Masks: editing part of the photo
A mask chooses an area, such as a person or the sky, and its own sliders change only that area. Open the Masks tool and pick a New mask. They come in three groups.
Select with AI. The AI finds the area for you.
| Mask | How to make it | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | One tap: the main subject (people, animals, vehicles) is found. If none is found and the Depth AI is downloaded, it picks what stands out nearest the camera. | Brightening a person or an animal. |
| People | One tap: everyone in the photo. | Portraits and groups. |
| Background | One tap: everything except the subject. | Darkening or softening what's behind. |
| Sky | One tap. | Darkening a bright sky, adding contrast to clouds. |
| Landscape | Choose Water, Vegetation, Mountains, Buildings or Ground. | Greening trees, deepening water, lifting a foreground. |
| Object | Tap the thing you want (or scribble over it). Tap more of it to add; switch to Remove and tap parts that shouldn't be in. | One car, a building, a flower, one person in a group. |
Draw.
| Mask | How to make it | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Brush | Paint over the area. Erase (or hold ⌥) paints it away. Tick Auto Mask and the brush only paints where the colour matches the centre of the brush, so it stops at edges: paint a dark coat against a bright wall without spilling over. | Any shape you can draw. |
| Linear | Drag across the photo; the effect fades from full to none between the lines. | Darkening a bright sky (a graduated filter). |
| Radial | Drag out a circle or oval; drag its pins to reshape it. | A spotlight on the subject, or darkening around it. |
By range.
| Mask | How to make it | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Tap a colour on the photo; tap up to five to include similar colours. Range sets how close a colour must be. Tap a picked spot again to drop it. | A red coat, blue sky, autumn leaves. |
| Luminance | Tap a tone on the photo to centre the range on it. On the strip, drag the inner handles (white lines) to widen or narrow the tones selected, the outer handles (blue dots) to soften the dark and bright edges separately, or drag the middle to move the whole range. The outline on the strip shows what's selected. | Changing only the highlights or only the shadows. |
| Depth | The AI works out how far away everything is. Tap the photo to pick a distance, then shape the range on the strip (near on the left, far on the right) as for Luminance. | Separating a subject from the background, or lifting a foreground. |
The AI runs on your device; the photo is not sent anywhere. Each AI needs a one-off download the first time (about 20 MB for Subject, People, Background and Object; 19 MB for Sky and Landscape; up to 42 MB for Depth). Grain & Tone asks first and says how big it is; everything else works without it. On a phone, use Wi-Fi. AI masks can be combined: for example Sky then Subtract a Brush, or Vegetation Intersect Depth for just the near trees.
Adjusting a mask
- Adjustments: Exposure, Contrast, Lights, Darks, Whites, Blacks, Temperature, Tint, Saturation, Clarity and Dehaze, plus Amount to fade the whole mask in or out.
- Overlay (O): shows the mask in red. It hides while you move the sliders so you can see the effect.
- Invert Mask: adjusts everything except what the mask selects, for example darkening all around a Radial to draw the eye in.
- Invert one part (the half-circle button on its row): flips just that shape before it's combined with the others.
- Add, Subtract, Intersect: combine shapes. Tap one, then choose what to add: for example a Subject minus a Brush, or a Linear limited to a Luminance range.
- Eye: hides a mask's effect without deleting it.
Better edges on AI masks
- Edge shrinks or grows the selection; Feather softens it.
- Refine Edge…: paint along hair or fuzzy edges and the edge is worked out again under the brush. Undo Refine removes the last stroke.
- For anything left over, add a Brush to the same mask and paint or erase it.
Brush keys: [ and ] change the size; Shift+[ and Shift+] make it softer or harder. With an Apple Pencil, the Pencil paints and fingers pan and zoom.
On an AI part, Selects changes what it selects (for example from Subject to Sky), and Redo finds it again.
If an AI mask does nothing, click AI masks not working? Check this device… in the Masks panel. It tests each part the AI needs and says what failed.