Luminar NEO: How to use the Atmosphere AI Tool

luminar neo Mar 19, 2023

Photography with fog, mist or haze can give a wonderfully moody and atmospheric feel to your photos. Unfortunately, capturing these elements is not always easy as they can sometimes become washed out or flat. This is where Luminar NEO comes in with its Atmosphere AI tool. This tool allows you to add and enhance the fog, mist or haze to your photos with a few simple sliders.

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What is Atmosphere AI

Atmosphere AI uses content-aware and depth masking to place fog, mist, or haze in the background and/or foreground of an image. This smart tool prevents the subject of your photograph (such as a person or tree) from being covered by the atmospheric effect and positions the effect in a way that maintains a realistic look.

Introducing Atmosphere AI sliders

Mode

This drop-down lets you choose between four atmospheric effects: Fog, Layered Fog, Mist, and Haze. Fog and Mist can fill the majority of the frame (depending on the Depth slider), whereas Layered Fog and Haze are applied largely in the lower third of the frame

Amount

This slider sets the intensity of the atmospheric effect and is set to 0 by default. Increase the value to apply AtmosphereAI adjustments to your image.

Depth

This slider adjusts the depth of the atmospheric effect. Increasing the Depth value brings the effect closer to the front of the frame.

Lightness

This slider is set to the maximum value of 100 by default. To make your atmospheric effect darker or more subdued, decrease the Lightness value.

Getting started with Atmosphere AI

The Atmosphere AI tool should be used after the initial development of your photo. Start by choosing one of the four available atmosphere elements (fog, layered fog, mist and haze) in the Mode dropdown box. After that, use the Amount and Depth sliders to control the overall look. Don't forget that you can use the Atmosphere AI tool in combination with masking to apply the effect only to the specific areas of your photo.

Atmosphere AI:

Open the image in Luminar NEO using the Add Photos button (Cmd/Ctrl + O) in the Catalog module (L).
Move to the Edit module (E).
Depending on the image, apply a basic development with the tools available in the Essentials section (Develop, Enhance AI, Color).
Open the Atmosphere AI tool and increase the Amount slider to at least 50%.
Select the type of your atmosphere effect in the Mode dropdown box.
Continue by adjusting the Amount and Depth sliders to control the amount and location of the new elements.
You can adjust the brightness of the elements with the Lightness slider.

TIP 👍: It is good practice to use the Mood tool and its LUTs after using the Atmosphere AI to merge and blend the original image and the new elements together.

Atmosphere AI video tutorial

Watch the full video tutorial covering all sliders in this tool.

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