Luminosity Masking of digital images

[dnmilikan]

For those who wish to have a bit more control over the final output of their images, I would share with you the basis for a series of actions that can either be downloaded or built in PS. The link for these actions are as follows:

http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminos ... sks-1.html

I have used these for some time and they fill a need for actions not easily accomplished in other ways since they are directed to luminosity regions rather than limited tonal regions in a photographic image. Obviously this will require installation of and a certain familiarity with Photoshop.

There are also some other actions available from this photographer, should you want them. Digital Sheimflug (assuring maximum depth of field through multiple exposures without the attending dileterious effects of diffraction caused by simply stopping down a lens) and saturation masking are also of very definite benefit.

Best regards,
Don

[jkarney]

Neat. Luminosity adjustment offers a lot of advantages over RGB editing. Are you aware of LIghtZone. It's a really easy to use and powerful editor that is based on that same model and lets you mask areas on an image using vector regions. The free trial version can be downloaded at http://www.lightcrafts.com. I use it for all my artistic editing and PhotoShop for retouching and filters.
Cheers,
Jim

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Don, that's a wonderful link! It's something I've been doing all along but in a much more difficult way, so this information is completely welcome in my life. I never cease to be amazed that, though I've used Photoshop for 10 years, I'm still constantly learning new things about it and new ways of accomplishing things in it.

Thank you so much for passing this on.

Barbara

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

In playing with Akvis Sketch I found this little goody......

http://www.fantasticmachines.com/store/ ... p?cPath=24

and it's totally free!! Thanks for the other links, they are great. Cheers Jan

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Jan, I went to the site but couldn't find a good description of what Paint Engine actually does. Can you fill me in?

Barbara

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

I will put up a screen shot when I get home. It has effects like puff, watercolour, can't think of them all but you get the idea. I did a show for my Girlfried who just got back from Scotland. The very ending slide with the purple flowers is "Puff" before it dissolves to Lucis Art.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 2049&alb=0


Cheers Jan

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Okay. I'm going to download it. And here I am, having promised myself I'd stop downloading things and stuffing up my hard drive, poor thing!

I watched the whole show, laughed at the "Palace Closed" sign, and was stunned by the incredible topiary. How do they trim those things? With sky hooks?

You did a great job for your friend.

Barbara

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

I know those topiarys were so stuning. Actually all the scenery is just so majectic and amazing. she said they didn't want to come back home........have fun...Cheers Jan

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

I haven't played with luminosity in PS yet... since I spend most of my time in Photopaint. However, I do a number of corrections in LAB mode where I can change lightness or brightness w/o affecting color in LAB ... something that can't be done in RGB or CMYK. You can do some amazing things in LAB mode esp when combined with masking and/or merge modes of multiply or texturize. Of course, if you can have an action do it for you (and it works for you), then more power to you (another tool in the repertoire!).

Dale

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Dale, I used to work in LAB mode a lot and for the same reasons. Maybe I don't do it anymore because RAW conversion in CS3 has such incredible fine-tuning abilities. Then again, maybe I'm just getting too darned old to remember whatever happened this morning.

Barbara

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Well, I do some fine tuning of the work in Lightroom before converting to tiff or jpg (depending on what I want to do with it). But then, I still might want to enhance a section of the image vs the whole darned thing. LR can't do that yet (watch for tighter integration with PS in future version or ... more PS-like capabilities being added to it in the future).

Right now the terrific fine tuning capabilities of the image editor aren't possible in the image manager (ACDSee, Lightroom, Bibble, etc). But, that may change in the next couple of years.

I'm not ready to hand over the fine fine-tuning of the image editor to the fine tuning capabilities in the image manager. I'm more like doing crude fixes like tone and exposure than color correction in LR right now . . . I find my self finishing the job in Photopaint.

Dale

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

When I want to tune up just an area of a photo, I most commonly use Quick Mask to select it and then I place it on its own layer. This way I can alter it and watch how it looks against the rest of the picture. When I'm done, I blend the edges, then flatten. Come to think of it, this is very similar to the masking method Don sent us the link to.

Barbara

[dnmilikan]

In the interest of preventing confusion about what these actions are capable of performing, let me say that the action is one in which the different masks are created in the channels palatte of PS. From there the photographer/post processing person can choose a particular mask from twelve that are created in the action. The mask then chosen can be entered as a selection and then one can go to the layers palette and choose the action desired for that particular selection. Normally one would choose curves as the action to be used on the selection. Thus one could alter the local contrast within a given luminosity range...thus one could lighten, darken, alter the local contrast or do nothing, for that matter, within the given luminosity range.

I don't know how many here have ever used variable contrast materials in a traditional wet darkroom, but in the event that there are some here, this has the potential of providing twelve separate and distinct variable contrasts within a given image without altering the overall (global contrast) of the image.

The same could be said for saturation masks. The saturation masks contain within them the possibility of altering s a given saturation without altering the overall (global) saturation of an image.

The reason that I am reitterating what these masks are capable of doing is that I gather, perhaps mistakenly, that some here do not grasp the full implication of these actions. There is nothing automatic about the actions other than the creation of the masks...it is still up to us who use them to decide which masks are applicable and hence chosen for a given application.

I have created these masks without downloading the actions from the link that I provided. They are a little tricky to create...one should follow the directions very precisely if that is the direction that one chooses to take.

Good luck and enjoy!!!

Don

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Don, I should really give those masks a try. Your description makes me think they could help in situations where my other methods have failed.

Barbara

[dnmilikan]

Barbara,

I encourage you to do so, if you wish...they are very powerful in what they can accomplish.

Good luck,
Don