Global Normalize-Then-Style Baseline Before Local Masking

A workflow ordering principle: establish a global foundation in two passes before any local/masked edits (gradients, radial masks, brushes).

Crop & reorient to fill the frame — reframe first so composition isn't undone by later local work.
"Normalize" the Light panel — recover highlights and shadows to pull the full tonal range into a workable range, then restore the contrast that recovery flattens by pushing whites right and pulling blacks left. Framed explicitly as "building a better foundation," not a finished look.
Global Effects/Color mood pass — texture up slightly, clarity down slightly (for ethereal softness), dehaze up slightly (to claw back contrast clarity removed), vibrance up, and a fixed warm Hue on the highlights color-grading wheel reused across similar photos rather than re-judged each time.

Only after this baseline is set does local work begin — see Subject Glow via Foreground-to-Transparent Radial Gradient + Inverted Mask for the local-masking half of the same edit. The ordering matters because local adjustments read relative to the global baseline; local exposure/warmth pushes are harder to judge correctly on an un-normalized file.

Example: Photos App → Lensa Portrait Workflow

iPhone portrait retouching is a concrete instance of this pattern: shoot in Portrait Mode, correct globally in the Photos app's Adjustments tab (Brilliance/Highlights/Warmth/Tint) — see iPhone Photos App Portrait Mode Editing Controls — then hand off (Share > Edit in) to Lensa Auto-Masked Face Retouching (One-Slider Portrait App) for face-specific, auto-masked retouching the global stage can't reach (skin texture, teeth whitening, eye bags). The stated reason for the handoff: the Photos app 'reaches its limit' for skin-texture work, so cheap global correction removes gross color/exposure problems before paying for face-precise local tools.

Landscape Editing Sequence

Landscape photography — with its extreme dynamic range (bright sky, dark shadow) — is a strong test case for the general global-before-local principle. A recommended concrete order for Lightroom Mobile:

Light tab (global exposure/highlights/shadows/whites/blacks) — recover overall dynamic range first.
Color tab (temperature/tint/vibrance/color grading) — set the overall mood (e.g. warm sunrise/sunset cast).
Effects tab (clarity) — small global clarity moves (e.g. a slight decrease for an ethereal look — see Texture vs Clarity vs Dehaze (Lightroom Mobile Effects Sliders)).
Details tab (sharpening, masked to exclude the sky so noise isn't sharpened).
Local adjustments (masking) — this is where a good edit becomes a stunning one: sky masks, simulated light sources (Simulated Sun / Light Source via Radial Gradient + Negative Dehaze), directional light on the landscape, brushed effects (Sun-Ray Brush Effect via Low-Opacity Additive Strokes).

Most casual edits stop after step 2 or 3 (global exposure + color). The shift from "good" to "stunning" comes from step 5 — local masking that simulates directional light rather than a uniform global look.

Within the Light tab itself, order still matters: raise exposure slightly first (even if the sky looks too bright) because shadow recovery matters as much as taming highlights; then drag highlights down fully to recover blown sky detail; push shadows up substantially; nudge whites up slightly; pull blacks down for contrast.

Из тем: Lightroom Mobile: Masking, Sliders & Simulated Light