Adobe has enhanced Lightroom’s landscape masking capabilities in the most-recent update, and there’s a new-and-improved way to achieve precision results. Pro Austin James Jackson brings you up to speed on these important developments in the thorough tutorial below.

Jackson is highly esteemed landscape photographer, specializing in imagery of the western U.S. He also a popular educator who shares weekly beginner-friendly tutorials on shooting techniques, post-processing tips, gear reviews, and more.

You may have explored Lightroom’s  landscape masking option in the past and decided they didn’t meet your needs because there are times when results may be inaccurate and “look weird.” Some of these concerns were addressed in a recent update that included provisions for Sky, Snow, Architecture, Vegetation, Natural Ground, Artificial  Ground, and Mountains.

Jackson admits that the aforementioned enhancements have served him well when employed in moderation and he demonstrates the step-by step process he recommends. But here’s the problem: These new tools may still deliver unsatisfactory selections in certain situations unless your follow Jackson’s straightforward advice.

He begins in the develop tab, opens the masking panel, and clicks on the Landscape button near the top. Lightroom then employs AI to analyze the scene and determine the most appropriate landscape masking option(s) for the specific image at hand. Lightroom recommends  a number of masking possibilities for enhancing Jackson’s sample photo—with the selection indicated in white and other areas in black.

So far, so good, but it turns out that there’s a new Lightroom sky-selection hack that Jackson says “works even better” than the process outlined above. The remainder of the video is devoted to this under-the-radar trick  that provides sharp, refined edges between your mask and adjacent areas within the frame.

Once you learn how easy this is to do, make sure to visit Jackson’s popular YouTube channel where there’s a wide selection of how-to shooting and editing videos for photographers of all skill levels.

And make sure not to miss the earlier tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to unlock Lightroom’s latest Curves tools and create spectacular photographs indoor or out.