# Color range mask not working as expected



## camner (Oct 23, 2017)

Operating System: OS X (Sierra)

Lightroom Version: LR CC 7.0
_(Please go to Help menu > System Info to double check the exact version number)_

Question or Description of Problem:

From a video demonstration I watched, I understood that the way the Range Mask works is that one begins by drawing a mask (e.g., with the Adjustment Brush), then turns on the Range Mask, selects the kind of mask (I chose Color), clicks the eye dropper tool, and then either drags to create a range or click/shift-click to select a number of individual points.

I am able to drag to select a range of colors, and that clearly works. BUT, when I merely click (or shift-click), nothing selects.  The video I watched showed a small eye-dropper icon at each sample point.

I tried sampling both with and without the red mask showing (toggling with 'O'), and there was no difference.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 23, 2017)

Did you click inside the mask? Range Mask is a way to fine tune the mask you created with the tool, so you have to select an area that you've painted. If you click outside the painted area, nothing will happen.


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## Johan Elzenga (Oct 23, 2017)

One thing to remember: if you paint with 'Auto Mask' on, then sometimes you may not paint everything. Small parts may not be painted, for example because noise made the pixels different enough for Auto Mask to not select them. If you then click on exactly that spot to create the range mask, nothing will happen.


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## camner (Oct 24, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> Did you click inside the mask? Range Mask is a way to fine tune the mask you created with the tool, so you have to select an area that you've painted. If you click outside the painted area, nothing will happen.



I am fairly certain I was clicking inside the mask. The area I'm asked was fairly large (an expanse of water) so I'm sure that I didn't click outside the masked area.


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## camner (Oct 24, 2017)

JohanElzenga said:


> One thing to remember: if you paint with 'Auto Mask' on, then sometimes you may not paint everything. Small parts may not be painted, for example because noise made the pixels different enough for Auto Mask to not select them. If you then click on exactly that spot to create the range mask, nothing will happen.



This I am less certain about. I always keep Auto Mask off, but this was the first time I used LR after the upgrade, and I suppose it is possible that with the upgrade, Auto Mask was turned on and I didn't notice that. I will try again this evening after checking to be sure.

Thanks for your help.


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## camner (Oct 24, 2017)

Tried it again after verifying Auto Mask was OFF. Same issue.  I then quit and restarted LR CC Classic, and then it seemed to work.  I'll see if it recurs or if it was one of those gremlin glitches that seem to crop up now and again at random with computers.


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## camner (Oct 24, 2017)

OK, I think I've figured out what is going on.  In order to have the eyedroppers show up, I have to toggle the H key to show the local adjustment pin.  If the local adjustment pin is NOT showing, selecting the eyedropper and clicking in the masked area does not seem to work.  Interestingly, once the pins have been set, I can toggle H again to turn OFF local adjustment pins and the eyedroppers remain visible.  My (previous) workflow did not involve having the local adjustment pins be visible by default; I only turned them on when I wanted to select a particular local adjustment for further work.


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