This image was taken from the Presidio in San Francisco last night. The sunset was absolutely glorious! I’m going to create a camera club event here soon because there is so much to explore even without the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.
I’ve been exploring the use of Luminosity Masks lately. Basically Luminosity Masks are a way of making advanced selections in Photoshop based on luminosity values. So let’s say I wanted to select everything but the bridge and the land to create a mask. Normally I would have to go through a selection process by using the magic wand, the quick selection tool, color range selection or a host of other ways to isolate what I wanted to mask. Instead of that way, I use the Lumenzia panel which I’ve loaded in photoshop. (You can see it in the screenshot I’ve included in this post.)
Lumenzia is developed by Greg Benz and is something you load into photoshop which ends up being a panel readily accessible in your workspace. This is a purchased product, but I can already tell it will be a staple for my processing. Greg’s tutorials are very clear too and there’s a help button in the panel to access anything you want to know. Very convenient! I don’t have to go wading through my browser bookmarks to find tutorials. Yay!
As an example, you can see in the screenshot of my Photoshop workspace a layer mask called L2 Solid color. I wanted to apply a color filter to everything BUT the bridge and the land because I wanted to add an orangey hue, so rather than trying to manually select the bridge and land so I could hide them with a mask and apply a color filter to everything else, I clicked on different buttons in the panel which temporarily brought up different masks based on luminosity. I kept clicking until I found one that most closely applied black to the bridge and land and white to everything else, which in this case was the L2 button. I then clicked the button called “Solid” to automatically bring up a color filter where I then selected the color. Voila! Selection made, color filter applied! How convenient is that!? Of course this is a very simple example but you can see the potential here. You can adjust the mask of course by brushing on it with various opacities of a brush if you wanted to refine the selection even more.
Needless to say I love new things that make my life simpler and my work better.

Lumenzia Panel
April 17, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Gorgeous!! ❤️
April 17, 2016 at 2:42 pm
Hiya John! Thanks so much! Hmm I need to check your blog!
April 17, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Oh I see there is nothing new. 🙂
April 17, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Informative post and beautiful photo.
April 17, 2016 at 2:47 pm
Thanks so much Belinda. I hoped it would make sense. 🙂
April 17, 2016 at 4:58 pm
It sure did!
April 17, 2016 at 2:53 pm
That is do beautiful. I have been near there, but not on such a gorgeous night.
April 17, 2016 at 2:58 pm
Thanks so much Dan. 🙂 I really lucked out! I was going to go somewhere else but am glad I didn’t.
April 17, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Very informative post. I will look into this. Great photograph.
April 17, 2016 at 2:58 pm
I’m glad you enjoyed it. And thanks about the photo. 🙂
April 17, 2016 at 4:01 pm
That came out great – lovely color!
April 17, 2016 at 5:25 pm
Hi there Greg. Thanks for the comment! I can’t wait to delve into this more.
April 17, 2016 at 4:09 pm
This is a gorgeous image Laura- the colors are rich and the light amazing! Beautifully done! And thank you for the info-
April 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm
I appreciate that so much. I’m glad you found the info informative!
April 17, 2016 at 4:29 pm
I know exactly where you are in this shot…beautiful image
April 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm
Great place eh?? 🙂 Thanks Robert!
April 17, 2016 at 4:51 pm
Stunning 🙂
April 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm
Thank you Alyssa. 🙂
April 17, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Nice..
I do 90% of my colour correction inRAW
April 17, 2016 at 7:39 pm
This is a raw file Raj. Do you mean you use Camera RAW in Photoshop?
April 17, 2016 at 7:41 pm
I never use Adobe Camera Raw.. I hate ACR
April 17, 2016 at 7:43 pm
I never use it either.
