Lightening Backgrounds in Lightroom

Lightroom can do a quick job but won't be as good as Photoshop (and a good extraction tool such as Vertus Fluid Mask would be the best combination to use).

• Develop module
• Click Adjustment Brush
• Size Brush A so it is big enough to paint over the background
• Add a small feather : 15
• Enable Auto Mask
• Density : 100
• Click to paint over the background with the brush (when you lift the brush, you will see the Adjustment Pin.  Make sure the cross hair in the middle of the brush stays on the background and then the Auto Mask feature will ensure that the brush doesn't paint over anything but the background)

• To see the painted area, press the O key and a red overlay will appear

• For fine area, it's more "efficient" (i.e. quicker) to size the brush very large so the center can be positioned over an area of the background and the rest of it extends over the wispy fine (e.g. hair) area.  It might help to significantly decrease the density to around 30 so that you only partially select the background in the fine area.

• Return to 100% density and continue to work in the other background and making sure to avoid the fine area.

• Adjust the settings for the Adjustment Brush.  Increase the exposure and brightness until the background is white

Make sure the foreground color should be different from the background color to have the best result.