Luminosity masks. Sounds like a Halloween costume or some glowing Venetian creation. Bookmark this site: http://goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html  if you have even an inkling of interest in the topic. Tony Kuyper, that’s his site you just bookmarked, is a master of the process and has created a wealth of tutorials and some amazing Photoshop actions to exploit this gem of Photoshop functionality. This is an advanced process, not some plug-in you click on and are done. Luminosity masking requires interaction on your part, a lot of it. It requires finesse, a keen eye, an idea of what you want an image to be. A healthy helping of patience is beneficial as well.

I ran into the topic of luminosity channels and masks created from them over a decade ago. I’m fairly certain Katrin Eismann made mention of them in one of her books or articles, though I don’t have the reference. As a neophyte Photoshoper I thought they were cool but had absolutely no idea what to do with them. Photoshop being the behemoth that it is, the topic languished as I worked to master the operation of the mothership. Years passed.

Tony, meanwhile, saw the power of being able to create selections in Photoshop with perfectly defined borders that dealt solely with the brightness, or lack thereof, of individual pixels. He then took those selections and found amazing things to do with them.

This is powerful stuff. Do take the time to explore his site and techniques for using luminosity masks. From my own experience the power of the method really began to hit home when I viewed prints of images to which luminosity masking had been applied compared to prints made without it. Images I knew should look better than they did slowly began to look the way I wanted them to. Make no mistake, Tony’s methods take time to get a feel for. Experimentation with your own images is essential. Save the tutorials in a place with easy access, you’ll be reading them again, more than once. Send him the money for the actions. Yes, you can actually create them yourself from the tutorials. I made a bunch of them myself. But Tony has taken the creation of useful Photoshop actions to an entirely new level. Honestly, the action sets are like nothing I’ve ever used or made myself. In fact he’s created stand alone panels just for the actions. Installation is a snap.

PP