How many of you use Luminosity/Saturation masks in PP?

after looking at some of the images on this site, I realize just how far I need to go and improve on my post processing skills. I am fairly basic in my PP techniques. I do have a passion to improve on these skills though. I have seen TK's site and very much consider using something along those lines. I was just curious how many people on this site use them and your experiences.
I have a feeling most of the upper level photographers do use these.
Thanks for any input and suggestion

Jim

I use them routinely. At this point, I can't imagine not having access to these remarkably useful tools. If you're serious about post-processing, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

I don't use his saturation masks any longer, but use the luminosity mask curve adjustment layers (not channels) actions all of the time.
As valuable as these tools are, nothing can take the place of a basic knowledge of Levels, Curves, use of Adjustment Layers, sharpening and other techniques to optimize your work.

The Luminosity Masks are an extremely powerful tool. Not easy to master, but definitely worth investing time in. Also great for making HDR images (blending different exposures)!

I started to use Tony Kuyper's luminosity masks a few weeks ago, as well as his luminosity painting technique. Both are very helpful. In particular, the luminosity painting is a vast improvement over ordinary dodging and burning methods. I have not tried the saturation masks or exposure blending with the luminosity masks yet, but intend to do so in the near future. I find the "Make it Glow" tutorial to be useful in some situations as well, giving certain images a nice punch.

I have to confess that I was a bit hesitant to try any of this stuff after acquiring the actions. I have a decent knowledge of PS -- nothing special -- but very little time to spend on photography and post-processing. I thought there would be a very steep learning curve and that I would need to spend hours to get to a point where I could do something useful rather than destructive. But to my surprise, the luminosity painting technique was easy to pick up with only a bit of experimenting -- within 30 minutes of playing around, it was fairly easy to get the results I wanted in different images. I still have to experiment a bit to get the results I want with the luminosity masks using curves adjustment layers, but it's not particularly difficult.

Overall, I highly recommend that you get his actions and spend some time reading the tutorials and practicing. It is very well worth it, and (as I've said) not as difficult as it might first seem. The luminosity masks and luminosity painting have made my post-processing work much more satisfying.

I would really recommend looking into his luminosity masks, I started using them about 4 months ago and it has really improved the colors in many of my photos. I use the lights mask all the time as it helps improve color saturation without ever having to use the hue/saturation adjustment. It gives a slight boost to the dynamic range of an image without having to use HDR software which can give very unnatural looking results. One thing I do differently than TK is he uses a curves adjustment with the mask to tone down the highlights but I prefer to use a levels adjustment and drag the left slider over to the right until I get a result I'm happy with. Using the lights luminosity mask and a touch of levels without a mask I am able to increase the dynamic range and also get a nicely saturated but not over the top image without using the hue/saturation sliders which I think should be avoided except in rare circumstances. His actions make it quick and easy to automatically create the masks on you images but I would recommend as he has that you learn to create the masks before just using the actions. I don't even use his action I created my own.

I don't use them all that much. BUT working through the process and understanding what was going on is pretty good training in general; And I definitely know a few things now due to that that I didn't before. So they are very much worth understanding in my opinion.

I started using TK's luminosity masks about 2 or 3 months ago, I can simply tell you that I use them for every photograph I process, the difference is extremely noticeable, at least for the one who knows what to look for. I'm not a great at it, I just see a huge difference in my work.
they are definitely worth it.

this is all exciting information for me, Im really enthused by what Ive read here, I must confess I was somewhat worried about the learning curve here too, but sounds like with a little work alot can be achieved, that really excites me,, I thank all of you that have responded, boy, what a great site we have here !! so much talent here and that talent participates in the site. I love it !! I will definitely look into those masks as I want to take it to the next level and I think PP will certainly help me do that. Thanks so much for all your input !!

I use them all the time. great tools, just gotta learn the strengths and limitations.

I use a variety of masked adjustment layers. Taking the time to become familiar with Photoshop is extremely worthwhile.

Jim,

I use Tony's masks and actions with just about every image. I don't say every image, because it should be noted that every image is different and you shouldn't necessarily perform every tool the same on every image. There is the occasional image that requires little more than resizing and sharpening for the web; many other images require mulitiple and complex layers and adjustments. "one size does NOT fit all."

Having said that, I have found TK's luminosity masks, painting, etc. invaluable in my post processing. It's important to note, and John M. pointed this out, that you must also have a good understanding of masks, selections, layers, curves/levels, etc.

Can you accomplish what Tony's actions do by other methods? Of course. Are there better methods, maybe, probably... What I think is most important is that you come up with a "workflow" that results in excellent output - either the web or for print and usually both. Having a consistent and efficient workflow with very high standards will most likely improve your finished images.

I realize there is tons of software out there each addressing specific areas; noise reduction, sharpening, color correction, etc. and there is some good stuff. Personally, I deal with film scans and not digital raw files. I'm not sure that makes a huge difference, but I try and keep things simple. I do ALL my processing with PhotoShop. I don't see a need for moving between one application or the next to get excellent results. But of course, everyone has found their own methods that they prefer.

Personally, I can't recommend Tony's masks and actions enough. I've told him many times he need to adjust his pricing.... so get all he has to offer now for steal.

Lon

I have used masks for years in my processing workflow. I knew of contrast masks but they were tricky to create and use properly, and coing up with simple selection masks or colro selection masks proved difficutl to target and feather correctly. When I stumbled on Tony's Luminosity maks it was like the coulds parted and rainbows and sunbeams appeared.

I use them now, like Lon on almost every image. I find them incredibley useful and the combinations at times can burn many hours of experimentation but for targeting specific areas in an image is quite easily done, not to mention the level of control I have now.

I even include these masks as part of my Advanced Photoshop Workshops, like I said it opens doors for people and really brings out a power in photoshop that I don't think many other fancy and expensive software solutions do any better.

Thanks Tony!!

I studied Tony's luminosity-mask tutorials because I use Paint Shop Pro, not Photoshop. Then I made a set of them (PSP scripts = PS Actions) for PSP. I don't use them on every image, but it's great to have a tool that takes care of otherwise very tricky problems.

My masks/scripts are not as good as those for PS, because I don't understand how to use the math that defines a gradient to determine the relative lightnesses of the pixels in a given luminosity mask (are you lost reading that? yeah...) the way that PS's ctrl+alt+~ does, but they do work. Anyone with PSPX (version 10--Corel crippled the Curves tool in later versions so these scripts work only in v.10) who wants to try them, send me an email.

I don't use them as I use LR instead of PS....considering how my images look compared to many on this site maybe I should....