I’m excited to announce the release of Lumenzia v1.7, the seventh free update to Lumenzia since it launched last February, and the biggest update yet!  This new version is packed with great new features:

• Lumenzia Basics:  A completely new panel (included free with Lumenzia) that offers a broad range of additional tools for luminosity masking.  I’ve worked hard to make Lumenzia easy to use by trying not to add too many features to it.  But everyone’s needs are different, and some users prefer access to a greater range of tools.  This new panel is primarily intended to assist users who prefer buttons to Photoshop shortcut keys and for new users unfamiliar with certain tools commonly used with luminosity masking.  See my post on Lumenzia Basics for more information on this new panel!
• Even more options to create custom luminosity masks!  Mask previews now include a levels layer to quickly refine any mask.  For example, you can use this to modify a mask like DM1 so that it is fully selective of the dark midtones, to more easily blend in a lighter exposure for the shadows.  And <ctrl/cmd>-clicking a mask now offers more options to manage how the mask responds to color.  In addition to Lumenzia’s default/optimized mask, you can select from a traditional color response (grayscale/Lab luminosity conversion, which is what you get via a standard channels approach) or an RGB color mixer (which offers more flexibility  include/exclude the RGB color channels in the mask).  It’s never been easier to make a mask that selects exactly what you want.
• Exposure blending with a single image.  Creating multiple exposures from the a RAW image opens up limitless possibilities to extract more detail from a single exposure.  The “PreBlend” function now allows you to easily create a stack of exposure variants from a single image, and fully supports use of camera RAW smart objects to give you the ultimate high-quality, non-destructive workflow.
• Easily undo manual edits to your masks or any pixel layer.  The new “Restore” function lets you set a reference point and paint back to it at any time.  This effectively allows a non-destructive process for manually painting on layer masks.
• Easily refine the edges of your masks to get rid of fringing around trees with manual exposure blending, separating a person’s hair from the background, etc.  The new “Edge” tool provides recommended settings for the Refine Edge tool to help simplify this critical Photoshop tool.
• Three different dodge/burn methods to offer more flexibility and control for both landscape and portrait dodging and burning.  Use a 50% gray layer, a transparent layer, or luminosity curves.  Both gray and transparent layers are great for landscapes, as they allow you to dodge and burn in color, they also allow you to dodge and burn on the same layer.  A 50% gray layer offers the ability to quickly see where you have applied dodging and burning in the image.  A transparent layer makes it easy to create a selection based on the areas that have been dodged and burned (often used to apply a contrast curve to the refined areas).  The curves are ideal for portraits, as they won’t cause color shifts in skin tones.  They also offer the ability to quickly refine the degree of change, tonal response, and to easily perform dodging and burning on separate layers.  All three options fully support luminosity masks for advanced control.
• And more, please see the release notes for full details.

In the first demo below, I show many of the new features in Lumenzia v1.7, as well as an example of how you can use Lumenzia to create completely custom luminosity masks.  The second video provides an overview of the new Basics panel.