Version 9 of the Lumenzia luminosity masking panel for Photoshop is now available as a free upgrade for all customers. It’s never been easier to create the perfect luminosity mask or selection to make beautiful photos. And the updates have been designed to avoid changing any existing workflows, so you can jump right in. Be sure to see the highlights and initial demo videos below (more to come in the months ahead).

Hear me discuss new v9 features with Jeff Harmon on the Master Photography podcast.

New features in Lumenzia v9 include:

• Automatically create subtracted selections just by double-clicking the “-“ button. This helps quickly and easily get better shadow detail in your photos.
• Create special selections, channels, or layers based on HSB, HSL, LAB, CMYK, or RGB values. This includes a preview interface for trying different blend modes when creating layers.
• Out of Gamut masks. Take more control over your conversion to sRGB, prints, or other strong colors that may need adjustment.
• Reload the last orange preview layers. This includes any customizations, such as tweaks to the sliders, levels layers, color targeting, etc.
• Automatically crop or fill transparent edges when aligning exposures via PreBlend to ensure great-looking edges in your blends.
• Fade slider in the Basics panel. Quickly and easily dial in just the right amount of the last brush stroke, etc. Click the slider to set the exact amount you need.*
• “Sky” button offers enhance Sky selection and replacement (Basics panel):*
  • Control whether the results are based on the active layer or sample from all layers.
  • Choose on-off sky replacements without having to import them to the PS library.
  • Select foregrounds
  • Guidance to avoid common issues (with hidden layers, adjustment layers, etc).
• “Vignette” results have been substantially improved.
  • <shift>-clicking for BlendIf now automatically helps protect shadows.
  • When using vector masks, edges are now expanded so that the vignette is darkened all the way to the edges (to get the same as when using layer masks, but with more flexibility and smaller file sizes).
• Enhanced “SmartObj” in the Basics panel:
  • Improved organization and clarity with named smart objects.
  • Copy channels to the new Smart Object.
• Improved optimization, including customized menus, toolbar, and workspace. Available via “Optimize Photoshop” in the Utilities menu (top-right of the panel or ctrl-click the “Tutorials” button in CS6).*
• And much more. These are just some of the highlights. There are 170 new features, updates, and bug fixes compared to v8.5.1. See the release notes for full details.

* Note for CS6 users: While Lumenzia v9 includes hundreds of enhancements for CS6, some updates are limited to Photoshop CC or work somewhat differently in CS6. This is unfortunately due to limitations of the >8-year old CS6 platform. Differences are primarily in appearance or workflow. Functional capabilities generally remain nearly the same. And of course, you automatically have access to the CC panel if you ever update to Photoshop CC.

Buy Lumenzia v9 now.

Existing customers can download any time via the links on this page (which is also linked from the bottom of all my newsletters).

Note: Lumenzia v9 is compatible with Photoshop CS6 and CC (including PS 2021), Windows, and MacOS (including Big Sur and M1 / Apple Silicon).