Today’s Question: Is there a way to feather selections in Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw when creating a selection by color range or luminance, similar to the feather control on masking in Photoshop?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can feather masks in Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw with the Color Range and Luminance Range mask options, though there is more control with Luminance Range than there is with Color Range.
More Detail: Feathering is a way to blur the edge of a mask so you can introduce a transition between the areas of the image being affected versus not affected by a targeted adjustment. This can create an effect where the adjustment seamlessly blends into the rest of the image, so it isn’t obvious that an adjustment has been applied only to specific areas.
When you create a mask using the Luminance Range option in Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw you have feathering controls that enable you to blend the transition edge with considerable control that is very similar to what is possible in Photoshop. This is controlled using the sliders on the Luminance Range control. The rectangle within the linear gradient represents areas of the image (based on tonal value) that will be completely affected by the adjustment. The slider handles at either side of the rectangle are the feathering controls. The farther away from the rectangle those sliders are positioned, the more the mask is feathered. You can control that feathering independently for the shadow versus highlight side of the luminance range being affected by the targeted adjustment.
With the Color Range option, you don’t have as much control over the feathering, as there is only a Refine slider for this purpose. The Refine control operates similar to the Fuzziness slider for the Color Range command in Photoshop, in that increasing the value will expand the mask with some degree of feathering, but also by enlarging the mask to include similar color values within the image. This means there isn’t a true feathering control for the Color Range option, though Refine provides a somewhat similar result.
