Greetings from Arizona.
This is Tony Kuyper.
Today I'm going to provide a brief overview of my TK Luminosity Mask plugin.
Luminosity masks are a type of mask
generated from actual pixel values in the image.
In the case of luminosity mask, the pixel value used is luminance.
The best way to show you the different Luminosity mask is with the plugin.
To get started, just click this large button on the main interface.
This creates the initial mask preview on screen
and opens a new interface on the plugin.
You're now looking at a "Lights-1" mask, and to keep things orderly,
the green outline on the plugin always correspond
to the mask being displayed.
As you can see, a luminosity mask is really just
a monochrome version of the image, but that's also its superpower.
The principle that White reveals and Black Conceals still applies with this mask.
But unlike masks and selections created with Photoshop, normal
selection tools like Magic, Wand or lasso, there are no distinct pure black
and pure white areas in this mask and no hard edges.
This mask is a series of gray tones
that perfectly matches the images pixel level luminance.
What this means is that any adjustments through
this mask will be revealed in the image in perfect proportion
to the underlying luminance values in the image
and just like there are no hard edges in this mask.
There will also be no visible edges with the adjustment.
All adjustments will blend perfectly into the image because the mask is
perfectly feathered to match the image as the luminance pixel four pixel.
But this "Lights-1" mask is only the start
The plugin makes a whole series of lights masks.
This is "Lights-2",
"Lights-3" and so on, each
getting progressively more focused on lighter tones in the image.
And lights masks are also just the beginning
There are darks masks that reveal the dark tones in the image,
again, getting progressively more focused on the darkest tones
as you move through the series
And finally, there are mid tonesmasks that reveal progressively
more mid tones in the image as you move through the mid tones series.
Now I'm going to make
a "Lights-3" mask again in order to demonstrate two more features.
To help find the right mask to match your image, this button
at the top switches the mask preview on and off.
And there's also a red overlay that can help
you see the areas that will be revealed by the mask better
So how do I use luminosity masks?
Well, let's say I want to darken in the background of this image
a bit more, but leave the flowers unchanged That's a complex selection.
So this is a good situation for letting luminosity masks and the plug
and do the hard work.
The background is dark in the image
so I'll need a darks mask to properly select it.
With the plugin, I can quickly flip through them.
"Darks-1" "Darks-2" that's better.
"Darks-3" thats looking pretty good.
"Darks-4" probably too far.
So I'll back up to the "Darks-3" mask.
With it, the flowers in the image are essentially black in the masks,
so they will be concealed from the adjustment.
And if I check the red overlay, you can see
the flowers have very little red while the background has a lot.
This is exactly what I'm looking for
in order to target the background for adjustment.
Now it's time to actually use this mask and the bottom
row of buttons provides several output options.
These first three are adjustment layers.
Curves.
Levels and hue saturation.
Where the mask preview becomes
the layer mask for the adjustment layer.
This button loads the mask preview as an active selection,
which allows for painting through it like a stencil, which is the basis
for using luminosity mask for burning and dodging
This button saves the mask as a channel on the channels panel
so it can be used again later on.
And this button applies the mask as a layer mask on a layer
already present on the layers panel.
For this mask, I'll click the curves output button
to output the mask preview as a layer mask on a curves adjustment layer.
And there it is, the plugin
also opens the properties panel
and now I can bend
the curve slightly downward to darken the background a bit
as I turn this adjustment layer on and off.
it's worth
noting that there are no hard edges anywhere as a result of this adjustment.
The smooth matching gray values in the mask
always ensure seamless blending of the adjustment.
Okay, that's how to use luminosity mask with adjustment layers.
I'm going to do a quick dodging demo also
as this is another area where luminosity masks really shine.
Let's say I want to light the flowers a bit more without
affecting the background Again, a somewhat complex mask would be needed,
but luminosity mask can make it easy.
I need a light series mask this time.
This is "Lights-1", "Lights-2".
That's better.
"Lights-3". Okay.
That's looking really good.
The flowers are perfectly selected and the background is completely concealed.
I use this button now
to load this mask as a selection
The plugin hides the selection edges by default
since they get in the way when trying to evaluate the image.
But it also provides this red active selection indicator so
you know that there is an active selection even if you don't see any marching ants.
I've already created a Dodge layer here
filled with 50% gray paint and set to overlay blend mode.
Now I can use a white brush at about 30% opacity
to slowly add the amount of brightness I'd like to the flowers
by painting on the dodge layer.
I don't need to be too careful where I paint because this selection is
controlling where the paint gets applied and what gets started later.
As I click the layer on and off, you can see that
this adds a nice subtle brightness to the flowers as intended.
They almost seem to glow now
and if I Alt-click on the Dodge
layers eyeball to turn off the other layers,
you can see what an absolutely perfect stencil the luminosity mask provided.
The flowers received paint.
The background received none
and everything blends perfectly again.
So that's a demonstration of the power of luminosity masks.
Complex selections, perfect
feathering, seamless blending, there are wonderful tool for exploring
and expanding your photographic creativity in Photoshop.
I hope you'll install the free TK Luminosity Mask plugin for the marketplace
and give these techniques a try
This is Tony Kuyper.
Best wishes for good light.