Convert Live Luminosity Mask to Pixel/editable?

[dizzwave]

Hello,

I just saw the news about V2 today and bought it immediately. So far looks really good! I'm especially excited about the non-destructive RAW abilities (this will simplify my workflow), and the new luminosity masks (this might simplify my workflow).

One thing I often like to do in V1 is create for example a "Lights 1" luminosity mask. I use macros that create greyscale "luminosity visualization" (pixel) layers, which I can then paint on with a black or white brush, or use levels/curves to further tweak. Then I can create a selection/channel from that and use it to do more stuff like selectively dodging/burning my feathered luminosity selection. I was excited to see the new live luminosity mask, and started playing with it.. but it seems there's no way to edit the live masks (other than through their usual settings panels). I would love to be able to create a live luminosity mask, tweak that curve to my liking, then bake that live mask down to a regular mask (which I could then paint on, or convert to pixels).

I am fine using my old macros, but.. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something before I give up on the live masks.

Thank you!

[dizzwave]

Answering my own question because I think I've found an acceptable workaround:

To rasterize a Live Mask:

1. With a pixel layer selected, create a Live Mask (luminosity, band pass, etc.), and tweak the mask curve to your liking.
2. Make sure the Live Mask layer is selected in the Layers panel. Go to the Channels tab, right-click Composite Alpha -> Load to Pixel Selection.
3. Back on the Layers tab, at the bottom click the Mask Layer button -> Mask (this will create a new (non-live, standard) mask layer based on your alpha selection). You can now optionally deselect (ctrl-d).
4. Select the newly created (non-live) mask layer, then go back to the Channels tab. Right-click Mask Alpha -> Create Grayscale Layer.

There we go. Now there is a grayscale version of the live mask at the top of the layer stack, and you can paint on it, apply adjustment layers such as curves, etc. After that, you can ctrl-alt-click on the layer to create a feathered luminosity selection, for controlled dodging/burning or whatever.

I guess I could create a macro to do most of that...  It would be cool if it were native though, maybe someday... 

[user_0815]

I was looking for a similar thing, basically to create a mask from the brightness values of an image. Or convert a live luminosity mask to a non-live mask.

Following the above steps I got to another solution without needing to go to the channels panel.

1.  Add a live luminosity Mask on top with your settings as needed.
2.  Merge visible – Keyboard shortcut ⇧⎇⌘E 
3.  The merged layer is partially transparent. Make a selection from it – Keyboard shortcut ⌘Enter
4.  Click on Mask icon to create a mask

The merged layer can then be removed again.

Step 3 alternatively could be  "Rasterise to mask" which is even faster. But that makes a different result. I don't know why.