Quick Tip 07 - Mastering Attention: The Subtle Art of Masking
One of the main goals of any creative is to master attention. Whether it’s photography, painting, design, or, like in my case, filmmaking, the idea is always the same: make the viewer look, where you want them to look. Any distraction from that goal reduces the impact or your creative work.
There are many ways to do that: through lighting, movement, composition, color or masking.
In today’s issue, I’ll talk about the subtle technique of masking.
(And yes I explicitly split colors and masking into separate sections, as you can use masks with many different effects.)
Masking
What Is Masking
Masking is a technique used to isolate or highlight specific parts of your image or video. It lets you apply effects like color correction or blurs only to a selected area instead of the entire frame.
Why is it such a powerful tool?
Because in almost every shot, there’s something subtly stealing attention from your main subject.
Take the image below, for example. I love the overall mood of the scene, but when I first looked at it, my eye went straight to the bright tree on the left instead of my fiancée with her bicycle. That’s the last thing you want, the viewer’s focus drifting somewhere else.
To fix it, I applied a simple mask to darken that part of the frame. I did the same with the bright spot in the foreground, but I’ll save those details for another time.
Masked out the left tree to reduce its brightness.
Another way I love using masks is to add a sense of depth.
Since I shoot most of my videos on an iPhone, I sometimes miss that natural depth you’d get from a larger sensor. To offset that, I’ll often apply a very subtle Gaussian blur to the foreground using a mask. It’s simple, quick, and surprisingly effective.
Added Gaussian blur with a mask for additional depth.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s ever been a shot where I didn’t use masks, that’s how powerful they are haha.
My most used masking effects are:
Lumetri Color (for vignettes or subject enhancement)
Gaussian Blur (for added depth)
Radial Blur (as a stylised element)
How To Create Masks The Right Way
Now that we’ve talked about why masks are so useful, let’s dive into how to actually create them.
If you’re editing in Premiere Pro, here’s a quick step-by-step guide (it’s similar in most editing apps that allow masking):
Select the clip you want to apply the mask to.
Go to the Effects panel and search for Lumetri Color (or any effect you want to mask).
Add your desired adjustments. I usually decrease the shadows and highlights and slightly lower the white balance. (If you want to see my full color grading process, check out this post!)
Under the Lumetri Color effect, you’ll find the masking options: a circle, rectangle, and pen tool. Pick whichever fits your shot best.
Masking shapes: Circle, rectangle, pen tool.
After clicking on your preferred mask shape, you’ll notice the mask popping up on your image and the effect only applying within the mask area.
For a vignette-style effect, click “Inverted” This applies the effect outside your mask instead.
If you want to highlight your subject, don’t invert the mask, just draw it around your subject with the pen tool.
Move and resize the mask as needed until it looks right.
Finally, add some feathering to soften the edges.
If your subject is moving, you can take it a step further by adding motion tracking to your mask. That way, the effect follows your subject naturally as they move through the frame. It’s a bit more advanced, so I’ll break it down in detail in a future issue!
A good rule of thumb: a great mask is one you don’t notice but still has the desired effect.
Subtlety is key (most of the times at least)!
Masking settings after applying it to your image.
Normal mask, effect within the mask.
Inverted mask, effect outside of the mask.
Even though I would mostly go for subtlety, there are certain shots that I really want to over-stylise.
This shot for example looked way nicer with the added radial blur mask. I would never use the same effect on the above images but for this one it felt right.
Added radial blur with a circular mask.
Just another example how versatile masks are. It’s all a matter of experimenting!
Gear
iPhone 16 Pro
Polar Pro ND Filter
Music & SFX
Looking for the perfect music or premium sound effects for your project?
Check out Musicbed! I get everything I need from them, so if you want to try it out yourself, you can sign up for the free 14-day trial below!
I’ve even got a playlist if you want to check out the music I use for my edits!
A Final Note
Thanks so much for being here, I genuinely appreciate every single reader.
If you ever have questions or ideas for future issues, feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram!
Until next time,
Stefan
Minimal tools. Maximum creativity.
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