Shutter…Evolve

Photography Tutorials

Introducing InstaMask – A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel

Introducing InstaMask - A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel for Photoshop

Introducing InstaMask – A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel

Download the panels here: https://www.shutterevolve.com/raya-pro-the-ultimate-digital-blending-workflow-panel-for-photoshop/

I’m delighted to announce that we will be releasing a fantastic new panel that will make luminosity masks and exposure blending easier than ever. InstaMask will allow you to create and craft any mask to suit your needs with just a few clicks. And the great news is, although this is a separate panel, it will be included with Raya Pro at no extra cost.

The panel only works in Photoshop CC. We are working on a CS6 version but we do not know if it will be successful. CS6 and flash panels have very little support now and few developers have the skills neceassary to make advanced panels like this. Nevertheless, we are doing our best.

You can purchase Raya Pro here: Raya Pro

Existing Raya Pro users will be sent the panel in the next 2 weeks. We do not have an exact date yet, so please be patient and keep checking your spam/junk folders.

Here are a few of the powerful new features of InstaMask:

– We can create 18, 16 bit luminosity masks. These are done individually so they keep our file size to a minimum.

– Going further, we can also build these 18 masks around any of the Red, Green or Blue channels, so we have a total of 72 masks at our disposal.

– We can intersect any of these mask with each other. So we can add/subtract any mask to/from the RGB channel, for example, with any mask from the Red, Green or Blue channels, should we wish.

– We have two new point-and-click methods for developing advanced selections based on colour or luminosity. We simply click on an area of the image and a mask will be built around it. And we can refine these masks even more with + and – buttons, which restrict or loosen the selection.

– InstaMask has 3 convenient sliders which compliment a 16bit workflow, allowing us to craft our masks to the perfect selection.

– There are also a whole range of new colour masks.

– We can apply any mask to any layer. Taking this further, before applying the mask, we can test it on any layer and make adjustments as need.

– With split screen, we can use our sliders and adapt the mask, while also see the direct change on the image itself.

– With all of the apply buttons, we have more or less everything type of layer covered, so that we can apply our masks to and adjustment layer.

Enter your email below and join our community of more than 100,000 photographers who have also
Subscribed to our newsletter.
Downloaded our FREE Photoshop Course.
Got our FREE Easy Panel for Photoshop.
And, have our FREE Essential Guide To Luminosity Masks E-Book.
Click Here to Claim Discount

To go directly to any of our products, simply click on the image below.

Raya Pro
Lumi32
Gradiate
Gradiate
Art of Photography
Art of Digital Blending
Exposure Blend Like an Expert
Mastering Lumi32
Jimmy’s Big 5 Photos

Shutter Evolve Complete Product Range

Introducing InstaMask – A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel
Posted on Posted in Raya Pro Intro, RP Exposure Blending62 Comments on Introducing InstaMask – A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel

62 thoughts on “Introducing InstaMask – A Powerful Luminosity Mask Panel”

  1. Buying RayaPro & Premium tuts have been one of the best purchases for my photography 🙂 Hope there will be some sort of introduction video for this new panel, looks very interesting. Thank you Jim!

    2. Ah ha, Blake Rudis, I see you are acquainted with the work of our Geordie man.

      1. haha! Jimmy and I go WAAAAAAY back to our HDR days. He might remember I wrote a few articles for his site “HDR ONE”.. . in 2012 everydayHDR was voted best HDR blog by the readers of HDR ONE : http://f64academy.com/voted-best-hdr-blog-of-2012/

        That brings back memories!

        I finally met with Jimmy last year at “Out of Chicago”. I felt like I knew him for years, he is such a great guy.

  4. I can’t wait, Jimmy. This looks like a fabulous addition to Raya Pro. I always seem to forget to delete my unused LMs, now, no more. Thank you for these tools, there is no reason for someone to ever post a bad picture.

  8. My first impression here, It is really an outstanding way to achieve the goal! Confused a bit more, Because I really want to get a tutorial with hair selection from complex BG.

