HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK

HOW TO APPLY AND USE A LIMINAR MASK

I have to start this out by saying I watched one video on this and for the life of me could not make it work out, after watching several videos I soon learned that there are a few different ways to apply a mask, and this post will be on the easiest way I have found to apply a Luminar mask.  So for this post, I am going to upload a colorful photo onto Luminar, which you see below.

HOW TO APPLY A LUMINAR MASK

Now I will go to my filters and select the  fog   filter.  Once I select the filter I want to do a mask with, Now when you hover near your filter title on the right, in this case the fog filter
, three tiny symbols will appear to the right of the filter title, the middle symbol being a paint brush.  Click on the paint brush and select "Brush."    Each filter has its own brush.

HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK

Now as you move your pointer out over your photo, there are two circles, the circle in the center will be the area where the brush will be applied the most, the outer circle is the area where the brush effect will feather out or fade.  Now as I apply my mask, I am simply going to move the brush back and forth over the area I want to apply my filter, so it only effects that section of my photo, thus masking out the rest of the photo.  One thing to point out here is that both the photo and the brush can be made larger or smaller, making your job that much easier.  To change the size of your brush, near the center top section of the screen you will see the SIZE button, click on it and move the slider right to enlarge your brush, left to make your brush smaller.  Above and to the left of the size button is a plus +  and a minus - sign, use that to make your photo larger or smaller.
Once I have moved my brush over the areas I want to apply the fog effect to, I simply go to the filter I selected, in this case the fog filter, and move the sliders left or right to adjust the amount of fog effect I want, as I move the sliders, the areas I had moved the brush over fill in with fog;  had I selected another filter those areas would of filled in with that effect.

HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK

At this point your brush is still active, so you can now move it over your photo and using your left click button on your mouse you can make minor touch ups directly on the photo.  If somewhere along the line you mess up, simply hit the X on that filter to remove it, re-select the filter and begin again.
Once your done with your work, go back to the brush symbol and click on it again to turn the brush off.
Now this may seem confusing at first, and it took me a while to get it right, but like with anything in life, keep practicing at it until you nail it.

1.  Upload your photo
2.  select your filter
3.  hover pointer by filter title, select brush
4.  adjust brush size
5.  Hold down right click button on mouse and move brush over areas you want to apply effect filter to.
6.  now adjust filter sliders to apply effect to areas you brushed
7.  brush is still active, make any minor touch ups now
8.  Hover pointer back over brush symbol and click to turn brush off.

There are Youtube videos on other ways to use a mask which you may find helpful.