Luminescence of Nature Press Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.

Luminescence of Nature Press Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.

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Title Page Mastering Luminosity Masks A Photoshop User s Guide First Edition 2016 Published in the United States by Luminescence of Nature Press Colorado Springs, CO 80921 ISBN 978-1-5323-0075-2 Copyright 2016 Jason P. Odell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher, with the exception that owners of this ebook are permitted have a single copy printed for personal use. I authorize single copies of this ebook to be printed by commercial printing services, including but not limited to: FedEx Office, Office Depot, and OfficeMax. Trademarks All terms in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. Interactive Content This document contains live hyperlink, bookmarks, and crossreferences. If you have an active Internet connection, you can click on bold blue text to visit the linked content. You can also click on Table of Contents and Index entries to jump directly to the referenced page. Custom Photoshop Actions I ve included a set of custom actions for Adobe Photoshop that you can download here. Refer to page 20 for installation instructions. All photos Jason P. Odell unless otherwise indicated. iii

Table of Contents Tips For Working With Brushes and Channel Selections 16 Luminosity Masks 17 When to Use Luminosity Masks 18 Fundamentals of Layer Masks 7 Layers and Layer Masks 8 Setting Up Your Photoshop Workspace 8 Working with Layers and Adjustment Layers 8 Adding Adjustment Layers 9 Adding Layer Masks 10 Editing Layer Masks 10 Brush Tool 10 Other Ways to Adjust Layer Masks 11 Masking Your Masks: Layer Groups 12 Working with Channels 13 Creating Selections from Channels 13 Creating a Layer Mask from Channel 14 Saving Pixel Selections as Custom Channels 14 Other Channel Selection Tools 15 Exercise: Add, Subtract, and Intersect Selections 15 Restricting the Brush Tool With Selections 16 Summary 18 Creating Luminosity Masks 19 The Basic Luminosity Masks 19 Luminosity Mask Actions 19 Downloading and Installing My Luminosity Mask Actions 20 Generating the Basic Luminosity Masks with Actions 21 Visualizing Luminosity Masks 21 Advanced Luminosity Mask Sets 22 Zone Masks 22 Creating the Zone Masks 23 The Expanded Midtones Masks 24 Creating the Expanded Midtones Masks 24 Deleting Luminosity Masks 24 Running Multiple Actions at Once 24 Other Best Practices When Using Actions 24 Summary 25 iv

Adjusting Images 26 When to Use Luminosity Masks 26 When Not to Use Luminosity Masks 27 Selecting the Right Mask 27 Using Luminosity Masks with Adjustment Layers 27 Adjusting Brightness & Contrast 28 Using A Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer 28 Curves Adjustments 29 Example: Adjusting Shadows 30 Example: Midtones Curve Adjustment 31 Preventing Contrast Adjustments From Affecting Color 32 Adjusting Color 33 Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer 33 Example: Adding a Color Cast via Hue/Saturation 34 Photo Filters 35 Correcting Color Casts with Curves 36 Using Layer Blending Modes to Create Adjustments 37 Other Adjustments 39 Targeted Sharpening 39 Example: High Pass Sharpening 39 Targeted Noise Reduction 40 Vignette Effect 41 Single-Image HDR Tone-Mapping 43 Radiant Glow Effect 44 Real World Examples 45 Example #1: Textured Tree 45 Example #2: Portrait Enhancement 50 Example #3: Landscape Enhancement 55 Summary 62 Advanced Masking Techniques 63 Modifying Masks 63 Adding and Subtracting Channel Selections 63 Adding Selections 64 Subtracting Selections 64 Intersecting Selections 64 Targeting Selections with the Brush Tool 65 Copying Masks Between Layers 66 Refining Masks with Photoshop Tools 66 Mask Properties Panel 67 Deleting and Regenerating Luminosity Masks 68 Creating Merged Composite Layers 68 v

Regenerating Luminosity Masks From a Composite Layer 69 Summary 69 Appendix 1: Manually Creating Luminosity Masks 70 Creating the Lights Mask 70 Index 81 About the Author 84 Creating the Darks Mask 70 Creating the Lights and Darks Series 71 Creating the Midtones Mask 73 Creating the Zone Masks 75 Creating the Expanded Midtones Masks 76 Appendix 2: 16-Bit Luminosity Masks 77 Creating 16-bit Luminosity Masks 77 Creating the 16- bit Lights Mask 77 Creating the 16- bit Lights Series 78 Creating the 16- bit Darks Mask 78 Creating the 16- bit Darks Series 79 Creating 16- bit Midtones Masks 79 Creating 16-Bit Zone Masks 80 Loading 16-bit Channel Selections 80 vi