This is the second of a two part series of tutorials on luminosity masking, a powerful technique that you can use to selectively enhance your images. Unlike conventional masking techniques, which often require you to manually create a specific selection to mask an area of an image (and then feather, or otherwise alter the mask to blend the change with the remainder of the image), luminosity masking creates selections and masks that based solely on the brightness of the pixels themselves. As such, masks created using this technique often blend seamlessly with one another and the unchanged areas of the image, obviating the need to predetermine the selection area, or repair/refine the mask subsequent to its use.

In this part of the series we will focus on luminosity painting: a technique that provides an even greater degree of fine scale control over the tonal balance of different areas of your images.

Both part one and part two were co-written with Tony Kuyper, a recognised authority in this field.