Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: deanwork on January 11, 2011, 06:58:28 pm
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I do a lot of large format black and white work where I alter tonalities locally in many ways.
My primary technique has been to use the Brush tool set to Screen and Multiple modes to lighten and darken areas.
Do any of you know how this compares to the new Protect Tones improvements with the traditional dodge and burn tools in PS?
I do know there has been a huge improvement in the way they have cut down on the destructive side effects of dodging and burning - such as clipping data and especially altering the hue of a zone.
What I don't know is if using blending modes with the brush the way I have always done it (on a separate layer to fade in and out) is still the safest least destructive way to go or if the new Dodge and Burn tools have caught up.
john
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A good question. Because both can be done on a layer then there isn't any destruction. I could never figure out why in the past they stated it was destructive. I would think that your original method is still more flexible, The end result and ease of use should be the deciding factor.
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Alt+click the new layer icon. Change blend mode to Overlay in the dialogue box that pops up. Check "fill with Overlay neutral color" box. Set a brush to about 8 to 10% opacity. Paint in black to darken, white to lighten, build up effect with a soft brush. Totally non distructive. change as needed. Turn layer on or off. Use lower opacity to build up very gradual effect (eg, 4%) in an uneven sky, where you have to be careful in lightening or darkening. Use the Edit/fade tool as needed.
Best dodge and burn there is. Just do it, be amazed, and don't look back . . .
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How about creating an adjustment layer for the adjustment you want, masking it and just painting in the area where you want the effect. Works both for burning and dodging. I find it is faster and more efficient than using a 50% overlay layer
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How about creating an adjustment layer for the adjustment you want, masking it and just painting in the area where you want the effect. Works both for burning and dodging. I find it is faster and more efficient than using a 50% overlay layer
+1
Plus, you can use any type of adjustment layer, not just a Levels or Curves layer.
Alan
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Alt+click the new layer icon. Change blend mode to Overlay in the dialogue box that pops up. Check "fill with Overlay neutral color" box. Set a brush to about 8 to 10% opacity. Paint in black to darken, white to lighten, build up effect with a soft brush. Totally non distructive. change as needed. Turn layer on or off. Use lower opacity to build up very gradual effect (eg, 4%) in an uneven sky, where you have to be careful in lightening or darkening. Use the Edit/fade tool as needed.
Best dodge and burn there is. Just do it, be amazed, and don't look back . . .
I used to use this method but changed to the above advice about adjustment layers. The overlay method, I believe, works better on mid tones but the adjustment layer method is better for shadows and highlights and is more flexible.
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I prefer to work with adjustment layers and masks for D&B, most people have there preferences and they all achieve similar results, but the disadvantages I see in other methods are -
50% gray layer set to Overlay/Softlight - Neutral is 50% gray, so if you make an error and want to fix it further down the line its hard to paint back in at 50% gray.
Using Photoshops Dodge & Burn tools - These can't be used on a blank layer only a duplicate of the background so it increases file size while you are working, also because the layer is pixel based you cant paint back in if you make an error or want to make a change later on.
I use two or more levels layers, one set to Screen and one set to Multiply blending modes, both have inverted or black masks which you paint onto with a white brush at low opacity's. This not only gives you the layers opacity to change for a stronger effect, but you also have the controls within the levels layer itself, and then you can further increase or decrease the opacity of the mask. Another big benefit here is that D&B will always cause colour shifts to your image, sometimes subtle but if your making big changes the colour shift will be easy to spot. To help fix this you can use now use the D&B masks you have painted as masks for a Hue/Sat layer or Colour Balance or any other layer which can be used to fix colour.
Below is a link to download the action I use at the start of every edit, it creates 3 D&B layers and a blank layer I use for cloning/healing, then puts these into a group. Above the group you have two more layers which are switched off by default, one is a Solar Curve which can be switched on to help you see sensor dust/marks or to help with cloning in general, mostly used for large flat tonal areas like interior walls and sky. The other a desaturated copy of your background layer set to Colour blending mode, this can be turned on and off while you are D&Bing and helps you to concentrate on tone only without the distraction of colour. Obviously you delete these two layers once finished D&B and before moving on with the edit, here's a screen grab of the layer line up -
(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6906/dblayers.jpg) (http://img87.imageshack.us/i/dblayers.jpg/)
As I said initially, everyone has there preferences for the way they work and how they work, that's important as you have to switch layers and tools often and when your doing a big edit that may include hours of D&B, comfort and speed is key. Download my action here -
http://www.mediafire.com/?7jzev7rf0eicl81
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Hello, very help full action. I use Multiply and Screen, but your action give more control and best result during burning and dodging.