  9. Looks like another great job you did on speeding up a workflow. I’m really looking forward to it. Thanks for your dedication, Jimmy!

  10. This looks great Jimmy! How would you use your panels to do selections so that you can do manipulations like motion blurring the sky or water in a photo? I would love to see a tutorial on that!

  12. Wow, making Raya Pro even better!! I sure hope you can integrate it into CS6 or I may be forced to invest in CC:)

  13. Thank you Jimmy. I love your tutorials and products. Please keep the tutorials coming. Very helpful for me to watch demos using various images and how to enhance them. If you ever have time, could you please create videos using people images (in a studio, outside, athletes (action and/or posed), babies, children, brides, etc.) and examples of how we might enhance portraits of people using Raya Pro and/or Instamask

  14. I have CS6 now, and hope that you will figure out a way to make this work with CS6. I am sure there are a lot of individuals who have CS6. My question is this: Should us CS6 owners go ahead and download this, along with the instructions, or just wait until (hopefully) when you can do a work-a-round?

    1. Hi Deb,
      If you’re a CS6 user there is no need to download this as it will not work. And if you upgrade to CC, then you can download it in the future. We’re not sure if it will be possible to create this in CS6 at the moment.

  16. Jimmy:
    Your software just keeps getting better and better. My question is, for those of us with PS CC, does the new Instamax program make Raya Pro obsolete? Put another way, does Raya Pro do anything or offer any functionality that can’t be done with Instamax? Thanks for your response.

    1. Hi there,
      The functionality of the two panels is very different. Once you get InstaMask, have a play around with it and you will see what I mean. But InstaMask does make the luminosity mask tab redundant.

  18. looks impressive; and with a fine tutorial you help us with. compliments. I’ll download it, and try at once

  21. Jimmy, thanks again for a great product! I’m getting a message “command select not currently available” when I run test or apply a mask. I’m sure it’s me…what am I doing wrong? Thanks!

    1. Hi Frank,
      This happens when we don’t select the layer we want to test first. If we just create a mask and press test or apply, without telling Photoshop which layer we want to apply the mask on, it will create this error.
      Thanks

      1. Haha, told you it was me…got it. Great stuff. I’m still working through the Raya Pro lessons and can’t believe the power of these tools. I’ll trying some night photography at the end of the month. Have you done any tutorials on star trails or night photography? I would imaging the luminosity mask would be the best way to blend multiple files.

  23. Jimmy, thanks a lot for this InstaMask. It looks wonderful as every thing that comes from you. Since last Sunday I`m studying it, and with my previous experience with Raya Pro I think I´ll soon will catch it all. As in your tutorial you explain the functions one by one but you erase the previous example, I´d like to know how to perform different steps one after another without erasing the previous one. For example after blending a dark exposure I´d need to burn or dodge, or change the hue of a color, but I find that this task is not allowed. And finally, why the InstanMask does not have the Merge function. Sorry about my large writing. Thank you again.

    1. Hi there,
      Thanks for the email. The merge function is in Raya Pro so I didn’t want to duplicate that one. Please note, two days ago I updated InstaMask. There was a small error which meant you couldn’t dodge and burn twice and do other things twice. But you can now. Please can you return to the download page and download the new InstaMask. Please remove the old InstaMask before you install it.

      Thank you

      1. Hi Jimmy, thanks for your quick response! But now I have some more questions. How to unistall the first Instamask in order to download the corrected version? And please send me the link to download it because I can’t find the mail you mention in my inbox. Thanks again!

  24. Hello Jimmy. Ty for the marvelous new panel. I have found that it’s not only your software that’s been helpful, but also your implicit reasoning process behind it. It’s made me much more deliberate and reflective on how I approach edits and leads to an altogether more predictable result, with less of that random slider dragging thing going on now. Perhaps I was just too excited to get the product plugged in and missed something in the installation instructions, but I thought I would let you know that on my on my win7 system, running cc 2017, copying the com.JM.InstaMask file to the 86 versus the 64bit folder makes a big difference. With the prior the panel works, but is unstable, but with the latter everything is fine. I just copied it to the 32 bit folder, because most of my other panels live there, but it’s certainly not an either/or situation as I assumed (erroneously) from the pdf instructions.

