I had never been to Sedona, Arizona until this week. I’ve been close, visiting both Flagstaff and Prescott, but never here. (I’m staring at this view as I type.) I’ve seen myriad photos and heard almost as many stories from friends about how this place was “magical.” They were right.

Photos don’t do it justice and the one above won’t either. This one is a panorama made from seven photos shot with the iPhone 13 Pro and then stitched together in Adobe Lightroom. As fate would have it, Adobe announced a major new feature for Lightroom at Adobe Max yesterday — AI-enhanced Selective Masks. This photo turned out to be the perfect first image to use as a test.

I used only the Sky Mask feature and created two masks, one for the sky and an inverse for the land. This allowed me to quickly apply separate adjustments to the mountains in the foreground. It took just seconds. It’s almost as magical as Sedona itself, but not quite. 🙂