Masks

Masks let you edit part of a photo instead of the whole thing. You define a region, and the sliders you move only affect that region. Brighten a face, darken a sky, warm up the foreground, all on the same photo.

Open the Masks panel with M. The panel is titled Masking.

How masks are built

A mask is a container that holds one or more components (other apps call these submasks). Each component is one shape or selection, such as a sky selection or a brush stroke. The components are combined into one final region, and the mask's adjustments are applied to that region.

Example: a mask named "Sky" with three components.

Component	Mode	Why
Sky	Add	Selects the sky.
Brush	Subtract	Paints out a tree the AI caught.
Linear	Intersect	Fades the effect toward the horizon.

The adjustments of "Sky" apply to the combined result.

A photo can have many masks, each with its own adjustments. Up to 32 masks are rendered per image.

Adding a mask

When a photo has no masks yet, the panel shows a grid of tools in three groups. Click a tool to create a new mask with that component. You can also drag a tool onto an existing mask in the list.

Once a photo has masks, the tools move into the Add New Mask row at the bottom of the list, and each mask gets an Add New Component menu.

Tip: right-click a tool in the grid to always create a new mask, even if another mask is selected.

Mask types

There are 13 mask types.

AI Selections

AI models download automatically the first time you use each type. You can see download progress in the panel and in the Jobs list.

Type	How to create it	What it selects
Subject	Drag a box around the subject (most accurate), or click on it.	The object or person inside the box.
Sky	Created instantly.	All sky, including clouds, sunsets and night skies.
Foreground	Created instantly.	The main foreground object, separated from the background. Good when there is no single obvious subject.
Depth	Created instantly.	A band of distance from the camera. You choose the band with the Depth Range picker.
Text	Type what you want, for example car, water or person, then press Enter or Generate Mask.	Everything matching your description. The component is named after your text.
Face	Created instantly with Face Skin selected.	Parts of every face and person in the photo. Toggle the parts you need (see below).

Left: a Sky mask follows the ridge line exactly. Right: a Depth mask set to the near part of the scene.

Face parts. The Face mask shows a small face illustration and nine toggles: Face Skin, Body Skin, Eyebrows, Eye Whites, Iris & Pupil, Lips, Teeth, Nose and Hair. Combine them freely. For example, Eye Whites plus Iris & Pupil gives you an eye mask for brightening eyes, and Face Skin plus Body Skin gives you a skin mask for softening. All faces in the photo are included.

Depth Range. The Depth mask shows a bar from Near to Far. Drag the two inner handles to choose the distance band, and the outer fade handles to soften the transition. Reset puts it back to the default. Global Feather softens the whole result. Depth masks are great for darkening a distant background, or adding haze only to far mountains.

Basic Tools

Type	How to use it	Controls
Brush	Paint on the image.	Brush Size, Brush Feather, and Brush / Eraser buttons.
Flow	Paint in layers. Each stroke adds a little more, so you can build up the effect gradually like an airbrush.	Flow (0 to 100, default 10) plus the same brush controls.
Linear	Drag on the image. Where you start is the middle of the gradient, how far you drag sets its width.	No sliders. Drag the middle to move it, drag the outer lines to change the width, drag the end circles to rotate.
Radial	Drag from the center outward.	Feather (default 50). Drag to move, use the handles to resize and rotate.

Ranges & Global

Type	How to use it	Controls
Color	Click a color in the image. Pixels with a similar color are selected. Click again to pick a different color.	Tolerance (default 20), Grow, Feather (default 35)
Luminance	Click a spot in the image. Pixels with a similar brightness are selected.	Tolerance (default 20), Grow, Feather (default 35)
Whole Image	Selects everything.	None

Use Whole Image when you want a second layer of global edits that you can fade with Opacity or switch on and off as a group.

Grow and Feather

AI masks and the range masks have two refinement sliders:

• Grow (−100 to +100) expands the selection outward or shrinks it inward. A small positive Grow helps when the AI missed the edge of hair or a sleeve.
• Feather (0 to 100) blurs the edge so the adjustment blends in softly. Use more feather for big, soft changes like darkening a sky, and less for sharp edits like a product cutout.

Brush controls

Control	Range	What it does
Brush Size	1 to 200	Brush diameter in screen pixels, so the brush looks the same size at every zoom. Zoom in for fine detail.
Brush Feather	0 to 100	Edge softness. 0 is a hard edge, 100 is very soft. Default 50.
Brush / Eraser		Paint into the component, or remove from it.

Brush shortcuts:

• Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓ (Cmd on macOS) make the brush 10 px larger or smaller.
• Hold Alt to temporarily switch between Brush and Eraser.
• Click where a line should start, then Shift+Click where it should end to paint a straight line.

