Overview of Applying Masks

"Sel" 

The "Sel" button has a few purposes: (1) to load orange preview layers as a selection, and (2) to save and reload selections.

Add, subtract, or intersect selections.

Dark Curves 

Brightening shadows through a luminosity mask can be a little counter-intuitive. Lumenzia adds an anchor at the far left of any curve applied with a dark mask, which makes it quick and easy to brighten the shadows.

Inverting masks

This shortcut (<alt> / <option>) will help you invert a selection or mask easily during both the preview and apply phases. This feature is particularly helpful to protect highlights / shadows (by selecting everything but a dark/light mask), or to protect a small area (by inverting the selection when using a group mask).

Paths

Use paths as an input to isolate your masks (works similar to using lasso selections).

Vector masks

Reduce the size of your files and abe her non-destructive workflows by converting lasso selections and paths to vector masks.

Contrast: Local Contrast Enhancement

The "Contrast" button is designed to quickly and easily increase contrast in a targeted area, without adversely impacting other parts of the image.

Vignette

Create a custom vignette.

Dodge / Burn

Quickly create a new dodge/burn layer and load any luminosity mask preview.

Sponge

Increase (or decrease) saturation with very natural results.

Sharpen

The "Sharp" button in Lumenzia gives you access to multiple forms of sharpening. While they are listed as being optimal for landscape or portrait, you can use either for any subject.

• Deconvolution: This is a form of capture sharpening as a way to get more detail from the original RAW and should be used early in the process.
• High pass is a common form of creative sharpening for landscape photography.
• Smart Sharpen is another common form of creative sharpening.
• Surface blur is a special type of creative sharpening intended to help avoid increasing noise. It works by first identifying "surfaces" (areas of low detail) and then avoids sharpening those surfaces. For a separate video on how the surface blur filter itself works, please see this tutorial.

Note: The non-destructive Sharp video shows a much older version of the sharpen interface, but the behavior is the same.

Edge Protection (Sharpen)

Sharpening can create halos around high contrast edges. The "Edge Protection" feature inside the sharpening dialog is designed to help mask out these halos. 

Mask, +, and -

Mask will replace any existing layer mask. 

The +/- buttons will add/subtract the current preview/section to/from the active layer's mask to help refine the mask. For example, you can select L2 and then subtract L6 to remove blown highlights from the mask.