Inverting a subject selection mask in Lightroom Classic

In October 2021, Adobe released a huge upgrade to their masking tools in Lightroom Classic. These updates make masking in Lightroom much more efficient and user-friendly. 

For a more in-depth look at the whole upgrade, check out this video. But for this article, I wanted to highlight the one small feature that I find myself using on a lot of post-processing sessions now: Inverting the subject selection mask.

What inverting the subject selection mask does

The Invert checkbox allows you to quickly select everything in an image except your subject. This allows you to make the adjustments that you want to the entire background, while leaving your subject alone. Previously, I would often use a radial gradient for this type of work. Now, the Invert checkbox allows you to be much more precise in your adjustments.