The new Lightroom has a new feature called “Range Masking” to the Grad filter, the Radial filter and the Adjustment Brush. The Range Mask let you quickly create a mask based on color or luminance to protect areas from the effect of the filter or brush. For example, in a landscape the horizon is rarely a straight line and often has darker foreground objects crossing the horizon line. Quick adjustments of the luminance range slider allow you to protect those darker objects from the effect from the straight line of the Grad filter.
Does anyone have an AP technique that is comparable?