• Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Cards Guide
    • CFExpress Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Panasonic Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Sony
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T5
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
Alik Griffin
Alik Griffin
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Cards Guide
    • CFExpress Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Panasonic Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Sony
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-T5
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
  • Uncategorized

A Better Way To Create Luminosity Masks

  • February 9, 2017
  • AGriffin

I see a lot of techniques floating around the interwebs on how to practice ancient art of Luminosity Masks for landscape photography in Photoshop. I’m pretty sure most of these techniques literally date back to the 1990’s before there were layer masks.

Adobe has recently in the last ten, twenty years made a lot of new and great tools for us that makes our workflow more intuitive, quicker, and easier.

I’m going to show you the very powerful method I use to create luminosity masks that doesn’t predate the digital photography era. 🙂

The method uses Apply Image mixed with Layer Masks.  You can also get this Action in my Free Panel by subscribing to my newsletter. See below.

Using Apply Image For Your Luminosity Masks

The purpose of using Luminosity Masks like this is to target very specific areas of luminance for you to work in.

Step 1.)

Create a few folders. For the sake of this tutorial we’ll only use three.

Name one Shadows, Mids and Highlights. These will be your masks.

Next apply a layer mask to each folder.

It should look something like this.

Create Folders With Layer Masks

Step 2.)

Select your Highlights layer mask. We’ll start with highlights first.

 

Next, go up to Image, Apply image.

Apply Image

Copy the settings shown here.

Apply Image Settings

This applies the image onto the layer masks splitting the tones.

You can alt click the layer mask to see the effect.

Apply Image Effect

It sets the highlights to white, and the shadows to black so any effect you put into that folder, like the curves adjustment tool, or an alternate shot from a bracketed sequence, will only effect the highlights with a nice gradient into the shadows.

This is powerful because it allows you to apply additional effects within that folder that will only be effected by the target luminosity mask.

Step 2b.)

Now, Apply Image a few more times to that same layer mask. The effect will stack up. Keep doing it until you’re only isolated the extreme highlights.

Apply Image Effect Extreme

I like to create a few different folders with different levels of the effect to work with. But as you can see, you get a very powerful image of what you’re working with and you’ll have a nice isolated area to work in.

Step 3.)

Do the same thing on the Shadows Layer Mask, except this time click the invert button.

Apply Image Settings Invert

It will apply an inverted image onto the layer mask.

Apply Image Effect Inverted

Repeat until you get the desired shadow area selected.

Apply Image Effect Inverted Extreme

Step 4.)

Mid Tones. This is kind of a bonus. Select your mid tones layer mask, then Apply Image once with invert unchecked, then again with it checked.

Apply Image Effect Midtones

What this does is it creates a layer mask focusing only on the midtones. Why would you need this effect?

On those hazy days or shooting very vast landscapes, adding contrast to only your midtones will help punch through the haze and enhance midtone details. Many 3rd party plugins have this built in. But this is how you do it with Photoshop vanilla.

That’s it, now add any effect you wish to those folders and they’ll only be effecting the image within that preset luminance level. For instance, you might want to punch the saturation only on the highlights since that’s the way saturation works naturally. Or you might want to drop the exposure slightly on only the brightest area. Or you might want a different color shift from your highlighted region to your shadows, which again is how light falls off naturally in the real world.

Now work all that into an action and you’re good to go.

Using Blending With Underlying Layer

Other other trick which won’t work with folder group but will work on a single instance is found in your blending options.

A good example of when to apply this method is If you’re doing a landscape photo and you shot a second shot with a darker exposure to only capture the skies. You can quickly Alt Click on that layer to bring up your blending options.

Then hold down Alt, and drag out two underlying layer settings. Copy my settings here.

Underlaying Layer Luminosity Mask

This creates a luminosity mask on the fly that is completely user controlled.

By breaking the two control points you can adjust the darkest visible area, but also feather into the highlights to create a very smooth and gradual effect.

This is great to use with your curves, saturation or other tools where you want precise control over areas of different luminance. And you can always add a layer mask on top to tune further.

**This website contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you click them to make a purchase.
AGriffin

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

Related Topics
  • Photography Tips
You May Also Like

IG Landscapes @alikgriffin

IG Streets @griffinalik

Twitter Feed
Rainy night in Miyazaki #streetphotography https://t.co/n41Om53zSM
yesterday
  • Reply
  • 1 Retweet
  • Favorite
Follow
Popular Articles
  • BB2 Blower Review 1
    NiteCore BB2 Electronic Blower Review
  • 2
    Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f2 Review
  • Lexar New CFexpress A 320GB 3
    Lexar 320GB CFxA Memory Card – The Best Card Yet?
  • Leica M11 With Voigtlander 35mm f2 4
    Leica M11 Review | An Icon With Some Glaring Problems
  • Kalina Posing 5
    I Still Love This Lens – Here is why
Join The Fun! Sign Up To The Newsletter!


*You will need to confirm your email. Check your spam folder after hitting subscribe.

About Me

A professional freelance trailer editor. I've been blogging for a decade and this site focuses on benchmarking memory cards, camera accessories, and lens reviews. There will be a shift towards more education with color and editing so be sure to hit the bell in the bottom right to subscribe for updates. Read About to learn more.

Popular Lens Reviews
  • 1
    A Complete List Of Fujifilm Lenses | X-Mount
  • Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S Lens Review 2
    Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S Lens Review & Sample Photos
  • 3
    Meike 35mm f1.7 Review & Sample Photos
  • 4
    Kamlan 50mm f1.1 II Review & Sample Photos
  • 5
    Meike 35mm f1.4 Review & Sample Photos
Memory Card Guides | Benchmarks

Memory Cards For Canon R5

Memory Cards For Canon R6

Memory Cards For Nikon Z6II / Z7II

Memory Cards For Nikon Z5

Memory Cards For Fujifilm X-T4

Memory Cards For GoPro Hero 9

Memory Cards For GoPro Hero 8

Privacy Policy | Ethics Statement | Licensing

Copyright © Alik Griffin Inc. 2021

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent

We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}