Thank you.
Antonio
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I prefer to work with adjustment layers and masks for D&B, most people have there preferences and they all achieve similar results, but the disadvantages I see in other methods are -
50% gray layer set to Overlay/Softlight - Neutral is 50% gray, so if you make an error and want to fix it further down the line its hard to paint back in at 50% gray.
Using Photoshops Dodge & Burn tools - These can't be used on a blank layer only a duplicate of the background so it increases file size while you are working, also because the layer is pixel based you cant paint back in if you make an error or want to make a change later on.
I use two or more levels layers, one set to Screen and one set to Multiply blending modes, both have inverted or black masks which you paint onto with a white brush at low opacity's. This not only gives you the layers opacity to change for a stronger effect, but you also have the controls within the levels layer itself, and then you can further increase or decrease the opacity of the mask. Another big benefit here is that D&B will always cause colour shifts to your image, sometimes subtle but if your making big changes the colour shift will be easy to spot. To help fix this you can use now use the D&B masks you have painted as masks for a Hue/Sat layer or Colour Balance or any other layer which can be used to fix colour.
Below is a link to download the action I use at the start of every edit, it creates 3 D&B layers and a blank layer I use for cloning/healing, then puts these into a group. Above the group you have two more layers which are switched off by default, one is a Solar Curve which can be switched on to help you see sensor dust/marks or to help with cloning in general, mostly used for large flat tonal areas like interior walls and sky. The other a desaturated copy of your background layer set to Colour blending mode, this can be turned on and off while you are D&Bing and helps you to concentrate on tone only without the distraction of colour. Obviously you delete these two layers once finished D&B and before moving on with the edit, here's a screen grab of the layer line up -
(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6906/dblayers.jpg) (http://img87.imageshack.us/i/dblayers.jpg/)
As I said initially, everyone has there preferences for the way they work and how they work, that's important as you have to switch layers and tools often and when your doing a big edit that may include hours of D&B, comfort and speed is key. Download my action here -
http://www.mediafire.com/?46p752wtpet61g9
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Thanks for sharing the action, when I run it I get an error message saying " the object action UTL curve sola of set SQ retouching is missing is missing.
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...same for me, the layer solar doesn't run.
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50% gray layer set to Overlay/Softlight - Neutral is 50% gray, so if you make an error and want to fix it further down the line its hard to paint back in at 50% gray.
You dont actually have to fill with 50% neutral, just set emply layer to softlight or overlay and paint on it. The advance of the grey layer is that you can better see where you have painted by turning the blending mode to neutral. Fixing errors can also be done also by using the eraser tool.
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Whoops forgot that the Solar Curve wasn't included in the action, I have updated the action which now includes the solar curve in the action set, download here -
http://www.mediafire.com/?7jzev7rf0eicl81
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You dont actually have to fill with 50% neutral, just set emply layer to softlight or overlay and paint on it. The advance of the grey layer is that you can better see where you have painted by turning the blending mode to neutral.
Not an advantage. With an adjustment layer you just Alt/Option click the mask.
John
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Thanks for the updates version, working fine now.
Cheers for sharing.
Wayne
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advance compared to painting to an empty layer...
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Then Ctrl click the layer. In either case, dodging and burning by painting on a pixel layer is outmoded.
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Then Ctrl click the layer. In either case, dodging and burning by painting on a pixel layer is outmoded.
I'm intrigued. I've been playing with this action for a couple of days and find it very useful. However, you mention that this technique is outdated. How do you D&B?
Thanks in advance.
Paul
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I was referring to painting on pixel or transparent layers and then changing their blending modes, not to the action which uses the more modern approach of adjustment layers and masks.