The brush outline is blue while painting and red while erasing.

Combining components

Every component after the first has a mode that decides how it joins the region built so far. Components are applied from top to bottom.

Mode	Effect	Example
Add	Adds its area to the selection.	Sky + a Brush stroke over a window reflection that should also be darker.
Subtract	Removes its area from the selection.	Subject − Brush to remove a bag the AI included.
Intersect	Keeps only the area that is in both.	Sky ∩ Linear: only the top part of the sky.

To change a component's mode, hover its row and click the mode icon. It cycles Add → Subtract → Intersect. You can also create a component directly in a mode from Add New Component → Subtract from Mask or Intersect Mask with.

On the canvas, the outline of a selected component is blue. Unselected components are white (Add), red (Subtract) or purple (Intersect).

Mask and component properties

Click a component to see its properties: Invert Component (selects everything except that shape), Opacity (0 to 100) and the type's own controls.

Click the mask itself to see Mask Properties:

• Invert Mask flips the final combined region.
• Opacity fades all of the mask's adjustments.
• Apply Preset applies one of your presets to this mask only. Handy for "apply my skin look to this face mask".

Hover a row to show its eye icon (hide or show without deleting) and trash icon.

Right-click menus

On a mask:

Item	What it does
Rename	Give the mask a name like "Sky darker".
Duplicate Mask	Copies the components. The copy starts with no adjustments.
Duplicate and Invert Mask	Same, but inverted. The fastest way to get "everything except the subject".
Copy Mask / Paste Mask	Copy a mask, open another photo and paste it there.
Paste Mask Adjustments	Pastes only the adjustments onto another mask.
Apply Preset	Applies a preset to this mask.
Reset Mask Adjustments	Keeps the shape, resets the sliders.
Delete Mask	Removes it.

On a component: Rename, Duplicate Component, Duplicate and Invert Component, Copy Component, Paste Component and Delete Component.

You can drag masks to reorder them, and drag components between masks. Drop a component on empty space to turn it into its own mask.

The red overlay

While a mask is selected, its region is shown as a red overlay on the image. The overlay hides automatically while you drag a slider, while you paint, while you hover the adjustment controls and while you view the original with B, so you can always see the real result.

What you can adjust inside a mask

Most adjustments work inside masks. These do not, because they only make sense for the whole image:

Group	Not available in masks
Basic	Tone Mapper
Color	White balance picker and Kelvin mode, Color Calibration
Details	Sharpening Threshold, Centré, AI Denoise, Chromatic Aberration, Negative Conversion
Effects	Light Flares, Lens Blur, Relight, Fog, LUT, Film Emulation, Vignette, Grain

Inside masks, the Noise Reduction sliders go from −100 to +100, so you can reduce or increase the global noise reduction in one area. The global Hue slider is called Local Hue.

Keys

Key	Action
M	Open the Masks panel.
Escape	Deselect the component, then the mask.
Delete (Backspace on macOS)	Delete the selected mask.
Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓	Brush size ±10.

Masks on other photos

• Copy Mask and Paste Mask work across photos.
• Copy & Paste Settings can include masks.
• Presets can include masks.

AI masks belong to the photo they were made on. When you paste or apply them to a different photo, RapidRAW automatically recalculates them for the new photo in the background. You can follow this in the Jobs list in the library header.

New to masking? Start here.

1. Open a portrait and press M.
2. Click Subject, then drag a box around the person. A red overlay appears on them.
3. Move Exposure up a little. Only the person gets brighter.
4. Want the background instead? Right-click the mask and choose Duplicate and Invert Mask. Now pull Exposure down on the copy to darken the background.

For a sky: click Sky. It is selected right away. Lower Exposure and Highlights to bring back clouds, and add a bit of Saturation.

Speed and privacy

AI masks are calculated on your computer. The first use of each mask type downloads its model. After that, most masks take one to a few seconds.

On Windows, most AI models run on your GPU. On macOS, depth runs on the GPU. Everything else runs on the CPU. You can turn GPU use off in Settings → Generative AI. The rest of the editor always runs on the GPU and is real time.

Tips

• Fix the AI, don't fight it. If the Subject mask is 95% right, add a small Brush component in Subtract mode instead of painting the whole mask by hand.
• Name your masks. "Sky darker" and "Face light" are easier to find again than "Mask 3".
• Hide instead of delete while you experiment.
• Intersect is underrated. Two simple components combined with Intersect are often cleaner than one complicated one.

See also

• Mask a Subject for a step-by-step recipe.
• Inpaint for removing objects and retouching.
• Effects → Relight to add light to a scene.

---