Luminar 3’s Accent AI is a great filter to explore with any of your photographs. It can be especially helpful with photographs where you have underexposed or overexposed them or have some other problems with them. Maybe you have a sky that is too bright so you lose detail in the sky or you have shadows that are too dark and lose detail there. The real advantage of using Accent AI is that it can quickly fix many of those issues and you have a photograph you are happy with or it quickly provides you with a starting place where you can make use of the other amazing tools in Luminar to help you finish your photograph.

In this article, we will look at three photographs. The first one is an underexposed landscape. The second photograph is city shot that is overexposed in the sky and underexposed in areas below the sky, and finally a fun picture of a piece of abandoned heavy equipment, that is overexposed by almost 2 stops.

What is Accent AI?

According to Skylum, the Accent AI filter uses artificial intelligence and analyzes your entire image and then using dozens of controls, it corrects and adjustments exposure, shadows, highlights, contrast, tone, saturation and detail of the photograph, and it does this all automatically.

Then you can control how much additional changes you want from the Accent AI filter by using the Boost slider. As you move the slider, Accent AI evaluates each part of the photograph determining what’s in the photograph, what’s light, what’s dark, what colors are there and how bright or dim those colors are, just to name a few. As it does this analysis, it continues to adjust and fine-tune the exposure, shadows, highlights, saturation, details of the photograph and tone.

Where do I find it?

The Accent AI filter is a part of most all the workspaces in Luminar. If it isn’t a part of a workspace you’re using, just click the (1) Add Filters button and type in (2) accent in the Search box and (3) select Accent AI. It will be added to the bottom of the filters list. You can then drag it where ever you want in the Filters list.

Let’s look at some examples

In the following examples, I’ll show you the original photograph and then I’ll show you the photograph with Accent AI applied, so you can see how it works visually and then a final version with other Luminar filters applied. Note that working with RAW files will give you the most latitude in correcting images that are too dark, too bright, have skies that are too bright or shadows that are too dark. When we have areas that are too dark or too bright we lose details in those areas. Colors are also impacted by this and can be overly saturated, undersaturated or muddy. If you are using JPEGs then you will have less latitude than with RAW files.

Photograph 1

This first photograph is underexposed by 1 full stop. The shadows are so dark that we lose details on them and the color is affected. The sky is also too dark and we are losing detail and color. Overall the colors are a bit muddy looking.

After Accent AI has been applied at 100%, the result is more detail in the shadow areas and sky, better-looking color overall and a better level of contrast and tone. I did this by moving the Boost slider, nothing more. From here I would go back to the RAW Develop filter and begin making adjustments and then tweak the Accent AI settings, moving back and forth until I had the look I wanted. Then I would move on to using the other tools in Luminar for fine tuning and finish work.

After Accent AI, RAW Develop and other Luminar filters applied

Photograph 2

In this photograph, I have a sky that is too bright, and shadows and midtones that are too dark. I am also losing detail in those areas and the color is muted and muddy.

To show how useful Accent AI can be, I applied it at 100%. You can see that it reduced the brightness in the sky bringing back the cloud detail and some color, as well as raising the shadow areas revealing color and detail. It also brightened the midtones bringing back detail and color. From here I would use the other tools including RAW Develop filter in my processing.

After Accent AI, RAW Develop and other Luminar filters applied

Photograph 3

This photograph is overexposed by 1.75 stops. I discovered this abandoned piece of equipment on a hike and just couldn’t resist photographing it. Because of the degree of overexposure, I will need to use both Accent AI and the RAW Develop filter to get a good starting point for further processing. Let’s see how it does.

Here are the settings I used in RAW Develop filter.

This photograph combines the settings of the RAW Develop filter and the Accent AI filter. You can see that we have recovered more of the sky, we have more detail and color in the trees and inside the cab as well as the area in front of the rig and on the treads. In getting to this point, I moved back and forth between Accent AI and RAW Develop, making changes until I was happy with the result. This is now ready for me to work with the other filters available in Luminar to complete the photograph.

After Accent AI, RAW Develop and other Luminar filters applied

Conclusion

Accent AI does some pretty amazing analysis and correction. When you use it, explore using the Boost slider and in some cases, you will want to combine it with the RAW Develop filter. In many cases, you may find that the using Accent AI filter produces a final result for you. In other cases, you will want to use the other filters in Luminar to enhance and fine-tune the look. In either case, use this tool to explore and enjoy creating your photographs.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find this helpful!

You can find Luminar 3 here. Use the promo code PHOTOFOCUS to save $10!