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I was referring to painting on pixel or transparent layers and then changing their blending modes, not to the action which uses the more modern approach of adjustment layers and masks.
Thanks for the clarification.
Best Regards,
Paul
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Not an advantage. With an adjustment layer you just Alt/Option click the mask.
John
There's always some little trick that's useful but hard to remember.
As for dodging and burning, I prefer the John Paul Caponigro technique. Admittedly, it can be tedious, especially with a color image.
He creates a new layer, changes it to Overlay mode, and paints on it with black to darken and white to lighten. The tedious part is that you paint at 100% opacity, and use Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-F to bring up the fade slider. [Have to do it after ever stroke.] Fade what you've painted back to the effect you want. He uses this to good effect to create three dimensionality. Paint the outside edge of a rounded form to darken it. Right next to that stroke, paint another, but fade it more than the first one. Do the same on the other side.
That's the technique used on the second of the two images linked below. The first is not processed, just downsized. The other has had a lot of dodging and burning, and the corners were darkened in various places with a curves layer. Silver Efex was applied to both in natural mode without adjustments.
http://www.pbase.com/mike_worley/cypress
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That's really the same outmoded technique mentioned earlier in this thread, worth sticking with if you don't like new tricks but not if you're learning dodging and burning for the first time.
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That's really the same outmoded technique mentioned earlier in this thread, worth sticking with if you don't like new tricks but not if you're learning dodging and burning for the first time.
JPC will be tickled to hear that his methods are outmoded.
Actually, alt-clicking on the "New Layer" icon and changing its mode to Overlay does not add a pixel bearing layer, if that's what you were getting at. Adjustment layers can alter colors inconsistently, in case that's what you were advocating. But I'm shooting in the dark here since you didn't appear to be actually advocating anything.
New layers can also be created in Hue Mode and in Saturation Mode, allowing all three elements of color [luminosity, hue, and saturation] to be selectively enhanced or reduced.
Since lighter colors come forward, as do saturated and warm colors, and their opposites recede, a great deal of form, shape, contour and three-dimensionality can be added to images with layers in these three modes when painted on in the right places with the proper colored brushes. But only if these are aspects you want to bring to your images.
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JPC will be tickled to hear that his methods are outmoded.
Actually, I don't think they are outdated...using a 50% gray filled layer with an overlay blend mode offers a degree of finesse that two adjustment layers set to screen and multiply don't offer. Since you are stuck with targeting two separate layer masks when using the adjustment layer blend mode, you can't blend between a screen and multiply in one painted stroke. You have to paint in one layer mask then bounce to the other layer mask.
The advantage of the 50% gray layer is that you can blend back and forth in a single layer mask. Paint some white to lighten, paint some black to darken and paint some 50% gray to blend.
Yes, it does add a bit more in terms of file size...but not a lot more. Three channels for the RGB 50% gray vs. the weightless adjustment layers plus two layer masks. So the 50% gray layer is one more channel–not a problem for me.
It's really the interactive function of the 50% gray set to overlay that makes me prefer this method over the adjustment layer approach. And for even more flexibility to can add a layer mask to further adjust the results.
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And for even more flexibility to can add a layer mask to further adjust the results.
Hi Jeff,
Can you please elaborate on this further? Sounds like another tool that I've never heard about.
Thanks in advance.
Paul
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Can you please elaborate on this further?
It was mentioned up-thread in this post (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=50230.msg417861#msg417861).
With the gray layer set to overlay, nothing happens in the 50% gray until you alter the gray lighter or darker. Overlay is a procedural blend of lightening (screening) above middle gray and darkening (multiplying) below middle gray. So painting white into the gray lightens and painting black darkens. You can work the adjustments back and forth or remove them when you paint in with a 50% gray. Pretty powerful so you'll usually be painting with white or black with a brush opacity that is pretty low-I usually use 5-10% and build up the adjustments gently...you can also adjust the overall gray layer opacity to modify the strength or use a layer mask yo further modify.
Note, using this overlay blend with lighter and darker areas will also tend to punch color saturation so you'll also often want to put another layer above the 50% gray layer set to saturation blend mode and painting with a totally desaturated color (like black or white) to reduce saturation and a totally saturated color to increase it...
