Luminosity Masking

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Alan9940
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Luminosity Masking

Beitrag von Alan9940 »

I've been playing around with created luminosity masks in PL, but would like to get more serious about it. Is it possible to save a selection to an alpha channel? I need this in order to intersect each mask, thereby allowing to create, for example, a Lights, Light Lights, Bright Lights, and Super Lights mask (each more restrictive than the previous.)

Thank you.
Alan9940
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Re: Luminosity Masking

Beitrag von Alan9940 »

I found a thread here saying that PL doesn't really have the concept of an Alpha channel, like in PS, so I guess the question then becomes how does one duplicate this PS technique in PL:

1. Ctrl-click the RGB thumbnail in the channels panel, thereby creating a lights selection.
2. Save this selection as an Alpha channel.
3. Ctrl-D to deselect the selection.
4. Load the prior saved Alpha channel as a selection, thereby intersecting itself creating a Light/Light selection.
5. Save this selection as an Alpha channel.
6. Ctrl-D to deselect the selection.
7. Rinse-n-repeat steps 4-6 to create a Bright Lights & Super Lights mask.

Thank you for any insight provided.
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russellcottrell
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Re: Luminosity Masking

Beitrag von russellcottrell »

I don’t know if you saw it, but I posted some information on luminosity masks two days ago (about halfway down the page):
http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/Ph ... aneous.htm

In PhotoLine, you can add a child curves layer to a mask to create customized bright lights, super lights, and so forth, and you can see the effect in real time. I would prefer this to having to save prefabricated alpha channel masks.

But you can also use a color filter (“blend range”) to do just about everything a luminosity mask can do, and it is much easier.
Alan9940
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Re: Luminosity Masking

Beitrag von Alan9940 »

Thank you, Russell!

I had to read the page on your website a few times to understand it all, especially the Color Filters part. I didn't realize that Color Filters was equivalent to Blend If in PS, and that they can be applied to...probably...every adjustment layer. I played around with a Curve in L mode, using Color Filters to limit the adjustment to the high values. This is a common technique for me because I typically don't want to affect saturation; rather I prefer to make saturation changes separately.

Your PL tutorials are a great resource that I have referred to before. Oh, and I own your extremely useful toolset, too.
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russellcottrell
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Re: Luminosity Masking

Beitrag von russellcottrell »

I used saturation as an example. I usually don’t use luminosity masks/color filters for luminosity adjustments, as I have a hard time making it look right; to me it is most useful when there is a sharp demarcation between an area of interest and its surroundings, such as a window. There are people on the internet who advocate using targeted luminosity masks to adjust what they call zones (their definition of the zone system is different from mine). I think it is vastly easier to target a certain zone with color filters; you can arbitrarily choose whatever tonal range you want, and see it in real time.

The best thing about color filters is that you can use it in HIS mode and blend based on hue or saturation. To my knowledge, that other program still doesn’t have that.