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Luminosity Masks


smadell

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oquendo123...

 

The Luminosity Mask macros are actually Luminosity Selection macros. The selection itself is the end result. The macros were recorded in 3 steps:

 

1) On a given pixel layer, Blend Options are chosen to limit the opacity of the layer's pixels to a specific luminosity range. (For instance, the Lights 1 macro varies the opacity of the pixels from 0% to 100% such that the percentage of opacity is the same as the percentage of any pixel's luminosity. In effect, this is a straight line from lower left to upper right in the graph within the Blend Options panel.)

2) The "Selection from Layer" is a selectable menu item from the Select menu, and selects the visible pixels in the layer. In the case above, pixels are selected between 0% and 100% based on their visible opacity. Remember that at this point in the macro, the "visible opacity" of the pixels has been changed by Step 1.

3) The third step uses the Blend Options panel to return the opacity of the layer to normal, but does not change the selection.

 

The result of the macro is a selection based on luminosity. If you change the curve within the Blend Options panel (in Step 1) you can change the degree to which the Luminosity Selection favors Lights, Darks, Midtones, etc.

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My pleasure. In case you haven't found them, there's another set of macros that are meant to be used on Adjustment and Filter layers. Here's a link:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/30523-luminosity-masks-for-adjustment-filter-layers/

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  • 8 months later...

Thank you SMADDELL.

But i do not understand how it works. And before reading all here (my english is not so well) i want to know, if i´m on the right path:

Is the non-selected area a little bit selected? It seems so. If use an eraser (100%hard)  booth will erased, but it seems that the selection will more erased than the non-selected area.

Is that the way it works?

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  • 6 months later...
On 4/26/2017 at 4:33 PM, smadell said:

My pleasure. In case you haven't found them, there's another set of macros that are meant to be used on Adjustment and Filter layers. Here's a link:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/30523-luminosity-masks-for-adjustment-filter-layers/

Please forgive me if I'm at the wrong place, but my question is close to what you are discussing here. In Photoshop, I can copy an image or just a channel, say the Red channel in RGB by Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C or create a luminosity mask by copying the L-channel in Lab.  I then can open a mask by Alt+click on the mask and paste the copied image into the mask by Crtl+V The image will now appear in the mask and I can use levels or curve adjustments on the mask. In Affinity Photo, I'm not able to do that, a new pixel layer appears on top and I cannot get this into a mask. Is there a special way to do it? I'm sure one must be able to create such a mask. Thank you 

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Hello Smadell,

I am finding your luminosity mask macros very useful. Its the only solution available for luminosity mask related work using AP. Many thanks for this contribution. I made my first manual exposure blending using your macros and it is posted in th "share your work" today.

 

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unni -- I'm glad you've found these helpful. There are actually some other solutions, but they mostly boil down to variations on a theme - using Blend Options to create luminosity based selections and masks. Glad to have helped.

Ganna -- I am by no means expert in this, but here is my understanding. You cannot copy a pixel layer, and then paste it into a mask layer. I imagine that, despite its on-screen representation, the mask layer has only Alpha components, while the pixel layer has RGBA components. The two don't play together well in AP.

What you CAN do is (i) right click on the channel you want to deal with (e.g., in a photo named "Flower" right click on the "Flower Red" entry in the Channels panel) and choose "Create Grayscale Layer" in the pop up menu. Once you have the grayscale version of the Red channel, you can do anything you want to it. Then, with the grayscale layer selected, (ii) choose "Rasterize to Mask" from the Layers menu and drag the new mask layer into the proper position.

The other thing is that you CAN apply certain adjustments to Masks - specifically, any adjustment that lets you specify that it applies to the Alpha component. That includes Levels, Curves, and Channel Mixer adjustments. Simply create the adjustment layer, choose Alpha from the drop down menu, and drag the adjustment onto the Mask thumbnail so that the VERTICAL blue line appears just to its right.

