AFFINITY PHOTO 2.0: HOW TO GET PRECISE MASKS WITH LUMINOSITY RANGE LIVE MASK FOR RAW EDITING

[@extremelydave]

This is how how-to videos should be made....clear and concise!!! Great job on the video!! You've made me a little more dangerous!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for the positive comment! Much appreciated.

[@MikeInNature]

I have been fooling arround with adobe suite and other similar programs and thought I had a grasp over masks but after watching this video I finally have a much much much deeper understanding of how to use masks to get the desired look I want in my pictures. Thank you so much for such a great video, simple yet full of knowledge!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad it was helpful. Accurate masking is really critical and very few editors do it well.

[@deln644]

This is a great tutorial. Very clearly explained, every word enunciated and easy to follow. Thank you for this...

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad to hear this! This video was quite a while ago but luminosity masking really hasn't changed 2 years later! 😃

[@computer__eyez]

THANK YOU SOO MUCH ❤ On *iPad Pro…* what a DAMNED hassle & time consuming thing, working on complex images. After watching your video, I tested, on a complex image I’m working on for a Sci-Fi art concept. I needed to remove the archer from his background. Lots of complexity going: • archer • in the sun light • Clouds behind him • his bow has lots of intricate patterns with edges, the edges, have sun shine on them (confusing selection tool) • some if these patterns also have holes in them allowing the sun to bleed into the bow (confusing the selection tool) *BEFORE WATCHING YOUR VIDEO* this was becoming nightmare selecting this, I really didn’t want to use the pen tool. *After watching your video…* I replicated your steps, *BUT* placed luminous mask directly on the archer subject, and fine tuned the curve… *BOOM* The nightmare, turned into a fun & quick process. Thank you for giving me my TIME!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

wonderful it worked for you. Yes luminosity masks has excellent applications if you know whats going on.

[@johnchilver536]

Thanks this has inspired me to review many of my old photos which were difficult to balance the sky and foreground.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Go for it! Tools are getting better

[@WeiChong]

1st time here, and already I'm benefiting from your Tutorial. Thank you kindly. Nicely done with mini-examples and verbal explanations. Must get to your other videos in Take Better Photos.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for the feedback. Always nice to see people interested in using Affinity Photo!

[@pete-c]

Excellent Tutorial many thanks

[@takebetterphotos8132]

You are welcome!

[@ianwatson3393]

Quite a complex set of steps but well explained and very useful. Thank you

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes quite complex, Affinity is the opposite of pixelmator

[@tonyb2760]

I am sure you are aware that much better control of the brushing on the luminosity mask can be had by painting in the softlight or overlay blend modes with either white or black to modify the mask. Thanks for sharing

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Never thought about using blend modes. Thanks for the tip!

[@djokotriono7787]

I travel with ipad. While i have the desktop version most of my time will be spent away. With complex operation like this i find ipad menus can be a bit frustrating. Great video btw!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes it is a challenge to put layered editing into the ipad. Even photoshop for the ipad has the same problem. Need to rethink how to make it easier for the small screen

[@simonchilds2928]

Well done on an really informative and well explained briefing on the use of the Luminosity mask

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@aaeffectstudio8279]

Great video makes masking more understanding , I try this masking on a 360 photo but not working for me , i also merge down when finish all adjusting but when looking around the 360 photo the mask not moving around with the 360 photo , its like a still white paint filter

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for your feedback. Have you tried it on an ordinary photo? Is the problem unique to 360 photo?

[@aaeffectstudio8279]

Yes only with 360 photos I try the same step but when i select Equirectangular Projection to look around the room in 360 the mask not moving with the 360 photo , here is my link , kuula.co/share/5gxKV?logo=1&info=1&fs=1&vr=0&sd=1&thumbs=1 , Just trying to even out shadows and making ceilings brighter Thank you

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hello I suspect its a limitation of affinity photo for that type of image given that it works for standard image

[@hellssurprise9338]

Heya there people got a difficult question to ask about Affinity photo 2 you know where the layer bar is? How do I put adjustments there??? it's at the bottom of it currently I need it to be right by layers, channels and brushes hope people can help me out You've got such a lovely voice by the way, really soft nice to listen to

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Sorry not sure what you mean by layer bar. Are you talking about the layer tab/layer panel?

[@hellssurprise9338]

​@@takebetterphotos8132 Thanks for getting back to me, can't see it in your videos so if I may put this link in for the time being to show you what I mean, delete it after I have read your reply back to this message kzbin.info/www/bejne/onW0n2qFoZataLM Can you see where layers, effects, styles and stock is? I need adjustments to be placed in that row instead of being a pesky icon at the bottom

[@rogerbeltz2370]

Thank you for the thorough explanation about creating a luminosity mask and additionally a Compound mask, however, I have two questions. #1 - After creating your first luminosity (concentrating on the light areas - the sky, in this instance), could you duplicate the mask and then invert the mask and then concentrate on on the dark areas (the foreground)? #2 - Perhaps a better way to balance out the lights and darks would be to create a "full range" of luminosity masks in [ Channels ]. A full range of masks from lightest lights to darkest darkest and increments between. Then by loading (CMD+Click) on a particular mask (or a range of Masks) in [ Channels ], and then proceed to make your adjustments. Doing this in such a manner would produce a more subtle range of luminosity between the extreme darks and the extreme lights. Can this be done in Affinity Photo? * Simply lightning up the dark areas causes a lack of contrast and "washed out" colors. I don't currently use Affinity Photo so I don't know if "a range" of luminosity masks can be created in Channels.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi thanks for the question. I don't believe the range of luminosity masks you describe can be created in channels. As for duplicating the masks, what you could do is duplicate two exposure adjustments each with its own lumosity masks.--one for the foreground and one inverted for the background. Not sure if that's what you mean by duplicating but that's how it would work from my exprience. By the way lumonisity masks is quite a resource intensive process so a range of luminosity masks might make the process to laggy.

