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How to create a luminosity mask


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I looked on vimeo for a tutorial explaining how to create a luminosity mask using AP, but had no luck finding anything. Does anyone have a good set of instructions on how to create a luminosity mask using AP? It would help me stop using the OnOne Suite to create the mask.

 

Thank you.

 

UPDATE:

 

Never mind. Found it in the keyboard shortcuts.

 

The instructions say to use Cmd-Shift-Click but that does not work if you click on the image. You must click on the thumbnail for the layer you want to create the luminosity mask for and then it works. Perhaps that information should be added to the keyboard shortcut list.

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Hi Mike,

 

I've added creating luminosity masks to the Layer masking help topic. The shortcut was there, but just to create a selection from luminosity, rather than make a mask from it too.

 

\Andy 

Out of curiosity is there any way to adjust the amount of selections made when creating a luminosity mask? For example the luminosity mask created by OnOne's PerfectPhoto Suite is very different from that created by AP and the Affinity luminosity mask seems like a bit too much is selected for my taste  Is there any way to control how much luminosity is needed to be included in the mask?

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Hi,

 

Great question. Using the refine options on the selection doesn't make sense as this would include pixels that aren't considered light. Pointless.

 

I'll have a chat with AndyS and see what he thinks. At the moment, i'd say you can't control the selectedness.

 

AndyC

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Out of curiosity is there any way to adjust the amount of selections made when creating a luminosity mask? For example the luminosity mask created by OnOne's PerfectPhoto Suite is very different from that created by AP and the Affinity luminosity mask seems like a bit too much is selected for my taste  Is there any way to control how much luminosity is needed to be included in the mask?

hi, just use a curve on the mask to adjust it or if possible use only one color channel to generate a luminosity mask

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Andy, re your post #3, I don't see anything in the Layer masking help topic that says "Luminosity" and searching help for "luminosity mask" draws a blank.

 

Obviously I'm missing something or on the wrong track somewhere, but what and where?

 

Thx

 

(But Mike's cmd shift click does indeed to the job)

Retina iMac (4K display, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) OS X 10.11.6  Capture One 10.

 

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Hi billtils,

 

It will be in the first post-release beta.

All being well.. a search for luminosity should pick up the layer mask topic.

To be honest I have a huge struggle trying to get topics to show and rank properly in search. Apple help's indexer is sprinkled with magic pixie dust for sure. :-)

 

Sorry I didn't make that clearer.

 

\AndyC 

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hi, just use a curve on the mask to adjust it or if possible use only one color channel to generate a luminosity mask

Using the curve adjustment does not seem to have any effect on the selected pixels when I do it on some of my images. What am I missing?

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Billtils suggested to me that I try to use the Refine tool to adjust the amount of the image selected by the luminosity mask. I had not tried this before although I had tried other Select adjustments. As it turned out I had a good deal of success using the Ramp command in the Refine dialog box so that has allowed me to lower the effective amount of the image selected and make the mask more practical for my needs. Others who might have the same issue with the amount of the image selected by the luminosity mask might also try the same.

 

Thank you Billtils. 

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Using the curve adjustment does not seem to have any effect on the selected pixels when I do it on some of my images. What am I missing?

hi mike you need to select alpha in the channel menu first,  then you can adjust the density of the mask with curves.  i have not tested it yet but together with the blend options you should get the desired mask

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hi mike you need to select alpha in the channel menu first,  then you can adjust the density of the mask with curves.  i have not tested it yet but together with the blend options you should get the desired mask

csp:

I guess I need to ask you to be a bit more specific because what I tried did not work.

 

There is no "channel menu" on the UI so I assume you mean that I should open the channel panel (View -> Studio -> Channels) and select the alpha channel. But there are two alpha channels listed in the Channels Panel - Composite Alpha and Background Alpha. Which one do you mean? Or are you referring to something else?

 

You then say that I can adjust the density of the mask Curves. Are you referring to the Curves levels adjustment? Or something else?

 

And do I first have to make a mask of the luminosity selection? Doing the Cmd-Shift-Click only generates a selection and not a mask. Do I have to convert that to a mask first?

 

I am sorry to be so ignorant about your post but perhaps you could list the set of steps so I can reproduce what you are doing. Thank you.

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csp:

 

I went through the same as Mike has just described.  I tried various combinations but none of them resulted in something that made sense to me.  I am new to luminosity masking and am sure that the failure reflects that!  Also I get satisfactory results using the approach I shared with Mike (post #11 above) ...  If it helps any, the main thing I want to use them for is editing Birds In Flight shots.