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Actually, alt-clicking on the "New Layer" icon and changing its mode to Overlay does not add a pixel bearing layer, if that's what you were getting at.
Read again - that wasn't remotely what I said. That part of the thread was about not being able to see an adjustment layer's mask, and I was pointing out that you simply alt click it.
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Read again - that wasn't remotely what I said. That part of the thread was about not being able to see an adjustment layer's mask, and I was pointing out that you simply alt click it.
You're right. I said that. I described how to quickly open a new layer, whose mode you then set and give a name to. I was trying to guess what you were saying about layers, and why the method I described for dodging and burning was outmoded in your opinion. My guess may have been wrong.
And, in case you were advocating adjustment layers in other modes for dodging and burning, I said "[a]djustment layers can alter colors inconsistently, in case that's what you were advocating." Since I wasn't getting your drift, this guess may been wrong as well.
If you were only calling my method outmoded and you weren't suggesting any alternatives, then please forget everything I said. My speculation has only led to confusion.
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no need for the gray fill as the 50% gray fill has the same effect as transparency in the overlay layer
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Isn't always fun when someone comes up with what they think is a spiffy new & improved way of doing something and immediately starts referring to tried and true methods as 'outmoded'? As if there's only one way of doing something and, of course, it has to be their way.
The actual dodge/burn tools are much improved in CS5 in terms of the impact they have on the image. The downside remains the lack of flexibility and lack of ability to undo adjustments. The Dodge/Burn Layer approach (as opposed to the Adjustment Layer method) gives a great deal more flexibility but is difficult to undo after the fact.
While it may not be the best method (best being subjective but it works well for me) the Brightness Adjustment Brush in Lightroom is very flexible and completely undoable or editable in the future. Same tool exists in ACR but adjusting the brush is a bit less simple.
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Equally isn't it sad when people think they've read something that wasn't written?
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As for dodging and burning, I prefer the John Paul Caponigro technique. Admittedly, it can be tedious, especially with a color image.
He creates a new layer, changes it to Overlay mode, and paints on it with black to darken and white to lighten. The tedious part is that you paint at 100% opacity, and use Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-F to bring up the fade slider. [Have to do it after ever stroke.] Fade what you've painted back to the effect you want. He uses this to good effect to create three dimensionality. Paint the outside edge of a rounded form to darken it. Right next to that stroke, paint another, but fade it more than the first one. Do the same on the other side.
That's the technique used on the second of the two images linked below. The first is not processed, just downsized. The other has had a lot of dodging and burning, and the corners were darkened in various places with a curves layer. Silver Efex was applied to both in natural mode without adjustments.
http://www.pbase.com/mike_worley/cypress
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Do you know of any resource that explains this technique in more details? I could not find anything on Caponigro's website.
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Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Do you know of any resource that explains this technique in more details? I could not find anything on Caponigro's website.
Two resources: (1) the DVD on JPC's site called "Drawing with Light - 21st Century Dodging and Burning," or (2) join Kelbytraining and watch the same DVD along with numerous other lessons by other photographers on other topics.
It's better to see the technique performed by someone who knows what they're doing, technically and artistically, and the first 41 minutes of the DVD deal with this method.
The JPC DVD costs $70. Kelbytraining is a bit more, but it includes that JPC DVD and several others by him, as well as several lessons each by a couple dozen other photographers. Worth the money in my opinion. Heck, watching an hour of Jay Maisel was worth the price of admission. I've watched lessons on things I didn't think I was interested in. Still not interested, actually, but learned some things I didn't know and wouldn't have thought to look into.
Interesting that JPC calls his technique "21st Century Dodging and Burning" when it's been derided by some here as "outmoded." Many ways to do things, and some methods are better suited to some needs or techniques than others.
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Well I'm glad I don't use this "21st century" technique, I really don't see any advantage in painting at 100% opacity and using the fade command for every brush stroke. Hell, that would add hours of tedious menu selecting and most of all would interrupt the creative process of using a brush. Below is an image I just finished, which shows the amount of brush work and I don't care to count the amount of individual brush strokes here, let alone consider what it would be like to use Edit>Fade on each stroke. What you see is a combination of dodging and burning split throughout 4 layers, and their masks combined so you can see the total amount of brush work -
(http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/570/d12db.jpg)
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It's better to see the technique performed by someone who knows what they're doing, technically and artistically, and the first 41 minutes of the DVD deal with this method.