  26. Hey Jimmy! Amazing addition to Raya Pro!

    I have run into a bit of a problem – and it is likely a simple user error – using InstaMask. When I attempt to apply any function of the panel PS pops a message of ‘The command “Select” is not currently available.’ and fails to apply the mask. Any ideas why this might be happening?

    Thanks! Keep up the amazing work!

    Brian

    1. Hi Brian,
      This happens because we have not selected the layer we wish to apply
      the mask to. If we create a mask and then press Apply, for example, we
      haven’t told Photoshop which layer to apply the mask to, so it shows
      this error. So we simply select the correct layer, then press the
      desired buttons.

      Please watch my latest tutorial, and follow the steps to use InstaMask: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMyzfWeYsI

  28. Hello Jimmy.
    I have a problem with InstaMask 🙁
    I do everything you show in the movie, when I hit Del LM shows me the way it should be… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b829bbb29c6cd16e2011890e9fc90214628406bfad4e37b5ed023d19e02e55f3.jpg
    Then press the mask… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6dfcd135a3a596fed5235d5a9e06c81e118b4ca6818b5dbde50ed2806e21fcf9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08540db721eca8d861c9aaa989572ddf7b4df0a4c3c834e6d71ab6eb94ef9526.jpg
    But after pressing the RGB “mask” is unchecked 🙁
    Please help where is the error.

    Thank you in advance for your help 🙂

    1. Hi there,
      This is all correct. When you press Mask you get a mask view, and when you press RGB you get the RGB view. So everything is working fine.

      Thanks

  29. HI! i’ve alredy raya pro how i can download only instamask? thanks a lot!

      1. Thanks, but i can’t log in i try to put my user and pass but and after try to get a new pass but I haven’t recevied a mail from site.. 🙁

  30. Thanks for a nice addition to Raya Pro 2.0, it’s going to take some getting used to. But never the less will speed up the work flow. Good job!

  31. Hi Jimmy,
    Having Raya Pro, I have not received your email for the Instamask download. Please forward the link to me
    Thank you
    Kind regards
    Gerry Mostert

  33. Jimmy, I’m not sure where you go for support for InstaMask/Raya Pro, if you direct me to the right area I can repost there.

    I have the latest version of Photoshop CC (2017.1), updated April 28. I installed InstaMask and when I try some functions I get “command ‘select’ is not currently available” or “command ‘align’ is not currently available”. I suspect I’m just not using it right but trying to follow along on your youtube tutorial.

  34. Hi Jimmy, Thanks again for this tool

    Getting an error message; please advise what I have missed , or done incorrectly.

    Replacing a partially blown out sky with a darker sky on two raw images (brought into Ps using ‘Load Files into Stack’) and using B(lue) Channel with Brights 4 I get the desired mask. However trying any of ‘Test’, ‘Apply ‘ or even ‘Select’ gives an error “The command “Select” is not Currently available”.

  35. Jimmy McIntyre – you are incredible. Instamask is amazing. I cannot wait to put it through it’s paces. Would you use this instead of RayaPro or as well as.

  39. Hello Jimmy, Photoshop cc was updatet and yet Instamask is nog working anymore. I got a error that the extension was not properly signed. How can i fix that?

  40. Hi Jimmy,

    I had to format my laptop a few days ago and reinstall all my programs. I’m having trouble reinstalling Raya Pro to my Photoshop. I’m running PS CC 2017.1.1. I’m getting the below error message:

    (The “Raya Pro” extension could not be loaded because it was not properly signed.)

    Can you please assist?

    Thanks,
    Mohammed

Comments are closed.

Scroll to top