April 17, 2016 at 9:02 pm
But, maybe I will try this after I change my computer
April 18, 2016 at 7:28 am
It sure is a streamlined way to use them. Hoepfully you’ll get your computer by the end of the year. 😛
April 18, 2016 at 7:34 am
Oh no… In the next 10 days… But, upgrading that one to 16 Gb… That may take till the end of the year
April 17, 2016 at 7:31 pm
golden
April 17, 2016 at 7:40 pm
Indeed
April 17, 2016 at 8:29 pm
Thanks for sharing Laura. I use layer masks all the time but I’ve been wanting to use luminosity masks. Photo looks great!@
April 18, 2016 at 7:27 am
Thank you Michael. I had tried some other luminosity masks that required loading a bunch of actions. They were ok but this is infinitely more streamlined. Have fun!
April 18, 2016 at 5:05 am
The subject, the angle, the contrasts, the sky, and more …. simply many good things to like about this photo
April 18, 2016 at 7:28 am
Aw thank you! I’m glad you like it. 🙂
April 18, 2016 at 8:38 am
Wow Laura, I love the result 😀
April 18, 2016 at 8:56 am
Thank you!
April 18, 2016 at 11:05 am
Great post and gorgeous image, Laura.
April 18, 2016 at 1:50 pm
Thanks Jane. I’m happy you liked them both. 🙂
April 18, 2016 at 1:42 pm
Wonderful, Laura. Geez I’d love to snap that bridge.
April 18, 2016 at 1:51 pm
Oh Tommy, you would adore it!!! Thanks so much. 🙂
April 20, 2016 at 8:42 pm
One day I’ll get there, Laura – one day.
April 18, 2016 at 6:30 pm
Reblogged this on From 1 Blogger 2 Another.
April 18, 2016 at 7:01 pm
Aw you’re the best! Thanks for the reblog. 🙂
April 19, 2016 at 9:48 am
What can I say, just a humble fan!
April 19, 2016 at 12:27 pm
GRINNING here! Thank you!
April 18, 2016 at 7:13 pm
Cannot wait to see this bridge someday. Until then, I’ll just enjoy your image!
April 18, 2016 at 9:25 pm
Come in winter or spring. Less fog. 🙂
April 19, 2016 at 8:45 am
Excellent Laura, and very interesting to boot – I am still a bit of a newbie on photoshop, but am an avid Lightroom man….Plenty to learn….MM🍀
April 19, 2016 at 8:51 am
Hiya MM! Thanks bunches. I love LR too. I always use that for importing, file management and basic adjustments before exporting into PS. Although some images don’t to to PS. It’s all fun isn’t it. 🙂
April 19, 2016 at 9:12 am
How stunning, Laura! That is a magic process through PS. I hope I’ll get over with the fear of PS someday. 🙂
April 19, 2016 at 9:13 am
Oh, Thank you for sharing! 🙂
April 19, 2016 at 12:26 pm
hehe you’re welcome!
April 19, 2016 at 3:37 pm
😊😍
April 19, 2016 at 12:26 pm
Thanks so much Amy! I’m so glad you like it. 🙂 I teach photoshop by the way. You can see it on my website. No pressure but just in case you are wondering. http://www.lauramacky.com. It’s under Tutorials.
April 19, 2016 at 5:38 pm
Such a great shot Laura 🙂
April 20, 2016 at 7:22 am
Thank you so much Andrew. 🙂
April 20, 2016 at 7:28 am
My pleasure
April 20, 2016 at 4:46 am
Very useful. Rather than buy the add-on which I can’t afford I went and studied luminosity masks. I have a membership at Kelby http://kelbyone.com/lesson/luminosity-mask/
April 20, 2016 at 7:27 am
I’m glad you like them as well. I’ve read so much about them from a host of different people. There were some free actions I downloaded once and they worked fine too. Thanks for showing me what you used.
April 21, 2016 at 7:50 pm
Thanks for sharing. Beautiful light
April 21, 2016 at 8:16 pm
You’re welcome. And thank you. 🙂
April 22, 2016 at 2:20 pm
Hey, Laura: Great shot! Thanks also for the info on Lumenzia. I was not familiar with it but I’ll be checking it out now.
April 22, 2016 at 3:21 pm
You’re welcome Robin! And Thanks! I’ve gotta get over to your blog now.