Those 41 minutes can be watched for free at the Kelby Training website:
http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#tab\instructors/instructor\john-p-caponigro/course\80/lesson\853 (http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#tab\instructors/instructor\john-p-caponigro/course\80/lesson\853)
I don't find his demonstration very persuasive. He talks about the side-effects of using blend layers for dodging and burning. By using an Overlay layer, he has to deal with an unwanted boost in saturation. I'd rather avoid this by painting on adjustment layers that I've set up to create the effect I want.
So for dodge/burn I have various Curves adjustment layers (set to Luminosity blend mode ) - for example, a curve that darkens shadows, another that knocks down highlights, another that boosts midtone contrast. Start by filling the mask with black, then paint with white to create the effect, and black to reverse it. I do use his 'fade' technique (i.e. overdo it, then reign it in), but prefer to adjust the percentage with keyboard (shift + cursor keys) rather than the slider, as this allows me to concentrate better on the image.
Actually for most images I don't bother with this degree of fine detail, and just use roughly drawn selections, heavily feathered, and corrected with adjustment layers.
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Those 41 minutes can be watched for free at the Kelby Training website:
http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#tab\instructors/instructor\john-p-caponigro/course\80/lesson\853 (http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#tab\instructors/instructor\john-p-caponigro/course\80/lesson\853)
I don't find his demonstration very persuasive. He talks about the side-effects of using blend layers for dodging and burning. By using an Overlay layer, he has to deal with an unwanted boost in saturation. I'd rather avoid this by painting on adjustment layers that I've set up to create the effect I want.
So for dodge/burn I have various Curves adjustment layers (set to Luminosity blend mode ) - for example, a curve that darkens shadows, another that knocks down highlights, another that boosts midtone contrast. Start by filling the mask with black, then paint with white to create the effect, and black to reverse it. I do use his 'fade' technique (i.e. overdo it, then reign it in), but prefer to adjust the percentage with keyboard (shift + cursor keys) rather than the slider, as this allows me to concentrate better on the image.
Actually for most images I don't bother with this degree of fine detail, and just use roughly drawn selections, heavily feathered, and corrected with adjustment layers.
Free?? I had to pay.
I
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Well I'm glad I don't use this "21st century" technique . . . .
And I'm glad I'm not here to evangelize. There's different techniques for different folks to achieve different effects. We get to choose the ones that make us happy.
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There's different techniques for different folks to achieve different effects.
There sure is, as I suggested in my first post in this thread, I'm just providing clear examples for the techniques that I employ and explaining why other techniques will not work when you get to this level of D&B. There's a good and proven reason I use Pocket Wizards too, industry standard.
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There sure is, as I suggested in my first post in this thread, I'm just providing clear examples for the techniques that I employ and explaining why other techniques will not work when you get to this level of D&B. There's a good and proven reason I use Pocket Wizards too, industry standard.
Both techniques (Lightbox's and JPC's) are similar in that they use painting in screen and multiply blend modes to lighten and darken.
I've tried Lightbox's action (thanks for posting), but I find it crude compared to my more usual technique of painting on masked curves adjustment layers. With curves you can much better target which tonalities get adjusted. And by setting the curves to luminosity blend, saturation shifts are avoided.
The Solar curve concept is new to me - seems like a good way to track down dust spots.
(I prefer Skyports to Pocket Wizards.)
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Both techniques (Lightbox's and JPC's) are similar in that they use painting in screen and multiply blend modes to lighten and darken.
I've tried Lightbox's action (thanks for posting), but I find it crude compared to my more usual technique of painting on masked curves adjustment layers. With curves you can much better target which tonalities get adjusted. And by setting the curves to luminosity blend, saturation shifts are avoided.
The Solar curve concept is new to me - seems like a good way to track down dust spots.
(I prefer Skyports to Pocket Wizards.)
