Auto masking in Adobe bridge: I have to thank all who have commented on prior posts . Got me realizing, I was missing something. I have been using bridge for a gazillion years and...

linda lagace

I have to thank all who have commented on prior posts . Got me realizing, I was missing something. I have been using bridge for a gazillion years and never noticed it's masking tool!!!!!!!!. Self taught and there are a lot of holes but my advice ALWAYS CHECK UPDATES in your software (and camera and lens ) for that matter

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

Same advice goes for Lightroom and Photoshop. There are those who would be very surprised at how much better both programs are from just a few short years ago.

linda lagace

fredpnm wrote:

Same advice goes for Lightroom and Photoshop. There are those who would be very surprised at how much better both programs are from just a few short years ago.

Maybe it's time for a quick review for me on their latest tutorials.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

When I first tried masking in LR recently I thought it was kind of crude. It would select things I didn't want selected. But I recently found out that it can mask individual people in a group. Not only that, you can mask the whole person, just the face, just the eyes, eyebrows, pupils, combinations of things, all sorts of fine tuning. Worth playing with a bit.

I don't use Bridge much so I haven't tried it there.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

linda lagace wrote:

Maybe it's time for a quick review for me on their latest tutorials.

Lets us know what you think after viewing some of the various videos on YouTube.

The Aardvark Is Ready

linda lagace wrote:

I have to thank all who have commented on prior posts . Got me realizing, I was missing something. I have been using bridge for a gazillion years and never noticed it's masking tool!!!!!!!!. Self taught and there are a lot of holes but my advice ALWAYS CHECK UPDATES in your software (and camera and lens ) for that matter

Are you sure you don't mean Camera Raw? I wasn't aware Bridge had any tools.

linda lagace

The Aardvark Is Ready wrote:

Are you sure you don't mean Camera Raw? I wasn't aware Bridge had any tools.

I subscribe to Adobe (the basic 9.99 per month). The options I have are bridge and Photoshop. It is possible that once I open my raw files in bridge it actually edits in an embedded camera raw. I have never seen a choice for camera raw , I just assumed my raw file manager automatically edits in raw. So it's always been confusing to me when people talk about camera raw???

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Older Windows computers have "Windows Movie Maker".

Newer Windows computers have "ClipChamp".

Apple computers have "iMovie".

If you have it, Lightroom Classic will trim video clips.

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

Linda, If you have the Bridge/Photoshop pair, then opening a raw file sends you to Adobe Camera Raw.

Now, if you want to have fun with the masking that provides, look at the options it presents. You can invert masks so you can apply local adjustments to everything else. More powerfully, check out the option "intersect mask" with.... and chose "luminence range". A very slick way to get luminosity masking and without the layers mess. So, you can use a broad brush over a zone and then dial in specialized local adjustments only those portions of the zone that fall with a range of brightnesses that you specify.

linda lagace

Orphoto wrote:

Linda, If you have the Bridge/Photoshop pair, then... (show quote)

I just found this out the other day. Now I will hardly need ps at all. Most of what I need, I can do in bridge or raw. The easier masking helps when doing bright egrets or dark ibis or contrasting stilts.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

linda lagace wrote:

So it's always been confusing to me when people talk about camera raw???

Let me ask a few questions...I assume you shoot your own photos, what camera and file format have you told the camera to save your images in? For example, JPG or your camera's RAW format?

When you edit the photos in Bridge what file extension are the images, .jpg, .tif, or your camera's RAW format?

By the way, since you already are an adobe subscriber and want to use Lightroom, which is included, you will want the Classic version - Lightroom Classic. That version has everything on your computer and not the cloud.

linda lagace

I only shoot raw. The extension for sony raw is arw while the extension for nikon is nef. When I edit , I usually keep my files in raw format so I can go back and re-edit later without any loss of info. I only bother converting my best pics to jpegs so I can easily share them on slideshows, my weebly web site, emails etc. I am happy using bridge and camera raw and, while I could, I don't feel the need to switch to Lightroom. But I am especially happy to find the masking tool in camera raw. Its very very easy to mask in camera raw without going through the layers in ps.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

The masking option is ACR/LR is a superb tool and I quite regularly use it where I want to lift the shadows or a minor exp lift on the entire human subject leaving the background as is. What I did find is that there is a significant difference in its selection accuracy between the two methods that can be used with people.

Below is an example using an image where the subject had been underexposed by near 1.5 stops. The left was masked using just the 'Create New Mask - Select Subject'. The right was masked using the 'Person Mask Options - Entire Person - Create'. With the subject 1.5 stop exposure increase the poorer masking is clearly seen in the right image.

(Download)

kavitykid Loc: Maryland

ACR is the raw editor for Bridge, Lightroom and Photoshop. Bridge and Lightroom are non destructive programs, Photoshop is destructive . I took Rick Burris's courses on Bridge and ACR at Bryan Peterson's school. Anyone interested in these programs I highly recommend you investigate . Take them in order Bridge, ACR, Photoshop. I started with ACR and was lost at first. Lot of great information.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

linda lagace wrote:

I subscribe to Adobe (the basic 9.99 per month). The options I have are bridge and Photoshop. It is possible that once I open my raw files in bridge it actually edits in an embedded camera raw. I have never seen a choice for camera raw , I just assumed my raw file manager automatically edits in raw. So it's always been confusing to me when people talk about camera raw???

Add to your options are Lightroom Classic (local computer) and Lightroom (mobile cloud based library) plus possible stuff I have ignored. Camera Raw has no human interface but is embedded in all of the above. My preference is to use it in Lightroom Classic because the interface there is better and coincidentally the one I first encountered and is used there in my long standing workflow.

Its appearance there has reduced my use of Photoshop for really complicated situations. I am definitely not comfortable with Photoshop’s interface which causes a pain in the pit of my stomach because I have less practice with its interface. I have made laminated cheat sheets to do even basic operations with layers. Adding a second image to the stack of layers is something I always stumble over. So I’m not one you should take seriously with respect to Photoshop. Given that continuous and recent additions have made selections much much easier. And so far I don’t think they have offended me by calling the functions AI.