Luminosity Masks Part 1: What are Layer Masks and Luminosity Masks

You may have heard people refer to using luminosity masks when processing their images, but what exactly are they, and why are they so useful?

Luminosity masks are a type of layer mask used in image processing software which can be extremely powerful and useful in editing photos. But, to fully understand how they work, it is probably first best to explain what layer masks are.

In this post I will show their use in Photoshop but they can be used in other software which uses layers such as G.I.M.P.

Layer Masks

First, I want to quickly explain what layer masks are, as it will help understand how luminosity masks work.

Layer masks, in simplest terms, are additional masks added to a specific layer in Photoshop which only allow certain parts of the specific layer to be visible.

If that sounds a bit confusing, I will show it below.

Here…