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Lightroom Tutorial: Sky Reflection Masking Trick for Dreamy Lake Edits

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Lightroom Tutorial: Sky Reflection Masking Trick for Dreamy Lake Edits

Clip title: I bet You Didnt Know THIS MASKIING TRICK - Lightroom Tutorial Author / channel: Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8ciK5hNgI

Summary

This video provides a detailed Adobe Lightroom Classic tutorial on editing a scenic lake and boat photograph captured during a misty sunrise or sunset. The main topic revolves around transforming a somewhat flat, cool-toned image into a vibrant, warm, and dreamy scene, with a particular highlight on an ingenious masking technique to accurately target and adjust sky reflections in the water. The instructor demonstrates a comprehensive workflow, starting from initial clean-up to advanced color grading.

The editing process begins with basic global adjustments. The image’s profile is changed to “Adobe Landscape” for enhanced vibrancy. Exposure is subtly lowered, while highlights are slightly dropped, and shadows and blacks are significantly brightened to recover detail in darker areas, creating a softer, less contrasty base. To further achieve a soft, glowing aesthetic, texture, clarity, and dehaze are reduced, while vibrance is increased to make colors pop. This initial phase sets a warmer, more intense color palette and a dreamlike quality before moving into targeted local adjustments.

The core of the tutorial focuses on advanced masking. A notable trick involves leveraging Lightroom’s “Select Sky” AI to adjust the reflection in the water. By temporarily flipping the image vertically, using “Select Sky” on the now-inverted image (which makes the reflection appear as the sky), and then flipping it back, the editor gains a mask specifically for the water’s reflection. This allows for independent adjustments to the reflection’s exposure and temperature, ensuring it harmonizes with the enhanced sky. Other local masks are created for the lower part of the sky (brightened and warmed with tone curve adjustments), vegetation (given slight contrast and warmth), the water (sharpened and made slightly warmer), the boat (brightened and warmed), and the very top portion of the sky (darkened to add depth).

Finally, the video covers sophisticated color grading and sharpening. Through the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) panel, specific color ranges like oranges, blues, and purples are fine-tuned to deepen the sunset/sunrise tones and enhance the atmospheric quality. Split toning is then applied, introducing warm orange hues to the highlights and cool cyan tones to the midtones, creating a visually pleasing color contrast. Calibration adjustments further refine the blue primary hues and saturation, followed by strategic sharpening in the details panel to bring out definition without introducing harshness. The conclusion showcases a dramatic before-and-after, highlighting the significant transformation achieved through a combination of global edits, targeted masking, and intricate color work, with the reflection-masking trick standing out as a particularly clever and impactful technique.

Video Description & Links

Description

Have you ever tried masking the reflection of the sky in water? With a simple trick thats possibil using a regular sky mask and its super easy to do!

Website http://www.the-phlog.com

0:00 Intro 0:25 Removing Tree Branches 0:52 Basic Adjustments 2:25 Masking 4:19 Sky Mask Trick 5:41 More Masking 7:55 Color Grading 9:54 Sharpening

Tags

photography, photoshop tutorial, lightroom tutorial, photography post processing, lightroom post processing, landscape photography, landscape post processing, photoshop beginner, lightroom for beginner, the phlog photography, christian möhrle, how to edit raw photos, raw photo start to finish, adobe lightroom classic class, adobe photoshop class

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