How to Use the Light Adjustment Layer in Photoshop to Edit Subject and Background Separately

Photoshop's Light adjustment layer replaces Brightness and Contrast with a full set of Camera Raw controls — exposure, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, and contrast — available directly in the layers panel. Combined with layer masks and selections, it allows precise, non-destructive light edits targeted to specific areas of an image.

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Practical Tips

Key techniques covered in this tutorial for working with the Light adjustment layer effectively:

• Apply sliders in this order for best results: exposure first, then whites and blacks, then highlights and shadows, and contrast last.
• Select your subject before creating a Light adjustment layer so the selection automatically becomes the layer mask — no manual masking needed.
• Invert a layer mask with Ctrl/Cmd+I to shift the adjustment from the subject to the background, or vice versa.
• Group a Light adjustment layer with itself (Ctrl/Cmd+G), then add a radial gradient mask to the group to create a localized background glow effect.
• To restore Brightness and Contrast, double-click the Light layer, open the properties menu, and change the Light Version to Legacy.

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