If you're going down this rabbit trail of complex dodging/burning, here's another option. Use curves adjustment layer with a luminosity mask, then place that layer into a layer group and add a mask to the layer group.
Luminosity masks use the image itself to select tonal ranges within that image, ie. masking so that only the highlights are affected or only the shadows are affected. Then you use the curves adjustment layer to make your desired adjustment, ie opening shadows and adding contrast at the same time, or pulling back highlights without affecting midtones.
The luminosity mask allows the curve to only affect that certain specified range of tones, but it still affects the entire image area. So, after you've made your global adjustments you create a new layer group, drop your curves adjustment layer into that group, add a mask to the layer group, then invert the mask. You can then use a brush to paint in the luminosity masked curves adjustment only into those areas of the photo that you want. Sounds complicated, but it's not that hard in practice and gives an amazing amount of control.
If you want to learn more about luminosity masks, google Tony Kuyper and you can read up on how to create an action to make them. Or drop me an email and I can send an action I created.
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f you want to learn more about luminosity masks, google Tony Kuyper and you can read up on how to create an action to make them. Or drop me an email and I can send an action I created.
Or you can pay him a few bucks and download his. IMO well worth every penny. TK Luminosity Masks (http://goodlight.us/specialoffers.html)
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I use luminosity masks alot, but they have a different purpose to what dodge and burn achieves. Luminosity masks are based on actual image content so are limited to darkening or lightening the tones that are already present in your image. Dodge and Burn is used to alter image content independently, anywhere from a pixel to pixel basis going upto larger areas of your image. At a pixel level this is used to smoothen out the tone of an area without loosing image detail, and image detail could be anything from skin on a person to carpet on a floor.
If all you want to do is lighten an area and target a specific tonal range then luminosity masks are where its at, but most often their focus is to wide for detailed work and you will only alter what already exists within your image.
Dodge and burn is more about creating shadows where there weren't originally shadows, smoothening the transition or roll off from a midtone into a shadow or highlight, creating a light to dark transition where previously it may have all been a midtone.
Using the technique of an adjustment layer set to Screen/Multiply I rarely notice changes in colour and saturation, only if a major change is made it becomes obvious to the eye on screen. I always start my workflow with clean up and dodge and burn, after this I go onto colour correction which often involves very localized recolouring of image content to smoothen out colour tones and control hues. If there are major colour shifts this part of my workflow takes care of it, otherwise I can use the mask created when dodging and burning to target those colour shifts.
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If you're going down this rabbit trail of complex dodging/burning, here's another option. Use curves adjustment layer with a luminosity mask, then place that layer into a layer group and add a mask to the layer group.
Thanks Sheldon. I've been meaning to check out luminosity masks. I'll have a play with Tony Kuyper's tutorials.
At the moment it seems a bit counter-intuitive to me. I'm already using curves adjustment layers that target specific tonalities in the image (highlights, mids, shadows etc.), so I wonder what's to be gained from an action that selects these tonalities in advance.
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I use luminosity masks alot, but they have a different purpose to what dodge and burn achieves. Luminosity masks are based on actual image content so are limited to darkening or lightening the tones that are already present in your image. Dodge and Burn is used to alter image content independently, anywhere from a pixel to pixel basis going upto larger areas of your image. At a pixel level this is used to smoothen out the tone of an area without loosing image detail, and image detail could be anything from skin on a person to carpet on a floor.
If all you want to do is lighten an area and target a specific tonal range then luminosity masks are where its at, but most often their focus is to wide for detailed work and you will only alter what already exists within your image.
Dodge and burn is more about creating shadows where there weren't originally shadows, smoothening the transition or roll off from a midtone into a shadow or highlight, creating a light to dark transition where previously it may have all been a midtone.
Using the technique of an adjustment layer set to Screen/Multiply I rarely notice changes in colour and saturation, only if a major change is made it becomes obvious to the eye on screen. I always start my workflow with clean up and dodge and burn, after this I go onto colour correction which often involves very localized recolouring of image content to smoothen out colour tones and control hues. If there are major colour shifts this part of my workflow takes care of it, otherwise I can use the mask created when dodging and burning to target those colour shifts.
