Spring has sprung at Luxe, and we are ready for whatever blooms this season, with all new collections & tools built for creativity and speed! Last summer we introduced you to some exciting new Adobe Masking updates in our 5 Tips for Getting Creative in Lightroom blog. The blog covered combining Luxe Local Adjustment Presets with Adobe's new Masking Tool features for quick retouching in Lightroom Classic. These features are bigger and better than ever, and have allowed us to create amazing Adaptive Presets that utilize masking powered by Adobe Sensei AI for powerful one-touch retouching in the latest Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Lightroom Mobile* updates!
Here we are going to cover common questions about AI presets and the new Adobe Masking Tool features, so you can cut your workflow in half this busy season!
What are the new AI Masking options?
What are Adaptive Presets?
What's new at Luxe?
What Software do you need?
What are the system requirements for AI?
Can I use AI on my phone?
Can I use AI Adaptive Presets with My Current Edit?
Can I see Example Workflows?
What are the new AI Masking options?
Masking Tool Options in Lightroom (CC) (Image by: Smitten & Swoon)
We've previously discussed AI-powered Subject and Sky masking. The latest update includes Background, People, and Object masking, which we'll cover here!
Background masking does exactly what it sounds like in isolating everything BUT the subject of your image!
People masking is more complex, masking each individual subject with options to mask down to specific parts of each subject. Where Subject masking will include all subjects in your mask, People masking has options to select a specific "Entire Person", or just their Face Skin, Body Skin, Eyebrows, Lips, Teeth, or Hair! (Adobe has developed multiple People related functions that help with tagging and sorting your images as well!)
Unlike Sky, Subject, Background, and People masking, Object masking is really only useful on an image-by-image basis. The new Object masking option features a little target cursor which allows you to simply click to select any given object in your image for localized adjustments.
All of these Masking options are powered by Adobe Sensei AI. If your image is in focus you should largely experience clean and accurate selection using these tools. Selection can be complicated by out of focus or lower quality images, images in which the subject is only partially captured or cropped out of the frame, complex backgrounds, or complex lighting environments.
Additionally, all of these masking options are compatible with the Luxe Local Adjustment Presets in Lightroom Classic. If you have any of our local adjustment presets installed, you can apply any mask and simply select your preset from a drop down!
What are Adaptive Presets?
Applying "Sky - Recovery Subtle" AI Adaptive Preset from Brixton Film Emotive in Lightroom (CC) (Image by: Tim Laielli)
Adobe offers a variety of Adaptive options, so sometimes the language can be confusing when discussing Adaptive presets. The term Adaptive presets simply refer to presets that adapt to the image they are applied in some way. You may have heard about ISO Adaptive presets which adapt to your images by applying different settings based on how the preset has been trained to respond to an image's ISO value.
The latest in Adaptive presets utilize the new Adobe Sensei AI-powered Masking features we discussed above! They function by detecting each image for specific attributes, and apply settings to specific zones of the image via Subject, Sky, Background, or People masking.
In designing our AI Adaptive Presets, we combine professional retouching settings with the AI-powered masking to apply changes to specific parts of your image in one click! They can also be synced across whole image sets, and will compute appropriate masking for each individual image so your changes apply only where they're supposed to!
For even more control, all of these presets are Amount Slider compatible. Meaning the strength of the preset can be adjusted after application directly from your presets panel without having to fiddle with anything in your masking panel!
What's new at Luxe?
Edit featuring Luxe Quick Fix AI Toolkit (Image by: Laura Helle)
We have always worked to provide flexible toolkits with many of our collections for professional retouching, and to foster the creation of bespoke workflows. Our local adjustment brushes for Lightroom Classic have long been a quick way to apply professional settings that you could simply select & brush on without needing to fiddle with sliders or settings each time. As the Local Adjustment Brush tool evolved into the Masking tool across the Adobe Photography suite, we have been able to explore new ways to speed up ways to apply specific adjustments to specific aspects of your image!
With the latest Masking updates, we found that we could expand local adjustments beyond Lightroom Classic. With the release of Let it Snow 2.0, we were able to create hand-painted snow effects that excluded subjects!
Then, taking into consideration common questions and modern editing trends we crafted the Quick Fix AI toolkit boasting a whopping 121 presets which applied expert settings to sky, background, whole subject, face skin, body skin, eyebrows, lips, teeth, or hair. Unlike the local adjustment brushes, this collection could be used in Lightroom (CC), Photoshop ACR, and the premium Lightroom Mobile app (on select devices)!
With the success of the Quick Fix collection for any workflow, and the updated snow effects for Let it Snow! 2.0, we decided to release dedicated "AI Effects" toolkits with all of our latest releases for adjustments unique to each new collection! The latest Brixton Film Emotive collection features Adaptive AI Presets dialed in for bold, true color, brilliant skies, crispy clothing details, or butter-soft skin in just one touch!
