on1 (formerly onOne Software) just recently updated their software to version 9.5, giving it some boosts in functionality and processing speed. As many of you know, I’m a fan of on1 and have written several books and tutorials about the software, and I have also been using the new version while it has been in Beta. (BTW, this update is free for all current Suite 9 owners.)
One of my favorite new features of the suite is their newly-added luminosity masks. Some of you may already be aware of how luminosity masks work inside of Photoshop, and now you can do something very similar in Perfect Layers and Perfect Effects! In on1, it can be used as an intense, or even a subtle tool in your workflow. Here are some of the ways you can use luminosity masks in the Perfect Photo Suite:
- Blend two images that have different exposures together
- Intensify the darks or light areas of an image
- Decrease effects in light or dark areas
Here’s a quick preview of luminosity masking in the Perfect Photo Suite 9.5:
(Click on each photo to view larger)
1. For this image, I am working inside of Perfect Effects. I have already added a few layers of effects and I am ready to add another.
2. First, I will add the Normal Blur filter to the image.
3. Then, I change the Blending to “Soft Light”. This really intensified the color and contrast in the image.
4. To tone down some of the contrast that was added to the dark areas, I would like to mask it out using a luminosity mask. So, I go to Mask > Create Luminosity Mask.
5. This is a very subtle change, but you can see the difference a little bit better with the following before/after photo (pay attention especially to the exposed brick area on the lower-left portion of each frame).
6. The luminosity mask can also be inverted. To do this, I activated one of the masking tools (for example, the Brush tool), and clicked on “Invert” on the top-right.
I am hopeful that they add more improvements to the luminosity masking, such as the ability to edit the tones of the mask (using levels or curves adjustments). That in itself would greatly improve an already fantastic feature!
on1 also made other excellent additions and improvements to other parts of the suite. To see more head over to their website here: http://on1.com.
Why did you add the blur filter?
I added the blur layer (blended with the Soft Light blending mode) to create a layer to add the luminosity mask to. The blended-blur layer increases the contrast and color in the image.
Thanks for the guidance. It’s always very helpful. Could you explain why you added a blur layer before adding the luminosity mask please.
I have not used Photoshop so have not had any experience of luminosity masks. Your post is very helpful but would it be possible in future to include a screen shot showing the luminosity mask overlay so that you could emonstrate where the effect is taking place?
Thanks again for a helpful post.
Keith (from England)
I added the blur layer (blended with the Soft Light blending mode) to create a layer to add the luminosity mask to. The blended-blur layer increases the contrast and color in the image.
I also have another post that shows how to use the luminosity mask, you can view it here: https://photofocus.com/2015/06/10/whats-new-in-on1-perfect-effects-9-5/
The addition of luminosity masks is most welcome and quite exciting. However, unless you can pull in multiple exposures and auto align them, the power of this function is severely compromised. I really hope that on1 adds the ability to pull in bracketed exposures, align them and then apply luminosity masks so that we can really unleash the power of this great tool. If the ability to do this already exists, I have not been able to find it.
Thanks for finally talking about >The New Luminosity Mask
in on1 Suite 9.5 | Photofocus <Liked it!
hallo nicole,
thanks for this tip, i found it by hazard.
something is not clear in all tutos i see :
did you create the LM on the original layer or on the soft light blurred layer ?
on scott davenport video tuto he seemed to create lm on the soft light layer to remove effect from rocks. i thought we needed to use the original layer
kind regards
marc
Also, I’d like to know if you can pull in bracketed exposures and align them to get the real power of Luminosity Masks. I can’t locate that capability, but I am not really an extensive user of the software. That ability would be a game changer though
I don’t think that the luminosity masks in on1 are powerful enough to do that yet, but it may work depending on the photo. If they were to add contrast/tone/feathering options to the luminosity masks then it might work. I’m hopeful that they will improve on what they have already created. :)
In this example, I used it on the blur layer. You can use it on whichever layer you want, in this case I was using Perfect Effects so I can’t really apply a mask to the original layer.
How do you change how the luminosity mask is selected? Can you change the tonal values?
Unfortunately you can’t change tonal values, I’m hoping that they add this in future updates of the software.