ABOUT SKYLUM

SKYLUM (Macphun,early 2018 they’ll completely switched to SKYLUM) is a San Diego, USA based software company, and famous for its outstanding photo editing software products. Their latest software application Luminar 4, has been upgraded to a new product supporting numerous improvements and the addition of AI Skin Enhancer, AI Portrait Enhancer and their AI Sky Replacement feature. Luminar Neptune 2017 was launched 15th June 2017 and Luminar 2018 launched 16 November 2017, Luminar 3 came to life in 2018. This review will discover and disclose wether the Luminar Ai for Mac upgrade is a true improvement over Luminar 4. Skylum Luminar AI for Mac is for professionals as well as enthousiasts. SKYLUM has a great reputation for their outstanding products and aim to listen to their clients and implement their wishes in new product versions.

WHAT’S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The term artificial intelligence was formed in 1956, however AI has become immense popular today as nowadays we have increased data volumes, advanced algorithms, and improvements in computing power and storage.

AI works by combining large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and intelligent algorithms, allowing the software to learn automatically from patterns or features in the data. To make AI work, we need to understand that AI is a mix of seperate tools which in addition can create Artificial Intelligence applications which may be implemented each in its specific field for, face recognition on phones, speech, machine programming,

Machine learning to automate analytical model building.
Deep Learning for neural networks, using learning techniques of data for speech and data recognition.
Computer vision needs pattern recognition and deep learning to learn-recognize what’s in a picture.
Natural language processing (NLP) is analysation skills of computers to understand and/or generate human language, and speech.
Advanced algorithms are able and needed to identify and predict events.

INTERFACE & WHATS NEW

Skylum Luminar AI for Mac, boasts a new full intuitive interface layout where Templates / filters are placed in groups in the right sidebar:

All is absolutely nicely placed on the interface, but compared to Luminar 4 takes just a small learning curve setting used too. The filters-sliders are much better to work with. A full list of possible Templates is present in the interface, there’s really not much left out ! The templates collection can be enough for any user to create their best pictures. Using the Presets (now called Templates) most times need some work from the “Edit” section which shows different categories; Essentials, Creative, Portrait, Professional and Local Masking. When loading a picture for the first time, the AI algorithm suggest a Template to work with. The template you start with, can be edited by choosing ‘edit’ right to the templates name at the bottom right. This action takes you to the former ‘edit tools and categories’, each with their own tools. At first glimpse it looks like Luminar 4, but there are many new AI functions available to use for adjusting your pictures.

Essentials

Composition Ai, Enhance Ai, Structure Ai.

Creative

Sky Ai, Argumented Sky Ai, Atmosphere Ai.

Portrait

Face Ai, Skin Ai, Body Ai.

TEMPLATES in LUMINAR Ai

Achieve amazing results with a new, Templates-based, approach to photo editing. By using AI to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every image, Templates automatically correct common capture problems and apply enhancements which inspire new ideas.

Templates were created in collaboration with professional photographers and retouchers to produce high-quality results.
Based on in-depth research, Templates were composed to reflect both classic design and modern, popular trends , producing fresh, engaging images with maximum impact.
Templates leverage content-aware AI to make preliminary edits based on the unique elements in every image.
Once refined, customized Templates can be easily synced across large batches of photos, even images from different sessions, taken in different environments.

The all new Ai (Artificial Intelligence ) menu slider/settings adjustments are located in the editing categories sections. Each having their own specific created algorithm and effect on an image. Starting your new project needs a picture of course, and you can add a folder or single image. After loading the image the Composition Ai setting can automatically adjusts your image to a better composition. This is a debatable subject to be honest and your intentional set composition may be the composition you prefer. Still it (may) helps if the Ai suggestion is a better composition solution. It does work great, no doubt about that.

ESSENTIALS

“ESSENTIALS – COMPOSITION Ai”

Achieve great composition from any angle. You’ll always get the perfect frame. CompositionAI blends the golden rules of composition with the expertise of the world’s best photographers.

Perfect framing with CompositionAI.
Automatically fix alignment for a level photo.
Automatically fix perspective to remove unwanted tilt or distortion.
AI-powered cropping suggests compositions designed with in collaboration with top photographers.

“ESSENTIALS – ACCENT Ai”

Get natural lighting and life-like color for every portrait with a single “magic” slider.

AccentAI analyzes the image to identify areas issues with brightness, contrast and color, then balances all of them for the optimal result.
Adjust the intensity of the enhancements with a single slider to make the effect very subtle or very dramatic.
Enhancements can be synced across a set of images; saving a tremendous amount of time. It accounts for the unique elements within each image to produce the best result.

“ESSENTIALS – SKY ENHANCER Ai”

Sky EnhancerAI makes seamless adjustments to skies to make them pop without looking unnatural. It produces amazing results while saving you time in the edit.

“ESSENTIALS – STRUCTURE Ai”

Bring out details in all the right places. StructureAI recognizes people, water, skies and objects. it adds depth and clarity to a scene by pulling out critical detail just where required.

