Depth Masks: The Finishing Touch Your Landscape Photos Are Missing

S
o much of post-processing photographs is in the big sliders, but what often makes the difference is actually the finishing touches – the smaller changes. Often these small tweaks are what separates the truly awesome looking photographs from the average ones – those subtle adjustments that experienced photographers use that lift a photo up a notch or two.

But there’s one technique that I don’t see many photographers using and which can transform a landscape photo in a truly pleasing way. Ever notice how reality has a built-in blur function?

What You’re Getting Into

Here’s the tl;dr so you know what you’re signing on for. I’m going to show you how to use depth masks to accentuate how our eyes interpret depth and focus. We’re going to use depth masks as a kind of perceptual editing – processing images in a way that reinforces how we naturally see, rather than just how a sensor captures data.

It’s a really cool technique – it’s simple and it’s a finishing touch you can apply to your landscape photographs.