Masking people in Lightroom: Faces, features & skin smoothing too

New tools in Lightroom Classic’s Develop module make selections for adjusting everything from skin to lips, eyebrows, and eye whites to whitening teeth one-click easy. Here’s an overview.

The opening photo of actor Tiffany Dupont looks like it has undergone a full treatement in retouching from skin smoothing to hair and eye enhancements in Photoshop.

Nope. It all happpens in the latest version of Lightroom Classic. First, here’s a look at how Masking finds and selects individuals in groups.

New interface

Click the Masking icon in the Develop module. There are three new icons — Subject, Sky and Background. When people are in the photo new icons appear under the People section; small circles with each detected person in the picture.

Selection choice

Click a circle to select a person. Use Add People to select others. There are more masks for eyes, brows, lips, teeths and skin. Those are shown in depth after this setion. the The red overlay will be masked after Create Mask is clicked.

The masking is very good. They aren’t all perfect. It’s easy to make them that way. Roll over a mask in the Masks panel to show the person it represents. Mask 2 is for the guy with part of his hair and arm not in the selection. Click the Mask 2 icon then click Add to show the tools menu. Pick the Brush. Size it with the bracket keys ( [ ] ) then brush until the selection is complete.

Check the rest of the masks adding or subtracting until the selection is complete. The brush’s auto edge detection makes this simple.

Face selections

Being able to single out individuals for adjustments is cool. The selections this new masking tool makes for faces and skin is almost something out of science fiction. This photograph of actor Tiffany Dupont is perfect for showing how well they work and how fast thea are to use.

A click on the Mask icon puts the tool to work. First, it sees that there’s a person in the image. A circle with Tiffany’s face appears with the label Person 1. A click on that opens all of the mask options. Uncheck Entire Person now let’s see the available masks.

Face Skin selects the skin on a face without including eyes, brows, lips or teeth. The skin can be lightend or darkened, warmed up with the Temperature control or softened by lowering the Texture. Please! Please do not use negative Clairty. It looks so very wrong.

Body Skin masks skin that’s not on the face. Adjustments to the face can be added to the rest of the body’s skin.

Eyebrows are selected and masked alone. Heavy dark eyebrows can be lightened up by increasing the Shadows slider.

Eye Sclera is the medical term for the whites of the eye. Never brighten these unless the wanted result belongs in an alien creation. If there is a color issue, lower the saturation.

Iris and Pupil is a huge timesaver. Adding some positive value to the Shadow control will brighten the irises and make the eyes more of the window to the soul they are meant to be. Remember it doesn’t take a lot to get a great result.

Lips can be colored with the hue slider. If the change is too much, tick the Fine Adjustment box. Saturation, Vibrance, Whites and Blacks are good options. Soften them by lowering the Texture.

Teeth are like the eye whites. Lower Saturation to remove discoloration. Add some highlight to lighten them up. Don’t make them look like a whitening toothpaste advertisement though.

Hair! I love this one. Darker hair often blocks up and looses detail. Pump up Shadows to get more detail. Give Clairity a shot. For lighter hair, take a look at making ist more golden with the Temperature control or even use Color.

All of the face parts, hair and body sking are checked. A new box shows up saying Create 8 separate masks. Click Create Mask.

Putting them all together

Face Skin and Body Skin

The first image has the face skin Texture control lowered. The body skin is slightly darker by lowering the Highlights.

Eyebrows, Eye Sclera, Irises and Pupils

Tiffany’s eyebrows have been darkened by lowering both the Shadows and teh Blacks. Her Eye Sclera is desaturated sightly. The Irises and Pupils have increased Shadows.

Lips and Teeth

Her lips are softened with a lower texture setting. The Hue is moved to a pinker setting. Her teeth are desaturated just bit and lightend by adding some Highlights.

Hair

Hair is a play ground. Here Tiffany’s hair is warmed up by adding Temperature. It gets some added Shadows, higher Texture a little more Clarity finishes the look.

Before and after

The photograph on the left is straight out of the camera. The one on the right is with each mask individually tweaked.

This is an incredibly fast way to make non-destructive adjustments in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom and in Camera Raw in Bridge and Photoshop. I love this upgrade. What do you think? Tell me in the comments!