Skylum Software program has added a number of highly effective extensions to the already spectacular Luminar Neo utility together with Upscale AI, Focus Stacking, HDR Merge, Noiseless, and Supersharp AI, bringing the at the moment out there whole for the appliance to seven. These new instruments give creatives a formidable quantity of management over their photos, increasing the present performance of the photograph modifying program to a full-blown “suite”.
Full disclosure: This sponsored article was delivered to you by Skylum, the software program firm behind Luminar NEO.
The brand new extensions (together with those we’ve already coated) are successfully “add-ons” to the bottom utility that convey quite a lot of additional performance to the photograph modifying program. Whereas some, like Focus Stacking and Magic Mild AI, are fairly area of interest instruments, the extensions are extremely highly effective and nearly each photographer will finally discover a use for them of their on a regular basis work.
Why are these instruments made separate from the bottom utility? The core purpose is to maintain the fee decrease for common customers, making the much less generally used instruments out there as extensions for the extra “power-user” sorts. The profit right here is rookies can begin with the essential utility, after which develop into the complete suite of instruments as they be taught extra and discover the necessity.
So what precisely are these new extra extensions for this system?
Upscale AI
Beginning with the Upscale AI extension (situated on the right-hand aspect of the toolbar of Luminar NEO when you’ve activated it), the device does precisely what the title says by taking any current picture and “upscaling” it (or enlarging) by a charge of two, 4, or six occasions the unique file dimension.
Merely drag and drop the picture you need to be upscaled out of your Luminar Neo Catalogue into the extension window and choose the extent of enlarging you need to have utilized. Luminar Neo does some spectacular heavy lifting at this level to extend the dimensions whereas sustaining the standard (sharpness/element) of the picture. This system makes use of a “good algorithm to extend the picture dimension whereas sustaining as a lot element and high quality as attainable, serving to customers put together their older or smaller scale photos for increased decision screens, massive scale printing, and tasks rendering in 4k and 8K resolutions
For instance, here’s a pattern picture that has been elevated by 6x and zoomed in at 200% crop, versus the unique picture zoomed to the identical space at 200%.
The brand new extension makes use of synthetic intelligence to research the picture and as a substitute of simply utilizing one pixel in to a number of (as conventional upscaling applications would do), it predicts and inserted new particulars into the picture, which permits customers to enlarge their photographs to a most of 32,000 pixels on the lengthy edge whereas conserving, and in some circumstances even growing the extent of element.
This new device can enable photographers to seek out smaller particulars of their photos, crop them, and create totally new photos with out dropping dimension and essential particulars. The Upscale AI is quick, extremely straightforward to make use of, and contained inside Luminar Neo versus a separate stand-alone utility, which means customers can do all the picture modifying in a single place with out having to save lots of separate recordsdata.
Take a look at these three recordsdata and see for those who can spot any variations within the degree of element.
HDR Merge
Luminar Neo’s HDR Merge extension permits customers to digitally merge three or extra photos (Supporting as much as ten photos) collectively to create a Excessive Dynamic Vary (HDR) picture with higher “composited” particulars from the highlights and shadows. The extension (which successfully replaces Aurora HDR) can auto-align the pictures (handheld or on a tripod), take away any ghosting from objects transferring within the body like bushes, clouds, or folks, and even scale back/take away Chromatic Aberration current within the picture stack that creates any purple or inexperienced fringe alongside the perimeters of the photograph.
Similar to the opposite extensions, HDR Merge is situated on the right-hand aspect of the appliance when within the Catalogue view. Merely choose the pictures out of your HDR bracket and drag them into the extension window the place you’ll see the small previews with the Publicity Worth settings together with the elective settings for Alignments, Ghost Discount, and Chromatic Aberration elimination.
When you’ve made your setting modifications (if wanted) merely click on the Merge button and Luminar Neo will rapidly merge the recordsdata right into a completed and evenly balanced picture prepared for modifying. The period of time this takes is determined by the variety of brackets chosen, and the precise file dimension of these recordsdata (uncooked, jpeg, and precise decision/Megapixel dimension).