I use the same methods for dodging/burning as you, curves adjustment layers set to screen or multiply, and it works great. What I'm describing is just a way to do that same dodging and burning, but to do it through the filter of a luminosity mask. The luminosity mask simply excludes certain tones from being affected by your edits, but otherwise everything remains the same.
You can use it in conjunction with a screen or multiply adjustment layer, or actually make adjustments in the curves, or even other blending modes and other types of adjustment layers. By placing the adjustment layer with a luminosity mask into a layer group with a mask on it, you can "paint in" the areas like traditional dodging/burning by painting on the Layer Group mask.
I've found that it allows me one additional layer of control that I wouldn't otherwise have. The Luminosity mask narrows the tonal range I want to adjust, the layer group mask allows me to brush in the specific area that I want to affect. Obviously if you don't have a specific need to focus on a certain tonal range for your chosen image, there's no need to add a luminosity mask to the process.
I've attached an image showing what the layer grouping looks like in use...
Another cool variation on dodging that I've seen is to use the 50% Gray (or empty) layer set to overlay mode, but to then use colored paint instead of white/black for dodging. Just use the eyedropper tool to sample the color of your subject in the area that you're going to dodge, then increase the brightness of that color a little bit, then paint on your dodging layer. This seems to work best with dodging, and I've really only used it on landscape images. Just another thing to toss in the bag of tricks.
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I've just worked my way through Tony Kuyper's Luminosity Masks tutorial:
http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html (http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html)
I don't really get it.
It seems like a convoluted (and file expanding) way of doing something that can more easily be achieved using regular adjustment curves.
Surely a curve with a couple of anchor points IS a luminosity mask?
For example, if I want to boost the shadows with an adjustment curve, I'll anchor the mids and the highlights, and then add a point or two to the shadow area of the curve.
And if I then want to paint this effect in locally (i.e. dodge/burn), I'll just fill the layer with black, and paint with white.
What am I missing here?
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I've just worked my way through Tony Kuyper's Luminosity Masks tutorial:
http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html (http://www.goodlight.us/writing/luminositymasks/luminositymasks-1.html)
I don't really get it.
It seems like a convoluted (and file expanding) way of doing something that can more easily be achieved using regular adjustment curves.
Surely a curve with a couple of anchor points IS a luminosity mask?
For example, if I want to boost the shadows with an adjustment curve, I'll anchor the mids and the highlights, and then add a point or two to the shadow area of the curve.
And if I then want to paint this effect in locally (i.e. dodge/burn), I'll just fill the layer with black, and paint with white.
What am I missing here?
The luminosity mask gives you so much more control than a regular point curve. When you are making just curves adjustments trying to pin down certain areas of a curve so as not to affect those tones, it limits what kinds of adjustments you can make in your target area. When you use a luminosity mask to control the tonal target area, you are more free to make your desired adjustments with the curve tool. You can really use it to do more targeted things like adding contrast within a narrow tonal range, pulling back the most extreme highlights, and so on. I also find that the curves I make in a luminosity masked layer are much simpler 2 or 3 point curves with broad sweeping adjustments, rather than a 5-6 point curve when you are moving the target area just one point at a time.
In practice, they are quite easy to use. Run the action to build luminosity mask (takes 2 seconds), choose the appropriate luminosity mask for your edits by control clicking on it (loads it as a selection), then add a new adjustment layer. The active selection will automatically be populated into the adjustment layer's mask. The only reason for a layer group with a second mask is because you can't dodge/burn on the luminosity mask without messing it up.
I will say that I find the luminosity masks more suited for landscape type images rather than portraiture.
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Curves are a great tool but as Sheldon has pointed out above, luminosity masks have a smoother roll off than a multi point curve targeting just a small tonal range. Also they make it easier to visualize than a curve layer as you can see exactly what your affecting with the luminosity mask without the distraction of colour, you can also further change the mask by painting with a brush, using a levels or curves adjustment directly on the mask, endless really. Another thing I do often is slightly blur the luminosity mask which gives you a nice smooth transition for whatever adjustment you might be using the mask for.
Working with channels you have a lot more power to combine masks using selections or using calculations, also you can save the masks for use on other adjustments further on in the edit.