Good technical tutorials on increasing contrast and masking in Photoshop

[milosh]

Three great tutorials:

Advanced Photoshop Contrast Application Hougaard Malan Photography Blog
Why Luminosity Masks are Awesome – Part 1 Hougaard Malan Photography Blog
Why Luminosity Masks are Awesome – Part 2 Hougaard Malan Photography Blog


Note to the mods: I thought about posting this in Landscape Technique subforum but I wasn't sure if it fits better here or there, so please move it if needed.

[ArmySoldier777]

I just read through the first one, and while a lot of it dealt with tools I already know and use, it put a very nice twist on the way some of them are used to achieve effects very easily. As I was reading it, I started thinking "Oh that makes sense." "Well why didn't I think to use this to do that?" I love reading tutorials that help expand what you already know and use into something that you might not have thought to do otherwise Thanks for the links. Hopefully I'll get around to reading the other two soon.

David

[SwissJon]

Very Interesting, Thanks Milosh.

[Tito87]

Excellent read. Thanks, milosh.

[Bruce A]

Great site and tutorials, thanks.

[Nicole]

Great links. Just popped this into the post-processing and printing technique area where it fits perfectly

[milosh]

You're all welcome!

Originally Posted by ArmySoldier777

I just read through the first one, and while a lot of it dealt with tools I already know and use, it put a very nice twist on the way some of them are used to achieve effects very easily. As I was reading it, I started thinking "Oh that makes sense." "Well why didn't I think to use this to do that?" I love reading tutorials that help expand what you already know and use into something that you might not have thought to do otherwise Thanks for the links. Hopefully I'll get around to reading the other two soon.

David

That's exactly how I felt. For example, I remember reading about the way to select "lights" in an image by Ctrl+clicking on the RGB channel, but back then I found little use for it, and I totally forgot about it. That combined with the command to intersect a selection with itself (which I didn't know about) makes a huge difference in selecting light or dark areas in an image at once. The best thing about making selections this way is that they are feathered selections, which automatically makes them blend almost perfectly. No more hand-making selections and then feathering them, at least not as much as I used to do it.

Thanks Nicole!

[kcoppock]

Originally Posted by milosh

You're all welcome!



That's exactly how I felt. For example, I remember reading about the way to select "lights" in an image by Ctrl+clicking on the RGB channel, but back then I found little use for it, and I totally forgot about it. That combined with the command to intersect a selection with itself (which I didn't know about) makes a huge difference in selecting light or dark areas in an image at once. The best thing about making selections this way is that they are feathered selections, which automatically makes them blend almost perfectly. No more hand-making selections and then feathering them, at least not as much as I used to do it.

Thanks Nicole!

Yeah, thanks for sharing! Those are definitely some interesting tutorials, and I'm going to have to try those techniques next time I try HDR. I didn't know about the multiple luminosity selections, I think that's going to be extremely useful. I feel like "intersecting with itself" isn't really an accurate description of what's happening (anything intersected with itself is just itself) but I don't know of a better way to describe what it's doing.

[milosh]

Originally Posted by kcoppock

Yeah, thanks for sharing! Those are definitely some interesting tutorials, and I'm going to have to try those techniques next time I try HDR. I didn't know about the multiple luminosity selections, I think that's going to be extremely useful. I feel like "intersecting with itself" isn't really an accurate description of what's happening (anything intersected with itself is just itself) but I don't know of a better way to describe what it's doing.

Yeah, I agree! I tried to google it but had no luck. Isn't it funny how we think only one way, we have the tools and know what they do, but we don't know how to creatively use them.
For example: I always used to duplicate the whole background layer, change its blend mode to multiply and then mask the areas I want to leave unaffected. I never thought of making a selection, copying it to a new layer, changing its blend mode, and then adjusting the opacity. It's basically the same thing, but easier and possibly more flexible, depending on the selection.

[kcoppock]

Originally Posted by milosh

Yeah, I agree! I tried to google it but had no luck. Isn't it funny how we think only one way, we have the tools and know what they do, but we don't know how to creatively use them.
For example: I always used to duplicate the whole background layer, change its blend mode to multiply and then mask the areas I want to leave unaffected. I never thought of making a selection, copying it to a new layer, changing its blend mode, and then adjusting the opacity. It's basically the same thing, but easier and possibly more flexible, depending on the selection.

Yeah, it's a very clever application. I feel like there must be a better way of getting the darker intersections without having to duplicate an inverted layer, though.

Heh, one way I used to get selections like that was with Threshold. Horribly black and white selections with no feathering, but I'd add a gaussian blur or something similar. Terrible results, but I'll have to give this a shot.