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 4 upgrade is a true improvement over Luminar 3. Skylum Luminar 4 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.

INTERFACE & WHATS NEW

Skylum Luminar 4, interface has a great new intuitive layout and filters are placed in groups Essentials, Creative, Portrait, Pro and Deprecated in the right sidebar. All is absolutely nicely placed on the interface, but compared to Luminar 3 takes just a small learning curve setting used too. The filters-sliders are much better to work with. A full list of possible filters is present in the interface, there’s really nothing left out ! The filter collection should be enough for any user to create the best pictures. You also have the ability to create your own preset by saving your image editing settings with   right bottom selection !

Filters include the ability to enhance any picture by using the separate filters or by using the AI filters which combine some separate filters and join them into an AI filter with a algorithm detecting scenes from pictures and adjust them to an AI preset value. Luminar 4 has lots of them available, some more impressive then others. The all new portraits enhancer does a brilliant job to any portrait. Its algorithm detects, eyes, lips, eyebrows, teeth etcetera and gives the user full control over desired adjustments by means of allocated sliders. A true piece of technology if you want my opinion. Purist will claim, Luminar sets the true photographer in the dark and provide tools for any photographer to shine.
And they’re true, as this piece of software which still needs some tuning by its developers puts the purist next to the novice.

Introducing AI Skin Enhancer, AI Portrait Enhancer and AI Sky Replacement

Enhance your portraits faster than ever

AI Skin Enhancer and AI Portrait Enhancer improve portraits incredibly quickly and precisely while giving you full control.
Use the ‘fullscreen’ button right/below to get best visual.

AI SKY REPLACEMENT

Replace the sky in your photos – instantly. Tired of using layers and masking? Now Skylum introduces Sky Replacement for dummies. I think it’s brilliant in its way, but is it without flaws?  The basic set of available skies is okay, and additional skies can easily be imported in the Sky selection section.
The AI engine detects sky in your pictures and automatically sets horizon and does all masking and layer steps in a second. Its brilliant to see how fast it works and changes your image completely. One more thing to mention is that not only the skies change but also the overall picture lightning setting, creating a realistic picture. When using the sunset images you will notice a total change of colouring of all objects, creating astonishing effects. Now the ‘hunt’ starts for more and great sky images in the correct dimension. I for one hope somebody will share their great sky images in order to upgrade the existing folder of included skies.
To me personal, this is the best new feature as it transforms a normal picture into a rather special picture.

Great sofar, but still not without some flaws. It is fantastic that software itself can do the different adjustments normally done by hand. Masking and adding layers, are all done in one click. The Sky Replacement tool itself is needed to correct the final picture. When just choosing the sky replacement, you’re left with some fringes, artefacts around object. They don’t show in the basic full frame, but doing zoom to 200% some flaws appear. These examples are not done by a full-frame camera but are done by an iPhone X which images are to be expected less pixels then your professional camera.

However, the Sky tool has enough slider-adjustments capable to help you out in re-arranging horizon, blending and exposure. The tool we need to get rid of the fringes around object is Close Gaps, which slider may solve your imperfect image. Check the ‘Before-After’, below of Close Gaps adjustment.

AI STRUCTURE CONTENT-AWARE

Boosting details with traditional Clarity and Structure tools often make parts of a photo look horrible. Luminar 4 automatically identifies objects (including people and faces, clouds, water, buildings and more) and improves them in an intelligent, content-aware way.

AI STRUCTURE HUMAN_AWARE

The AI Structure tool automatically detects people in a photo and doesn’t overprocess them. As a result – faces and skin look natural, while the objects around them look deeper and richer. Picture below is set to extreme AI STRUCTURE negativ, but is does show you where the Artificial Intelligence is focussing !

PRESETS

Luminar 4’s Interface has a very good and intuitive layout, as all filters show a pre-view of the actual filters capability and use. All is absolutely nicely placed in the interface and your most used filters can be set as preferred by clicking the little star at the bottom.
A full list of possible filters is present in the interface, there’s really nothing left out ! This filter collection should be enough for any user to create the best final master-picture.

Luminar 4, is equipped with a collection of preset effects organised into categories, and you can download more from the Skylum website. Each preset is a combination of filters and adjustments to create a particular ‘look and feel’. You can browse the presets via a horizontal panel at the bottom of the screen and take a look at the filters and adjustments used in the tools panel on the right and modify them if you need to – or save your own adjusted custom preset.

LUT’s

Lookup Table Adjustments, known as LUT’S. Creative color, perfect black and white conversions and even digital films stocks are just a click away. Lightroom users can convert their custom Lightroom presets into LUT’s with a free tool. There are a number of tools around, you may try this https://generator.iwltbap.com

First of all what is a LUT and what are its typical uses?

LUT means “Look Up Table.” It’s helpful to think of it like a math problem: R= S+L
“R” being your result or what you want to attain.
“S” being your source or what you start with.
“L” being your LUT or the difference needed to make up between your source and your desired outcome.

In all cases of LUT use, the LUT is the means to make up the difference between source and result.((All cases assume the colorist (or you) is grading through a correctly calibrated monitor for evaluation and finishing. LUTs in no way replace proper calibration or color correction. They only assist in the process.)) It’s never the result by itself. How does this play out? I’ll layout a couple probably over-simplified examples:

Color Correction

A very common example is printing your final film to…real, actual film. Print film came in a variety of flavors and styles. Each style had different nuances in color. The film lab would have all that nuance information or be able to send you a print test to work with. That would be your final result. The colorist grades a picture on his calibrated monitor but if he were to send that to print, it could come out looking far different due to the nuances of the physical film.

So in our math analogy, his graded film is “S” and his film print is “R.” He then uses the information from the film lab or on his own, creates and applies the LUT or the “L” to get him from his graded film to the print and to have it look as intended after it’s on the physical film. After applying the LUT, his graded film may look awful on his monitor, but will come out correct on the film print.  ( source http://nofilmschool.com/2011/05/what-is-a-look-up-table-lut-anyway)

VERDICT

In the end of every review, the verdict is what counts. No application being faultless, Luminar 4 is a huge step forwards from version 3 which was a very good application by itself. Luminar 4 does in this beta need some memory to work smooth. Your Mac’s must have 16mb memory minimum to work with Luminar 4. Skylum has set new standards implementing Artificial Intelligence enhancing your pictures. All new AI’s Portrait, Structure, Skin and Sky are a pleasure to work with. The final results depend on the selected image, as enhancements have different impact on any image. The software however does it tricks for professionals as novice photographers. The readability of the sidebar tools is so much better than Luminar 3. Stunning effects are all present and have a small learning curve, which is a true bonus for users. History is able to undo adjustments step by step and take you back to the point you were happy. I just love all implemented AI’s as they absolutely take Luminar to the next level for any user. Forget about all competitors ( accept Photoshop which is much more expensive and less intuitive ), as this completely new sets the standard for integrated AI’s and ease of use for anybody.
Is Luminar 4 worth upgrading? We think this is the best edition ever developed for the public. In terms of technology we state the following: Luminar 4 is a small step for developers but a huge step for photographers.

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EUR 89