luminar NEO as plug-in in the future
Isn’t it just as easy to use a brush to brush the area at the targeted depth level that you see with your eyes?