This morning, Skylum announced the latest update to its flagship Luminar software, version 4.2. This free update contains several enhancements to the existing feature set, including Shine Removal for portraits. Also included is a brand-new feature, AI Augmented Sky, to help photographers create digital art.

New enhancements to portrait tools

A new Face Features Detection Neural Network lets Luminar 4.2 provide even better automation when it comes to enhancing portraits. The technology is trained to detect faces in all sorts of positions, accounting for things like head tilts, unusual angles, badly lit or partially hidden faces and those with heavy makeup. It detects people of any hue of skin or age, and also spots all the faces in a group photo.

Shine Removal

As a part of the AI Skin Enhancement tool, Shine Removal provides the ability to reduce excessive shine on the forehead or cheeks of a person. It restores the skin on the patches of the face where it was hit by excessive light, automatically generating realistic-looking skin that blends in with the rest of the face.

Slim Face 2.0 technology

Inside AI Portrait Enhancer is an improved Slim Face 2.0 technology. With Slim Face 2.0, the tool can make the whole face proportionally smaller and naturally slim, letting photographers obtain more realistic and pleasing results.

AI Augmented Sky

The new AI Augmented Sky tool lets photographers transform their images, allowing for the ability to place different objects directly on the sky.

You can choose objects from the Luminar database or use your own. The object seamlessly fits into the photograph, resulting in realistic self-expression.

AI Augmented Sky detects a photo’s sky automatically and adds the chosen element to the sky area. Foreground objects are taken into account automatically, letting the object blend naturally with the sky. For additional control, you can drag and resize the object within the sky area.

Other improvements in Luminar 4.2

Luminar 4.2 also includes several enhancements to the program. The AI Sky Replacement tool has an improved Relight Scene technology, letting you retain colors as you originally captured them in-camera. Improvements have also been made to increase the efficiency and speed of interaction with the machine’s processor.

Windows updates

  • Preview Preset Multithreading​ – For multi-core systems, generating previews has received a boost, making for faster and more comfortable viewing and usage.
  • Third-party Plugin Implementation ​- Popular plugins can now be used. At this time, plugins for the Aurora HDR, DxO Nik Collection family, as well as the Topaz plugins collection, are supported.

How to update

Luminar 4.2 is a free update to current Luminar 4 users. Mac users can update by clicking in the top menu bar and choosing Luminar 4 > Check for updates. If you purchased via the Mac App Store, simply open the App Store and click the Updates tab.

Windows users can click Help > Check for updates in the top menu bar.

For those users running Luminar as a plugin, it’s also recommended you rerun the plugin installer.

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