We hope you reclaim your time and get creative this season by integrating our AI toolkits with any workflow for rapid retouching!
What Software do you need?
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Software
To take advantage of the latest AI-Powered Masking features requires up-to-date subscription software from the Adobe Photography Suite. This includes Lightroom (CC), Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom Mobile* on select devices.
These features became available with the October 2022 update to Adobe subscription software. The Oct 2022 version numbers are as follows:
Lightroom Classic 12.0
Lightroom (CC) 6.0
Adobe Photoshop (ACR) 24.0
These are the earliest versions that will support these AI Masking features & AI Adaptive Presets. We recommend updating to the latest possible version to ensure optimal functionality. You can check your software version under Help > System Info... and you can find relevant updates under Help > Updates... or in your Creative Cloud App!
For Lightroom Mobile we recommend always checking the App or Play store for the latest updates.
What are the system requirements for AI?
System requirements refer to the power of your device to successfully run select software or utilize certain software features. Adobe updated their system requirements after the big October 2022 update to cover these powerful new features!
In addition to an up-to-date operating system, to use the latest AI-Powered Masking features with ease will require a device with at minimum 8GB of RAM and 2GB allotted for VRAM for graphics processing. 16GB of RAM and 4-8GB VRAM allotted to the graphics processor are ideal.
Adobe's official software requirements are available HERE for Lightroom Classic, HERE for Lightroom, and HERE for Photoshop.
Computers or devices with less than the listed requirements will either not be able to utilize certain features, or will experience unusually slow rendering/load times, lag, or potential software freezing/crashing.
Even with a device exceeding recommended minimum requirements, we recommend optimizing Lightroom Classic for increased performance. You can find the official Adobe guide to Lightroom optimization HERE.
Can I use AI Presets on my phone?
It depends! As of the time of this article, the Lightroom Mobile app (iOS, Android, iPadOS) does not yet officially support Background or People Masking. AI Adaptive Presets can be applied on Android devices, but cannot be used at all on certain iOS devices as listed below.
Android Compatibility - You can install & use AI presets directly in the Premium Lightroom App for Android.
iOS/iPad Compatibility - You can sync AI Presets to iOS/iPadOS devices* from the subscription version of Lightroom (CC) on a computer. However, we cannot guarantee compatibility of AI tools on all iOS or iPad devices. Adobe lists the following iOS devices as incompatible with the new AI masking features:
Apple devices on iOS 15.0 and later not included in the above list should support these new features when AI presets are synced to your mobile device!
Can I Use AI Adaptive Presets with My Current Edit?
(Image by Smitten & Swoon Edited with Warm Petals + Various AI Tools!)
Already have a signature edit, or favorite preset, but want to save time on retouching? You can add the AI Adaptive Presets Effects/Tools to ANY existing workflow and even mix and match! Here we'll walk through an example edit to show you what that might look like in practice!
- Apply your favorite preset, or follow your existing full-image workflow to edit your image the same way you would before you do final retouching. We'll use an image edited with ColorMade "Warm Petals" as an example:
- Apply & Stack AI Presets that boost the aspects of your image you would typically adjust by hand or try something totally new to make your images POP!
Here we used "Scene Background - Tone Ultra Dramatic" from Luxe Quick Fix AI, "Subject - Clothing Texture Boost", "Subject - Skin Butter Soft + Warmth", and "Subject - Hair Texture Boost" at 50% strength from the Brixton Film Emotive Effects Toolkit, and "Subject - Tones Deep" at 35% strength from Brixton Film Earthy Moods 2.0:
Unlike the adjustments you brush on or apply manually by hand in Lightroom or Photoshop, these AI Adaptive presets can be synced the same way you would your general preset edit and they will cleanly adapt to each individual image. Syncing Masks over large groups of images may take some time depending on your computers processing power, but ultimately will save so much time when compared to hand-editing each individual image!
If you are new to masking in Lightroom and get stuck or aren't sure how to change things, each collection we release with AI tools also features a full-length walkthrough guide which includes info on updating or adjusting your masks as needed!
Pro Tip: Once you know which AI tools best benefit your workflow, you can create and move them to another folder in your Lightroom Presets panel for quick access, without needing to sort through all of your presets!
Can I see Example Workflows?
You can view sample workflows in Lightroom (CC), Lightroom Classic, Photoshop ACR, and the Premium Lightroom Mobile App for Android for Let it Snow! 2.0 HERE, Quick Fix AI HERE, Brixton Film Earthy Moods 2.0 HERE, and Brixton Film Emotive HERE!
For each collection we release that includes AI presets we include a full guide for use and detailed compatibility info on our help center. We will also update information as Adobe continues to refine and evolve these tools!
