The Masking slider in Lightroom’s Detail panel limits sharpening to the edges in a photo and keeps it off smooth areas such as skin, sky and out-of-focus backgrounds. At 0, sharpening applies to every pixel. As you raise it, Lightroom builds an edge mask that protects more and more of the smooth areas, until at 100 only the strongest edges are sharpened. Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) while you drag the slider to see the mask: white areas get sharpened, black areas are protected.
That one slider fixes the main problem with ordinary sharpening, which brings out noise and texture in the parts of a photo you want to stay smooth.
Where to Find the Masking Slider
In Lightroom Classic, open the Develop module and scroll down the right-hand panels to Detail. In the cloud-based version of Lightroom, open the Edit panel and expand Detail. The Sharpening section has four sliders, and Masking is the last of them:
- Amount: Range: 0 to 150. Raw default: 40. What it controls: How strong the sharpening is.
- Radius: Range: 0.5 to 3.0. Raw default: 1.0. What it controls: How wide the sharpened edge is, in pixels. Fine detail wants a small radius.
- Detail: Range: 0 to 100. Raw default: 25. What it controls: How much the sharpening works on fine texture, and how much it suppresses halos.
- Masking: Range: 0 to 100. Raw default: 0. What it controls: Which areas get sharpened at all: everything at 0, only strong edges near 100.
Raw files start with the defaults above. JPEG files start with sharpening at 0, because the camera has already sharpened them.
The Masking slider is a separate thing from the Masking tools (brushes, gradients and subject selection) used for local adjustments. Both protect parts of the image, but the Masking slider works only on sharpening and decides by itself where the edges are.
How to Sharpen With the Masking Slider, Step by Step
- Zoom to 100%. Click 1:1 in the Navigator panel, or use the small preview window in the Detail panel. Sharpening cannot be judged in the fit-to-screen view. Pick an area with both edges and smooth tone, such as an eye and the cheek beside it, or a skyline and the sky above it.
- Deal with noise first. If the photo was taken at a high ISO, set luminance noise reduction before you sharpen, because sharpening and noise reduction pull against each other.
- Set Amount. Start around 40 to 60. Hold Alt or Option while dragging to see the effect in grayscale, which makes it easier to judge.
- Set Radius and Detail. Leave Radius near 1.0 for most photos, lower for fine detail such as landscapes, slightly higher for soft subjects. Leave Detail near its default unless fine texture needs more.
- Hold Alt or Option and drag Masking to the right. The image turns into a black and white mask. Keep dragging until the smooth areas you want to protect turn black while the edges you want sharp stay white.
- Release and check. Look at the image at 100% again. If edges now look too soft, ease Masking back. If smooth areas still look gritty, push it further.
- Raise Amount if needed. With the smooth areas protected, you can often sharpen edges harder than you could without masking.
Not sure what Amount, Radius and Detail are doing to the pixels? Sharpening explains capture, creative and output sharpening and what halos look like.
Reading the Mask Preview
- White areas receive the full sharpening you set with Amount.
- Black areas receive none.
- Gray areas receive partial sharpening, in proportion to how light they are.
At low Masking values the preview is mostly white with fine black specks in the smoothest tones. As you push it up, black spreads across skies, skin and blurred backgrounds, and at high values only thin white outlines remain around eyes, hair, branches and building edges. The mask is built from edges, not from brightness, so a smooth bright sky and a smooth dark shadow are protected equally.
Masking Settings by Type of Photo
These are starting points to check against the mask preview, not fixed rules. Every photo is different.
- Portraits: Amount: 40 to 60. Masking: 70 to 90. What you are protecting: Skin, so pores and blemishes are not exaggerated while eyes, lashes and hair stay crisp.
- Landscapes: Amount: 40 to 70. Masking: 20 to 50. What you are protecting: Sky gradients and water, while rock, foliage and buildings stay detailed.
- Wildlife and high-ISO photos: Amount: 40 to 70. Masking: 60 to 80. What you are protecting: Noisy, blurred backgrounds, while fur, feathers and eyes stay sharp.
- Architecture and products: Amount: 40 to 60. Masking: 30 to 60. What you are protecting: Plain walls, backdrops and smooth surfaces.
- Clean, low-ISO detailed scenes: Amount: 40 to 60. Masking: 0 to 20. What you are protecting: Very little, since there is little noise to amplify.
Portraits gain the most. A high Masking value sharpens the eyes, brows, lips and hair while leaving skin untouched, which once took a separate sharpening layer and a hand-painted mask in Photoshop.
Editing a portrait from start to finish? Editing portraits in Lightroom covers skin, eyes and color as well as sharpening.
Masking, Noise Reduction and Output Sharpening
Masking and noise reduction work together. Sharpening a noisy area makes the noise worse, and smoothing it away also softens detail. Masking lets you keep sharpening off the smooth, noisy areas, so you need less noise reduction there and keep more real detail on the edges.
The Detail panel handles capture sharpening, which restores the softness that every sensor and lens add. Output sharpening is a separate step in the Export dialog, where you choose screen, matte paper or glossy paper and a low, standard or high amount. Set the Masking slider for the photo itself, and let export sharpening handle the destination.
Seeing grain in the smooth parts of a high-ISO photo? Luminance noise explains what it is and how to reduce it without losing detail.
Applying Masking to Many Photos
Sharpening settings copy well between photos from the same shoot and subject. Set them on one image, then sync the Detail settings to the rest, or save them as a preset for each type of photo you shoot. Check a few of the synced photos at 100%, since a different background or ISO can call for a different Masking value.
Common Mistakes With the Masking Slider
- Judging at fit-to-screen. Sharpening only shows truly at 100%.
- Leaving Masking at 0 on portraits. Every pore on the face gets sharpened along with the eyes.
- Pushing it to 100 on everything. Fine texture such as grass, fabric and distant foliage counts as smooth to the mask and ends up soft.
- Sharpening harder to fix a blurry photo. Sharpening improves edges that are there. It cannot recover focus that was missed or motion blur.
- Skipping the preview. Without Alt or Option held down, it is hard to see which areas you are protecting.
Try This: Find the Right Masking Value in Five Minutes
Open a portrait taken at a fairly high ISO. Zoom to 100% on an eye and the cheek next to it. Set Amount to 70 with Masking at 0, and look at the skin. Now hold Alt or Option and drag Masking until the cheek turns black and the eye and lashes stay white. Release and compare the skin and the eye with Masking at 0. Repeat on a landscape with a smooth sky and note how much lower the right value is.
Lightroom Sharpening Masking FAQ
What does the Masking slider do in Lightroom?
It controls where sharpening is applied. Higher values build an edge mask that keeps sharpening off smooth areas and applies it only to edges and detail.
What is a good Masking value in Lightroom?
There is no single value. Portraits often look best around 70 to 90, landscapes around 20 to 50, and clean, detailed low-ISO photos near 0 to 20. Use the Alt or Option preview to decide for each photo.
How do I see the sharpening mask in Lightroom?
Hold Alt on Windows or Option on Mac while dragging the Masking slider. The photo turns into a black and white mask showing which areas will be sharpened.
Does the Masking slider reduce noise?
Not directly. It stops sharpening from making noise worse in smooth areas, which means you can usually use less noise reduction.