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gavink17752902
gavink17752902
Participant
January 22, 2019
Question

Selections made from luminosity masks

  • January 22, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1282 views

I have made selections based on luminosity masks, yet when I attempt to make adjustments to my photo, the adjustments are global and not confined to the selected area, as one would expect. Anybody had this experience as well and how can one resolve it? Many . Gavin

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    2 replies

    Daniel E Lane
    Daniel E Lane
    Inspiring
    January 22, 2019

    How did you create the luminosity masks? If it is something you are wanting to learn more about and plan to use fairly often, you should check out Lumenzia. He has created a plug-in for Photoshop that allows you to create a huge variety of luminosity masks and apply them as a general mask as well as to different adjustments with ease. https://gregbenzphotography.com/lumenzia/

    gavink17752902
    gavink17752902Author
    Participant
    January 22, 2019

    The luminosity masks were generated from an action that I downloaded. It

    produces various light, dark and mid tone masks (similar to what Lumenzia

    does). I have watched Greg's explanation of what Lumenzia does and as I

    understand it, Lumenzia will generate all the luminosity masks and it will

    then make a selection based on the selected mask.Am I correct?

    On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 8:06 PM Daniel E Lane <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 22, 2019

      You misunderstand what a luminosity mask is - it is a continuous-tone grayscale image. Highlights are more selected, shadows are less selected. Midtones are half-selected. A selection doesn't have to be either/or - a pixel can be partially selected.

      Alt-click the mask thumbnail and you'll see. That's how the mask really looks.

      The "marching ants" just marks the 50% boundary.

      gavink17752902
      gavink17752902Author
      Participant
      January 22, 2019

      Many thanks for your reply. I have watched a few tutorials where luminosity

      masks have been generated (lights, darks, mid tones). The photographer

      selects the preferred mask, makes a selection from that mask and proceeds

      to make adjustments within the selected area. When I do it, the adjustments

      are all global so I assume that I'm making an error somewhere along the

      line.

      Daniel E Lane
      Daniel E Lane
      Inspiring
      January 22, 2019

      Can you get a screen grab of your layers panel for what you are doing? I have a feeling you are not applying the mask to the actual layer.

      Are you generating the luminosity masks and seeing them in the channels area?

      When you click on one of them, and getting the marching ants look to the selection, are you then applying that selection to a mask on the actual layer?

      I'll show you real fast how it's done basically. i have 1 luminosity mask created and saved in my channels panel. (most of the luminosity mask creation plug-in's will create them here...)

      1.     CMD+click on the mask in the channels panel. this will show up as the marching ants selection on the image.

      2.     Switch over to the layers panel

      3.     It should now show you the marching ants on your actual image.

      4.     Click on whatever adjustment  you are wanting to work with in the Adjustments panel. for this example, I chose curves.

      5.     Once you click on one of the adjustments you want, it will appear as a layer with the mask already there.

      Now you can adjust away and it will only go where the mask allows it to go.

      You can also do this if you already have the adjustment layer on there by making the selection in the channels panel the same way, but then on your layers panel, click on the adjustment layer and select the mask. Then just fill the selection with black and invert it.

      1. Image with the adjustment layer on, but with a full screen mask

      2. After selecting the mask in Channels, I filled the mask with black on the adjustment layer Edit > Fill > choose black in the drop down.

      3. Now just invert the mask so it works how you would like the selection adjusted. Hit CMD+i or Using the menu at the top, Select > Inverse.

      either of these should help you to get the Luminosity mask applied to your adjustments.

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