Create Better Luminosity Masks by Optimizing Grey Gamma

[@speterlewis]

This is photo-nerdness of the highest level, and while seemingly esoteric, it is also extremely useful. Thanks, Greg!

[@pbziegler]

I was told to use these settings but this is the first time someone explained why. Thanks.

[@johnx9318]

Thanks Greg - never in a million years would I have sussed this out!

[@darcy65]

wow - not just educated me as to this but then solved the problem which is even better! Thanks Greg for keeping us on track

[@archer41eh]

I had no idea that this was even a thing! Thank you for explaining it and thank you for making it happen as a default in Lumenzia.

[@CarringtonAdkins]

Y’all are all clearly smarter than I. I need to play this several more times to understand but certain it will be of greater value once I understand more basics....and practice. Thanks for putting this together.

[@HassanWasim]

very informative and practical. defined & explained in very convincing way. a must watch video while working with luminosity masks.

[@bala1000mina]

Thank you so much Greg! I didn't know about this and how it does matter! Very much appreciated! God bless and good luck!

[@rolfmeier8469]

Excellent explanation, Greg. You reveal the theory everyone should know when working with luminosity masks by showing very well chosen examples.

[@gregbenzphotography]

Thank you!

[@J5388T]

Agreed, a very clear and useful explantion. Thank you.

[@Rdavis6593]

Good video. Very informative. Thanks.

[@mrrcassidy]

Thank you (although you could have told me at the start that you had already taken care of this for me lol).

[@phillipbruce9892]

Love your work Greg, thank you. I'm really happy to have these features of Lumenzia highlighted and explained, not that there is any need to further justify the purchase but it shows the depth, detail and effort you have gone to in producing an A-class product. I look forward to all of your videos as they are well presented and easy to understand making my post processing time much more enjoyable and this shines through in my images. I have no doubt that you and Lumenzia have helped with the evolution of my creative self, thank you. I know 2019 has been a year of incredibly challenging circumstances for you and your family and I wish you and yours the very best for 2020, Kind regards Phillip.

[@gregbenzphotography]

Thank you, Phillip!!

[@zackstanton4654]

Thanks, Greg. This is the sort of thing where you are the man. I have an issue though. I'm in utilities on the section that is asking me if I want to optimize my working gray color space to use a gamma that matches my working RGB colorspace. Below that it says that my current working space is ProPhoto RGB and my current gray working space is Gray Gamma 1.8 but it says that my recommended gray space should be gray gamma 2.2 not the 1.8 recommended in your video. Am I doing something wrong? Not sure which version of Lumenzia I have. The last update I did was about a year ago. First version with the vertical slider in the right of the panel. Thanks

[@gregbenzphotography]

Which version of Lumenzia are you on? B8.1.1 is latest. The optimize feature shouldn’t mention Gray Space anymore. If you need to update: gregbenzphotography.com/lumenzia-updates/

[@photog1529]

Thanks, Greg...very timely. OT question: I notice you have a toolbar to the left of your Lumenzia panel. I upgraded to Lumenzia 8.1 but haven't been able to locate the option to display this toolbar. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

[@gregbenzphotography]

That’s just a minimized column of other panels from Photoshop. If you don’t know how to arrange those, please click “Tutorials” in Lumenzia and check out the video on configuring the workspace.

[@photog1529]

@@gregbenzphotography Excellent. Thanks, Greg...really appreciate your taking the time to answer.

[@jensvielmann7662]

What about the preview Lumenzia creates? Wouldn’t that be effected by the wrong Grey Color Space? ... if I understood you right it’s only corrected when pressing the select button. Do I than really get what the preview shows even if I play with the values of the prev layers?

[@gregbenzphotography]

The preview is in the document space and is unaffected by the gray space. The issue is specially with channels/masks. As long as you are using Lumenzia v9, it just does everything for you and there’s nothing to think about. Best quality is actively managed for you.

[@frod116]

Does calibrating my monitor to 2.2 have any effect on this? Or is this completely separate.

[@gregbenzphotography]

That relationship is taken care of by color management, so that gamma does not matter. I would add that 2.2 is generally an very good choice for calibrating the monitor.

[@mariobrunettin8338]

Hey Greg, great video. One question though. Why doesn't photoshop automatically match the gray gamma if it's wrong?

[@gregbenzphotography]

I’m speculating, but I’d guess: (1) luminosity masks weren’t commonly used when a lot of that code in Photoshop was written. And they are still a niche from the overall perspective of Photoshop use, so hard to justify investments here. (2) This only works for documents using RGB spaces with simple “tone response curves”. If you use a LUT based profile (all printers, some monitors, and other scenarios), the matching function would be much more complicated. (3) Photoshop supports other spaces like CMYK, Spot, etc that may further complicate decisions.

[@gregbenzphotography]

When you dig into color management, there are some tricky scenarios. Ex: Also note that layer masks aren’t updated if you convert your document to another RGB space. This is one of the reasons Photoshop warns you to flatten the image before some conversions. Another: The perceptual rendering intent isn’t used for many conversions (such as to sRGB for the web). It is always shown as an option, but many ICC profiles do not support it.

[@mariobrunettin8338]

@@gregbenzphotography thanks a lot. Really appreciated

[@Mr31formula]

Prophoto or any other profile is not showing in info panel. Windows 10. Photoshop CC most current.

[@gregbenzphotography]

It’s an option to display in the info panel. Click the top right menu to find it.

[@Mr31formula]

@@gregbenzphotography Thank you very much. You are on it!

[@mrsusan893]

Greg is it possible to use Lumenzia in capture 1?

[@gregbenzphotography]

No, but you can use the output of Capture 1 with Lumenzia if you export to Photoshop.

[@gregbenzphotography]

How to Use Luminosity Masks with ANY Photography Software kzbin.info/www/bejne/nn3GgWxpjdKLi7s

[@mrsusan893]

Thanks Greg. Yeah I have Lumenzia since a couple of years ago. Love using layers in Photoshop but I want to give capture 1a try since apparently fuji files work better in capture 1. I'm not sure how the layers work and if I can blend exposures like I do in PS. Thanks I'll check that video you linked