4 Tips for Avoiding Haloing Edges in ACR and Lightroom

You can Avoid Halos in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom :)
That is the answer to many questions that I receive on almost a weekly basis on f64 Academy. The trick here is that you have to know what makes them and how they are caused. Once you know that you can avoid halos in adobe camera raw and Lightroom. The worst part about it though is hearing that it starts with you, yeah you and me too!
Halos are a distracting artifact of sorts that appear in our images when we transition from an area of high contrast to low contrast. In this example image, that transition is from Half Dome in Yosemite to the neighboring clouds behind it. Haloing is something we saw ALL the time in old school HDR processing, circa five years ago or so.
Back in the day when I was running everydayhdr.com (now f64 Academy), I would get the same age-old question, How do I avoid halos when processing my HDR images. The comforting thing, at least for me, is that my answer hasn't changed; If you see halos, it is probably because you are taking the contrast too far between areas of high and low contrast.
The thing is, our software is smart, but not smart enough to detect these edges, yet... It is getting better; actually, it is getting better with every release of Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. However, we are still the ones in control of those halos.
In the image below you can see the photo on the left is considered "bad" because the contrast between Half Dome and the clouds is so abrupt that it creates a lack of depth by creating either a haloing edge or a contrasty edge. This was forced in Adobe Camera Raw so that you could see what I am talking about. The image on the right is good, there is plenty of contrast between the background and foreground, and there is almost a natural glow behind Half Dome because of it.
In today's tutorial, I am going to give you four tips on how to avoid halos in adobe camera raw and Lightroom. These tips are seemingly simple, but when you see them in the video, they may open your eyes to a new way of preparatory processing before you head into Photoshop to finish off your photos.
The four tips:
Use bracketed images: There will be a lot more dynamic range to work with, and avoiding halos will be a lot easier!
Start with a Global (whole image) low dynamic range contrast.
Separate your foreground and background with the Local Adjustment Brush and the "Auto Mask Feature."
Refine your Local Adjustment Brushes with the Erase tool and Auto Mask OFF

[@IamUke]

Interesting technique. Avoids screwing around with feathering and blending in favor of using a kind of side effect of the brush tool. Nice!

[@iqueque]

The best method I have found. Thanks Blake

[@iqueque]

Great tutorial: solves a problem I have struggled with. Many thanks Blake

[@f64Academy]

Sure thing, glad I could help.

[@terrylevi9717]

That’s really cool thanks for the tip

[@shlomoeshet8525]

Thank you Blake for all the great tips, especially the last one regarding auto masking.

[@f64Academy]

My pleasure!

[@tallguy8385]

HA! I've toyed with this same idea to get rid of the haloing around leaves and branches in my bird shots. I haven't tried it with such a large brush though. Thanks Blake for the additional insight.

[@f64Academy]

Yeah the large brush helps feather it more naturally.

[@joetagg1961]

Fantastic tip!! Thanks!!

[@jshetley2]

This was a great tip. I can’t wait to try it on my next landscape.

[@hanswi336]

Thank you so much. Very logical - but I never thought of that, and it's so easy (but only if you know it already...)

[@f64Academy]

So true! You don't know what you don't know, right?

[@ngodinhhoang]

Thank you very much!

[@t-linn]

Nice video! Halos drive me nuts. I expected to see you utilize Range Mask in some way though your technique makes sense and gives great results. Has anyone ever told you that your pacing and the way you express yourself sounds just like Matt Kloskowsky?

[@f64Academy]

Lol, I have heard that a few times. Matt and I are great friends. Maybe we just rubbed off on one another :) You could definitely use range masking here as well if the image called for it. This one was pretty straightforward, though.

[@thomastuorto9929]

Another great vid. I wish you would of zoomed in to a 100% so we could of seen the effect a little better. Thanks.

[@f64Academy]

Thanks, Ted. Actually, with Halos, they are best visualized smaller. It is a weird eye trick. When we enlarge it they actually don't look so bad, especially those that are hard to spot, but the smaller you make it the more they pop out. I probably should have zoomed out to something like 30%

[@larrylancaster4287]

One of your best!

[@f64Academy]

Oh wow! Thanks :)

[@justin555666]

Been struggling to get a mountain photo right. Couldn't seem to get rid of that hard edge. This helped a lot. Thanks!

[@f64Academy]

Glad I could help 😁

[@rgarlinyc]

That was really helpful! Thanks BR, you never not teach me something new (sorry about the convoluted double-negative)

[@f64Academy]

I like double negatives, I eat them for breakfast every morning.

[@rgarlinyc]

@@f64Academy 😁Don't never say I don't never do nuthin' for ya..

[@f64Academy]

Never dun said nothin!

[@acoelho1]

Great

[@f64Academy]

Thanks!

[@patrickmccabe2059]

Nice video and a nicer haircut. 😜

[@f64Academy]

:)

[@MaciejMarkiewicz]

thanks nice tip!

[@f64Academy]

Glad I could help.

[@Mr.HarryPotter]

Thanks so much for this wonderful solution. Unfortunately I could only apply the erase brush to my stitched Jpegs. I deal with more than 200 RAW images for a 360 degree Panorama. I cannot just do that to the individual images until after they are stitched and back to Lightroom. I use, Rest In Peace Kolor Autopano Gigato to create Panoramas. Lightroom in no way is able to deal with that many images. Besides even it could, I cannot individually do the erase brush to each single image since every image has the horizon or sky edge in different part of the scene. Now, you will be even more famous just like holding your finger in front of the Sun to block the flare as suggested by Elia Locardi. Simple but no one thinks for a solution for a long time.Thanks a lot.