 

Regards

 

Bill

Retina iMac (4K display, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) OS X 10.11.6  Capture One 10.

 

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hi, sorry for my late response !

 

 it would help if you let me now what kind of adjustments you want to apply with a luminance mask.  anyway,  if you have a adjustment or filter layer and a mask made from a luminance selection simply add a nested curve layer.  under the curve window there is a button wich says "master" chance this to "alpha" now you can adjust the mask only.

 

in ps i use the actions from tony kupyer http://goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html he is the master when it comes to luminance masking.  you will find a lot of great information on his site regarding luminance masks. 

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hi, sorry for my late response !

 

 it would help if you let me now what kind of adjustments you want to apply with a luminance mask.  anyway,  if you have a adjustment or filter layer and a mask made from a luminance selection simply add a nested curve layer.  under the curve window there is a button wich says "master" chance this to "alpha" now you can adjust the mask only.

 

in ps i use the actions from tony kupyer http://goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html he is the master when it comes to luminance masking.  you will find a lot of great information on his site regarding luminance masks. 

The idea is to be able to control how much of an image is selected in a luminosity mask.

 

All luminosity masks work basically the same way with the brighter parts of the image selected and the darker parts less so, but not all luminosity masks of any specific image are identical. For example the luminosity masks created by Photoshop, PerfectPhoto Suite and Affinity Photo for the same image may be (and often are) quite different. I posted the different luminosity masks for one of my images on another thread and I found, at least for that image, that I felt that the amount of the image selected as part of the mask was greater than I would have liked and much less than in the other editors. I am not one of those who think that AP should be a clone of PS (or any other pixel editor) and so should produce identical results. AP is its own product and one I very much like, but I wanted to know if there was any way to control how much of an image was selected in a luminosity mask or, alternately, was there any way to control the selection that is used to create the luminosity mask. If so, sometimes I might increase it and sometimes decrease it prior to using the mask for adjustments.

 

I am not sure why the kind of adjustments I might want to make is important since it would change from image to image, but often it would be a brightness adjustment, or perhaps a vibrance adjustment, or perhaps a contrast adjustment, or perhaps hue adjustment or perhaps something else. Or perhaps a combination of several different types of adjustments. However I do not see how a Curves adjustment will have any affect on a luminosity mask. What I have found is that Billtils suggestion of the Refine dialog in AP does give me some control over the selection made by the Cmd-Shift-Click luminosity selection and hence on the LM created.

 

Thank you for the link to the Kupyer actions but, since they don't work in AP, they are of no help other than in understanding the background of how they are used in PS. While I still have CS 5.1 they might be of some help but, since buying AP, I have not used PS and do not expect to do so in the future.

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.... sorry i asked because a basic luminance mask is  a waste oft time imho because  the advanced blend options in ap are a much easier way to get the same effect.    

 

"However I do not see how a Curves adjustment will have any affect on a luminosity mask "    

 

if you darken your mask less effect is applied through the mask  if you lighten  the opposite happens but you can apply any other kind of adjustment to get the desired effect  but to alter the mask by using refine selection ruins the luminance selection. 

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.... sorry i asked because a basic luminance mask is  a waste oft time imho because  the advanced blend options in ap are a much easier way to get the same effect.    

 

This is a very interesting discussion for me because I was trying to do something similar with luminance masking.

 

CSP - what advanced blending options are you using? Any input would be appreciated. I'm used to PS CS5.5 and luminosity masking with that, but I'd like to get away from it and use Affinity Photo. However, exposure blending without luminosity masking is providing quite difficult.

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This is a very interesting discussion for me because I was trying to do something similar with luminance masking.

 

CSP - what advanced blending options are you using? Any input would be appreciated. I'm used to PS CS5.5 and luminosity masking with that, but I'd like to get away from it and use Affinity Photo. However, exposure blending without luminosity masking is providing quite difficult.

hi maritan,

 

at the top of the layer palette is a little gearwheel this opens the blend options.   you can target any tonal areas you what. in my opinion it is fa superior to photoshop and makes things possible which can not be easy done with a luminance masks.  have a look at the screenshot to get an idea what is possible.  

post-6494-0-92452900-1437466672_thumb.png

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csp,

 

Thanks for that tip.  I did a little experimenting and that lead me to a great, simple way to get very flexible luminosity masks.  If anyone's interested, I've put together a short video to demonstrate the technique.  It's here:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/11178-creating-flexible-luminosity-masks-in-ap/

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Yes, actions are the thing that's really essential for serious luminosity masking work.  It would be nice if they gave us parameterised actions that prompt the user for values that affect the action so custom masks can easily be created.

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