Tutorial on toning B&W images?

[photoken]

In Ken's version, I can almost feel the crispness in the air!

That's cool. I was thinking that I can almost hear the sound of the rapids.

[Alan9940]

I have an action that creates a very nice series of luminosity masks from bright-brights to dark-darks; pretty sure I got it off these boards at some point. Do you have this? I've used it many times and find them extremely useful.

Hi Alan,
No, I don't have that action. I've seen a lot about such actions and luminosity masks series, but I've avoided them. My thinking is this: When I need a luminosity mask, it's gonna need to be unique to the image so I'll have to modify one of the presets anyway. Might as well just start with the image itself as a LM and modify that.

I just wanted to mention it. I'm sure you realize that any luminance mask is built directly from the brightness values of the image itself; though, certainly not the same as the luminosity mask you create based off the image. It's a great idea that I'm definitely going to fool around with! For me, I guess that I'm so used to working with Tony Kuyper's TKActions panel in PS--which contains an extensive selection of luminosity masks among other useful things--that the action I have for PL is right up my alley. And...I'm lazy!!

Kind regards,
Alan

[Alan9940]

Hey Ken,

Just worked up a very nice B&W print using some of the techniques you've discussed in this thread, sprinkled with a bit of my own stuff, too. I wanted to see what I could do if I worked strictly with PL because I'm seriously considering giving up my Adobe Creative Suite membership next month. I've banged on PL pretty hard over the past month and I'm generally pleased and convinced that it will meet my needs. There are a few things I'd like to see work differently in PL, but, hey, we're talking software here and I've yet to find a "perfect" solution.

Btw, I haven't attached a shot of the final printed image because it's not mine; I believe the copyright lies with DxO because its a sample image from the DxO One camera.

Kind regards,
Alan

[photoken]

It's a great idea that I'm definitely going to fool around with! For me, I guess that I'm so used to working with Tony Kuyper's TKActions panel in PS--which contains an extensive selection of luminosity masks among other useful things--that the action I have for PL is right up my alley. And...I'm lazy!!

Sounds good. I didn't mean to sound as dismissive as my post reads -- having more tools in the good ol' toolbox is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned.

[photoken]

There are a few things I'd like to see work differently in PL,

By all means, mention those things in messages here. See how other users feel about them. The developers seem to be aware of all the messages in these forums, so they will definitely take notice even if they don't directly respond.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but PL is constantly under development. Even when things look very quiet in this forum, the beta forum can be very active. I've never seen such an agressive beta program as PL has -- two weeks after a new version is released to the general public a new beta is released, and a new beta is released every two weeks after that. Bugs are being reported and fixed; new features are implemented, tested, and enhanced; and so on. Some of the user requests are implemented, some are not, some are added quite a while after being requested, and some of the developers own ideas/improvements are put in, too, of course. Good Stuff!

[Alan9940]

There are a few things I'd like to see work differently in PL,

By all means, mention those things in messages here. See how other users feel about them. The developers seem to be aware of all the messages in these forums, so they will definitely take notice even if they don't directly respond.

Yep, I know, but most of the things I'd like to see work differently stems more from my 16 years of PS experience vs some short coming of PL. What can I say? Muscle memory! Just need to learn to do things a little differently. Hey, I'm old!

Kind regards,
Alan