Luminosity Mask or Blend-If Instruments: Which One to Use When (VIDEO)

Photoshop’s Luminosity Masks and Mix-in instruments are comparable and sometimes used to accomplish the identical duties, and photographers typically confuse the 2 strategies and surprise when they need to use one over the opposite. The fast tutorial under solutions that query so you may make the best selection when enhancing your work.

Nino Batista is a photo-retouching expert and popular instructor with an avid following on his YouTube channel. In exactly six minutes he clears up the all of the confusion between these two highly effective instruments, discusses their variations, and explains how and when to use them.

Batista illustrates that each easy-to-use instruments could present the identical outcomes along with his outside picture of a reasonably mannequin. So why does it matter which one you employ? You’ll see that Blend-If gives extra flexibility and management with some duties than does a Luminosity Mask—however that doesn’t means it is at all times the superior technique.

In accordance to Batista, right here’s the distinction: A Luminosity Mask includes “tangible pixels” and this strategy is a “harmful” technique; i.e. if you happen to make mistake you don’t get a do-over. By comparability, he says, “Blend-If is simply an instruction with a set of parameters, not precise tangible raster knowledge, that tells Photoshop to do one thing.”

He additional explains that the Blend-If device works by “paying consideration to the luminosity of the underlying layer and applies the layer in query to that luminosity.” That’s fairly a mouthful, however what does it really imply in sensible phrases?

Put one other manner, once you put a Curves (or some other publicity modification) layer beneath the Blend-If layer, for instance, that is what occurs: “When I brighten and/or darken I alter the vary as a result of the Blend-If directions are telling that layer to match the parameters.” Conversely, if you happen to put the identical Curves adjustment under a Luminosity Mask the vary that you simply set doesn’t change once you brighten or darken.

All this can makes much more sense once you’re watching the video and observing Batista illustrate the distinction. Backside line: Neither of those instruments is best than the opposite. It’s all in regards to the activity at hand and understanding the restrictions concerned.

There’s far more to see and study on Batista’s popular YouTube channel, so ensure that to pay a go to.

We additionally recommend you watch one other enhancing tutorial we posted, explaining what one skilled says is “one of the best results plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom.”