Luminosity masks

[NancyA]

Do you have any tutorials or classes on working with/creating luminosity masks?  Thank!

[Damien Symonds]

Yes, but I'm very wary of this question, whenever it arises, because often people are asking because they've been badly misguided by some random nonsense article they've found on the internet.

So ... why are you asking?

[NancyA]

Sorry missed your reply.  I did watch some utubes on luminosity masks to prevent haloing when layering bracketed shots for landscapes (or single processed twice in raw).  One was a pier going out into the ocean.  By using luminosity masks, 3 three layers blended without haloes.  I saw its main purpose to be for landscapes--right or wrong?  It does not appear to be simple, therefore I chose to ask someone I trusted to ask about it.

[Damien Symonds]

Oh, good.  I was afraid it was some of that hair nonsense again.

Yes, that might be plausible, although generally such methods aren't necessary when proper single raw processing is employed.

Can you  provide a link to the video?

[NancyA]

Link to the video I was referring to.  https://fstoppers.com/composite/use-luminosity-masks-enhance-your-landscape-photography-71884

[Damien Symonds]

Yeah, no, that's just a demonstration of bad raw processing.  There's absolutely no need for luminosity selections in that example.

[NancyA]

So when would you use luminosity mask?

Edited May 15, 2016 by NancyA

[Damien Symonds]

The only time I ever use it is for really really noisy photos when I want to apply more noise reduction to the shadows than the highlights.