Saves time and produces amazing results in architecture, cityscape, landscape and environmental portraits.
Refines textures in the image to add depth or draw the viewer’s eye to the most important elements.

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PORTRAIT

“PORTRAIT – BODY Ai”

Makes bodies appear lighter or heavier with subtle, realistic adjustments to stunning effect.

Automatically detects a body in any lighting and in any position — sitting, lying down or lounging.
Effect generated by an algorithm developed through precise study of human anatomy and proportions using a huge dataset of photos of different people and body types.
Target proportions are derived from those most desired by clients of professional portrait photographers.
Produces an entirely realistic and natural effect; impossible to get an overdone result.

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“PORTRAIT – IRIS Ai”

Create expressive, breathtaking eyes, with a natural spark that brings the subject’s face to life.

Automatically finds iris and adds subtle effects with color an catchlights which produce dramatic, yet realistic, eyes.
Effect is so realistic effect most won’t realize the photo has been retouched.

“PORTRAIT- FACE Ai”

Improve faces naturally: enhance lips and teeth; remove unwanted dark circles and more.

Automatically detects the face in the image: eyes, brows, lips, face contour.
Allows you to adjust lighting on just the face, creating an effect similar to using a reflector or accent light in studio.
Enhance fullness of the brows with just one slider.
Adjust lip saturation, redness, lightness. Whiten teeth.
Subtle slim the face according inline with natural anatomy.

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“PORTRAIT- SKIN Ai”

Instantly remove blemishes while preserving pores, texture and hair.
Automatically detect and remove shine from the skin.

CREATIVE TOOLS

“CREATIVE TOOLS ATMOSPHERE Ai”

Add realistic atmospheric effects with 3D depth — fog, mist, haze, steam, drizzle — with AtmosphereAI. Create a magical mood without masks and layers.

AtmosphereAI is the first consumer technology that works completely in 3D.
It analyses the 2D image to identify elements in the frame and create a depth map which defines their relationships to one another in 3D space.
Using this depth map, it seamlessly applies fog and other weather effects which naturally interact with other elements in the frame.

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“CREATIVE TOOLS – SKY Ai”

Easily change the sky in your photo in seconds to create a whole new mood. Works perfectly even with tiny details intersecting your sky.

Relight the entire photo so the colors of the original image shift to match the lighting and colors of your new sky.
Precisely detect the sky for the whole image: taking into account position and color, even with branches or wires.
If the original sky was out of focus, SkyAI allows you to adjust the sharpness of the new sky.

“CREATIVE TOOLS – AUGMENTED SKY Ai”

Could your image benefit from a more visually interesting sky? If so Augmented SkyAI is the perfect fix. It detects a photo’s sky automatically and adds a chosen element to the sky area.
Using content-aware technology, foreground objects are automatically accounted for to make the object blend naturally with the sky. And if you want more control over the placement, you can easily drag the new element around the sky area.

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Change your image

Changing your image is in the end, what it is all about. Working with your pictures and how easy or difficult is it to master Luminar Ai. Well to be honest we all can work quickly with Luminar Ai in contrast to Photoshop which requires you to spent hours and hors to master the tricks od photo-editing. This Luminar edition feels more polished to earlier versions which also do a great job without real effort. The Ai (artificial intelligence) algorithms do work and can be adjusted to your liking in simple steps. I feel the ‘Ai approach’ is setting the new future of photo-editing all together. We may endup in the future with a truly all automatic transformation process of pictures.

Below I’ve created a simple transformation of an image using new sky and set mountains just to change the scenery of my Caribbean cruise taking it to a Northern Europe cruise with just a few adjustments. Its not sensational but a good idea of the software’s capabilities in 10 minutes fiddling around with Luminar Ai.

Export functions

Luminar Ai’s export functions offer, download to disc, send by mail or export to Smugmug or 500px which are private paid storage options, to me these options should never be implemented in an export menu as it is the customers decision which storage or cloud is wanted. If it was a Free option I would understand, right now it somehow forces you to choose something.

VERDICT

The question to ask ourselves is, if this Luminar Ai for Mac edition is truly setting new standards for photo-editing. The answer is No, as Topaz is also bringing Ai software on the market. But that being said, Luminar Ai is for me the best allround software package for any user interested in photo-editing. It brings real joy with creative Ai-tools simplifying the tasks. Compared to Topaz Studio this Luminar Ai version just sweeps Topaz under the carpet easily. On some individual aspects like Sharpening Ai and Denoise Ai, Topaz is still the best to get, but its not cheap. Luminar Ai proofs great end-results at a great price! If your pockets are not to deep, Luminar Ai is the overall best program to go for and will never disappoint you in anyway. So if you want to experience a fantastic editing tool, Luminar Ai is the one to go for. Don’t just take my word for it, but try it out and experience yourself. Well that’s my opinion anyway.

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