[@rogerbeltz2370]

@@takebetterphotos8132 Thanks for the reply. Just one more question: Does Affinity Photo have the ability to create "Actions"?

[@lucalvs5069]

Thanks for the video, I really appreciate that!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PanopticMotion]

Great video. Wonderfully explained concepts. I love Affinity Photo 2. But man :) Capture One does this kind of stuff straightforwardly, and with ease. You had to do a great deal of work to get the photo just right!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Exactly right. Though for many people the maximum price they are willing to pay is only Affinity's price :) Capture one is too expensive for many.

[@PanopticMotion]

@@takebetterphotos8132 Good point!

[@tompatton2086]

@@takebetterphotos8132 There also might be a way to simplify this by creating a macro that establishes the compound mask with no effect. Then it's only a matter of adjusting it with sliders and brush work. Very nice explanation of doing this. Thanks for the demonstration! 🙂

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for this feedback which I did not see. I have not tried macros in affinity I'm afraid but its something work looking into🙂

[@gandolfred]

Thank you. Now it became clear how to use luminosity masks. I have a question...Does the processing in the "Personal Photo" section go exactly to RAW using its full depth and all the information from the RAW file or only the tools of the "Develop Persona" section fully work with RAW? Is that already flat and rasterized in the "Photo Persona" section? 🤔

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi thanks for watching. The way it works is only develop personal fully works with RAW. When you go to photo persona these layers are processed images based on what you have adjusted in RAW. In Affinity Photo 2.0, from Photo Persona, you can readjust your RAW file in develop persona and reprocess it in photo persona. In short the adjustments in Develop Persona (exposure, shadow, highlight ) are not identical to Photo Persona.

[@gandolfred]

@@takebetterphotos8132 Ok. I assumed that if the layer is taken from raw, then it is of the background type in "Capture One" and all layer processing uses the full data of the raw file. But it turns out that when moving to the "Develop Persona" we are already working with a regular raster. It's a pity. 🤔

[@gerhardgroen]

Thank you for this good explanation, that helps me a lot! Small aspect, in your compound mask: Do you need to use the Raw embedded option in developer upfront for changing the whole image later on in developer? I use the pixel layer a lot to use tone adjustment in photo you see, in HDR. Is there a work around? Or am I wrong about this?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi Gerhard, yes you need the RAW embedded to make further changes in developer persona. I just set leave it at that settings. In HDR, I think there is no way to get back to developer persona. Thanks for watching.

[@babajao]

Is it possible to apply a curves adjustment to the luminosity mask?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

The luminosity mask itself has a curve adjustment in order to adjust a mask. I don't think it allows for a separate curves adjustments.

[@freetibet1000]

You can apply the Luminosity Mask to a Curves adjustment instead of the Brightness/Contrast adjustment tool that was used in this video. Also good to know that the Curves adjustment tool can be used to target specific tones along the total axis of tonalities in the image by means of very precisely places points on the curves axis. Use the picker tool in the Curves adjustment tool to find the exact tones you’re targeting.

[@wrzlbrnth4092]

if you used the selection brush in the past you were doing it wrong. You should use blend ranges and restrict the exposure adjustment to the blacks and shadows. There is much better control with this approach. I feel you dont need luminosity masks. Blend ranges works the same and you always had that capability. It corresponds to blend if in photoshop. In fact if you look at the luminosity mask chart is almost exactly like the blend ranges mask chart for the underlying layer... You always had the capability. In addition using the right blend mode with the new layer fill capability will give you better results...

[@takebetterphotos8132]

ok thanks for the tip. Will look into blend ranges and see if it indeed works better! Thanks for watching!

[@imzaazmi]

TQvm ❤

[@takebetterphotos8132]

no problem!

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

👍💛

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Thanks for watching!

[@huilustudio]

Get to the point: 2:52

[@anthonyroffe5628]

when I try this with the range mask my image shows the transparancy through,any idea why please?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

make sure your range mask is a sublayer of the adjustment layer. Perhaps thats the reason.

[@Martinbeef]

Luminance versus Luminosity. I'm confused!!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Did I misstate the word?. I also get confused which is which! :)

[@harvardkarbodie]

I'm not sure I understand the need of the compound mask, unless it was just to show how to make one. When he painted the sky black, why couldn't he have just painted the buildings white at the same time?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi the example was a simple one to illustrate how two masks produce a better one. Let me look at my example again to see whether the painting white will work.