Skylum just released its 4.2 update to Luminar, claiming even more powerful AI tools. Offering refinements to various AI features — including AI Sky Replacement — the company claims to have fixed many of the bugs that caused unexpected errors and crashes. In addition to AI Sky Replacement, there are improvements to portrait editing as well as a new eraser tool.
AI Sky Replacement
While I thought Luminar’s AI Sky Replacement tool was actually pretty cool, some felt it was a little ‘fake.’ Skylum states they have been listening and they have made some improvements to the AI Sky Replacement, especially around color retainment.
Luminar’s previous update, version 4.1, added a pretty nifty Atmospheric Haze slider, this can add a level of haze that may have been missing from images. This allows you to change the sky temperature and exposure levels as well.
Version 4.2 added Relight Scene technology, letting you retain the original colors in your image.
AI Augmented Sky
There are people who may not take the whole sky thing too seriously. This new feature — these are NOT competition prints, but it is great to add some interest to an otherwise lacking landscape when they sky doesn’t pop. AI Augmented Sky is pretty fun. Things like birds, hot air balloons, moonrise and other planets, Aurora, lightning and so much more, are added with a single click.
You can even add a giraffe … why you would want to add a giraffe to your sky I have no idea, but it is pretty cool. You can move them throughout the sky area by selecting Place Object, defocus and apply a mask. So if you just want to have some real fun with your otherwise uninspiring landscapes, you can really go to town.
The Erase tool
I must admit I was not a big fan of the Erase and Clone & Stamp tools when Luminar 4 was first released. I found they were a bit buggy. I also found they were not as user-friendly as in other programs, but still usable. Skylum claims that the updated Erase feature offers far better selection and operation in removing unwanted objects from even cluttered background. I found that still to be a little hit and miss, but better than before.
I also found that on gradients it left a halo where my unwanted subject was removed. In other areas, it worked quite well. If you are removing, say, a blurred bird from a perfect blue sky, I am sure it will work very well. But my trial and error on a few different images had some very mixed results.
While some of these images are a bit over the top, and there is no way you could use these images professionally, that’s really not the point. With these tools in Luminar, you can scale all these features back and make a more realistic image, or you can make some totally out of this world alien landscape! The possibilities are truly endless.