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Ganna: I also wanted to get adjustments done on mask . Tried suggestions given by Smadell in the last paragraph of his thread above. During trials I noted that clicking the composite alpha under channels tab (right bottom) shows the preview of the adjustment layer effect on the mask layer.(Ensure that visibility of all other pixel and mask layers are turned OFF because the composite RGB channels and composite alpha combines data from all visible layers) For the curves adjustment layer, if you have selected the Alpha from pop up menu instead of Master, then when you change the curve, the b&w preview of the mask layer changes. Once you are okay with the adjustment, keep cursor on composite alpha icon on channels and right click. Select "create spare channel" from pop up. Then go up to the layers panel and select the mask layer. come back to spare channel and right click. There will be an option in popup "Load to mask alpha". Select that. Now your old mask will be replaced with the curves adjusted data. Always deselect any marching ants by going up to Select>Deselect because if selections are active sometimes things don't work. This may sound complicated but its a question of patiently understanding how AP works. I need to do more such experiments to understand further details. Once one gets comfortable with these routes, it will be easy to make an efficient workflow. The route between pixel and mask lies in the channels menu through composite alpha/mask alpha/pixel selection/spare channel and also Rasterize to mask under Layers (top middle). The right click options of the icons under channels also has to be selected properly.

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  • 10 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So glad they’re helping you, Vlad and Dr J.

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Hi, I installed the macro from the download link at the start of this posting as I could not find one that was an update mentioned in a previous postings. I have everything showing except the option of Reset Blend Option, has this been removed from the set now please? Thankyou, Russ.

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There are 2 different sets of luminosity macros. This set, which results in a selection from a pixel (or image) layer does not need a “reset” function, since there is no actual change made in any permanent way. To “reset” these macros, simply choose Deselect or use Command (or Control)-D. The other set is for use on Adjustment and Live Filter layers. These macros actually do change the layer, in that the Blend Option graph is altered and remains that way. The “reset” choice is, in effect, the same as opening the Blend Options panel and hitting the Reset button below the affected graph.

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Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme
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31 minutes ago, smadell said:

There are 2 different sets of luminosity macros. This set, which results in a selection from a pixel (or image) layer does not need a “reset” function, since there is no actual change made in any permanent way. To “reset” these macros, simply choose Deselect or use Command (or Control)-D. The other set is for use on Adjustment and Live Filter layers. These macros actually do change the layer, in that the Blend Option graph is altered and remains that way. The “reset” choice is, in effect, the same as opening the Blend Options panel and hitting the Reset button below the affected graph.

Hi, OK Thankyou.

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  • 6 months later...

Bonjour, Thank you for sharing this, Smadell!  I'm new to AP, and I believe these macros could help me.

However, I do not understand how to use/apply them, and, first thing, where to begin.

I got AP 1.8.3, and here is what I need to achieve on a specific picture :

- the upper left corner (ULC) is correctly exposed

- but the lower right corner (LRC) is definitely over-exposed

So, I believe I need to apply a luminosity or exposition gradient starting from ULC and ending in LRC.

Could someone explain to me in details how to achieve these adjustements, please,

showing which menus and submenus and commands I need to activate ?

I think it could be better to be able to apply a gradient more sophisticated than a simple linear gradient.

I have absolutely no background and no vocabulary about this kind of work.

Thanks very much,  G.G.

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Luminosity masks not necessary to make many types of adjustments. There are many other effective and simple ways to selectively adjust an image.
If you go to the "Tutorials" section of the Forum page, lots of data are available. Several videos beautifully explaining various tools and methods
are published. You will be able to find one that solves your requirement.

To understand more about luminosity masks and its application, you can also see my post  below.
I have not explained the basics and other things but in the post's thread there are links to goodlight.us and Tonykuyper pages on the subject.
These pages give lot of details on Luminosity masks.

Hope this helps !

Unni
 

 

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My pleasure, @Balveda - I'm glad you found them and that they've been helpful for you!

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