Having been laid up the last few days were a cold, I decided while relaxing in front of my computer and looking at some photography sites that I wanted to learn more about luminosity masks. I had previously watched a video but really didn't understand how it worked. In searching the web I found a site Tony Kuyper Photography http://goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html and if you click the special link at the top you can download a PDF file on how to use luminosity masks plus a number of plug-ins for Photoshop at only a cost of $10 (I do not have an affiliated basis or receive compensation). So now I am going to show you my first attempt at using luminosity masks. This is a photograph taken at Horseneck Beach, Westport Massachusetts after sunset with the moon in the sky along with a number of constellations including Orion.
This photograph is the original post-processing attempt.
Today I took the original raw file opened the file in Lightroom and did some basic adjustments and then exported the file is to Photoshop. Duplicated the image Control-J, I then opened Topaz Clarity and ran my preset "Milky Way".
Next, following the directions in Luminosity Masks, I opened up the Channels palette, created the marching ants, and then click the save button at the bottom of the Channels palette, I renamed the new channel to lights. I then created a new adjustment layer - Curves and adjusted the curves layer to darken the highlights. I then repeated the steps as described in the tutorial to pick out only the brightest highlights and then did another curves layer to darken them to my liking.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKLAbvDtbQxnlOu7Uy4mVL9W9phwaCI8gfjxjEevTpWC30rSx-FLY47G6fXNXuQpt9gtNsORRsilFDxxtf5_iv2OZsmxvyX9cwukS2HGdekOr4CqV8EBJCLdq6UK8pEcVGrFWxSB_7z7c/s320/luminosity+Mask+marching+ants.jpg) |
Luminosity mask with marching ants |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAKly0X_HNAH1w0JQyO1kMsTyDDaRIVhbm8Zq2zgJlW3hUOexOGo6M3A9Sz2-M8otG9DihHMKnOYSLpPwvuaIdjxyxHb89O-3_c7rFHbn1LoXDAEngAO0NfupQ4MCxy5wXI7GyntrvQE/s320/rbg+marching+ants.jpg) |
RBG would marching ants |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmeAQQuC3sAuqjdumlvXNTt3GhrCCdTJ7KU4c2LBBzajr2BtBu21Jur7y0I5JeHzW8AkvJ1QGy6PMH3i-zDWE24-9JWPWc6bg4a1qBP_2E56V-9jCUhcPgZMxcfHe2d45ut_-MfvPJTE/s320/curve+adjustment.jpg) |
Adding Curve layer |
Because the beach was was black and I wanted to lighten it, utilizing the quick selection tool I selected the beach and then first it a levels adjustment and then ran the Adobe camera raw filter on the selection to adjusted to my liking.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWD3dIUqcoWzq8_RafuA8mJuLtXggEqEaUhkrSyUsWZSQyrTC5XjkuLRj1R_FPAvFk9yBqO8rqikSEXWOfLwCyICMe5PKt_sYMe9e9ukP1qrl6MYiNSdXiuYq5wcBnB-aeu1u6Rv1_VGc/s320/quick+selection.jpg) |
Utilizing selection tool to select the beach and then adjusting with a level selection and Adobe camera raw filter |
The final image with the moon, clouds, the beach, constellations including Orion
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