|
Last week we learned how to use a Luminosity
Mask (Command+Option+Tilde [~] or PC: Control+Alt+~) to
emphasize highlight details in ultra bright situations such as
snow on a Swiss Alp.
But the LuMask is more than a one-trick pony.
The more you use it, the more ways you'll think of to use it.
For this week's demo photo, we move from the Jungfrau to my back
yard (which is a lot like the Jungfrau, my neighbors say). The
shot is of azaleas blooming with my neighbor's unsightly fence
in the background.
While the image is basically well exposed, it
could stand some beefing up in the highlights and I'd dearly
love to make the fence go away. LuMask to the rescue.
First, I'll make a LuMask by using the Tilde
sequence mentioned above. I've made this into an Action so F4
does the job without getting carpal elbow. As you can see, the
selection looks just like any other marching ants pick.
I send the mask selection to its own layer
(Command+J/Control+J). For demo purposes, I've isolated the mask
layer and run an extreme Levels so it shows up in the screen
shot. In reality, it's quite faint and looks mostly gray.
To beef up the highlights, I set the LuMask
layer's blending mode to multiply. It seemed a bit too beefed up
so I decreased the layer opacity to 77 percent. I cut a chunk
out of the mask layer for demo purposes in the screen shot
above.
After flattening the image, I created another
LuMask but this time Inversed it
(Command+Shift+I/Control+Alt+I). The screen shot above shows how
it selected the green leaves and shadowed fence in the
background.
Now, here's the other face of the Luminosity
Mask. If I set the Mask layer to the Screen blending mode
(instead of Multiply), the detail in the shadows pops out. In
this case, you can now see the unpainted grain of the fence
which does nothing at all to help the picture. Still, if you
need shadow detail, LuMask plus Screen is the way to go.
So to improve the image, I set the Shadow LuMask
to Multiply which made the fence vanish and darkened the leaves.
What's more, I ran a Command+J on that layer to make a second
mask, then lowered its opacity to about 50% to get an azalea
that looks as if it were shot with studio lights.
I hope you find the Luminosity Mask technique as
useful as it is to me. BTW... you'll find the Tilde key on the
far left of the keyboard's numbers row. |