As soon as the pictures have been merged, you’ll be able to then proceed throughout the different instruments in Luminar Neo to proceed modifying and enhancing the picture to your choice. Like the opposite extensions in Luminar Neo, accomplished photos are saved into a brand new folder labeled appropriately (HDR Merge, Focus Stacking, Upscale, and so forth) inside your laptop’s “Photos” folder construction and within the Luminar Neo Catalogue for simple entry.
Luminar Neo’s HDR Merge extension makes it straightforward for customers to create completely blended HDR photos with minimal effort, eliminating the overwhelming and overly-complicated instruments most different HDR stand-alone instruments present.
Focus Stacking
The brand new Focus-Stacking extension gives customers with the power to mix dozens of “focus bracketed” photos right into a single deep depth-of-field view file, excellent for panorama and macro photographers. Like the opposite extensions, Focus Stacking AI is situated on the right-hand aspect of the purposes window within the Catalogue view.
Customers can merely drag the pictures of their focus brackets into the Focus Stacking window the place they are going to be offered with a small preview of the variety of photos, with a settings choice that additionally permits customers to set a major reference picture from the set, and the power to take away/scale back chromatic aberration. As soon as they’ve made their setting and picture alternatives, customers merely click on the STACK button and Luminar Neo will get to work, merging the recordsdata into a brand new, completely cropped and detail-sharp picture in your viewing pleasure.
Listed here are the seven frames for one of many Flower focus stacks exhibiting the element from every body;
And right here is the completed picture as soon as Luminar Neo’s Focus Stacking Extension completed doing its magic;
The Focus Stacking device will work with each Uncooked and Jpeg recordsdata, and as soon as your stack has been accomplished, you’ll be able to then keep inside Luminar Neo and proceed modifying the picture(s) to appear and feel precisely the way in which you need them to. Relying on the variety of photos and the dimensions of the recordsdata, the Focus Stacking can take wherever from seconds, as much as 5 minutes (sure for one of many bigger uncooked file stacks with 15+ photos it took about 5.5 minutes to finish).
For focus stacking photos to work, it would be best to shoot your photos locked into place with a tripod, together with your zoom fastened, making changes solely to your focus. Begin from any excessive you want (close to to far or vice versa) and begin snapping photos to cowl every little thing you want in focus. Then, merely load these recordsdata into Luminar Neo as defined above and watch the magic occur rapidly and extremely simply.
Listed here are a couple of extra examples of the highly effective focus stacking extension from Luminar Neo;
As you’ll be able to see, the extensions work extremely effectively and make a few of the extra difficult modifying and retouching duties for photographers nearly as straightforward as a single click on to perform. It’s clear the extensions from Skylum Software program supply quite a lot of extra energy and performance (and enjoyable) to Luminar Neo customers, however how a lot is as much as every photographer individually primarily based on their wants. The excellent news is Luminar Neo permits customers to decide on the add-ons they need by buying all of them in a bundle, or simply one by one.
Value and Subscription Plans
Luminar NEO is out there in quite a lot of combos starting from $99 to $119 per 12 months as a part of the subscription plans or for $149 as a one-time stand-alone buy. Moreover, customers should purchase the 2022 extensions pack which incorporates 7 extensions (HDR Merge, Noiseless AI, and so forth) for $299 for much more artistic energy.
All Luminar Neo Extensions, together with Upscale, HDR Merge, and Focus Stacking may be accessed as a part of the month-to-month, or yearly plans. PetaPixel readers can use the unique promo code PetaPixel10 for a further 10% off when buying both Professional or Discover yearly subscriptions and a lifetime choice.
Full disclosure: This sponsored article was delivered to you by Skylum, the software program firm behind Luminar NEO.
Picture credit: Upscale photographs from Depositphotos
