Luminar NEO: How to use the Color Tool

luminar neo Dec 05, 2022
Luminar NEO Color Tool

The Color Tool offers an additional way to control colors in your photos. It is often used together with the Develop Tool. It has standard Saturation and Vibrance sliders, and on top of it, it offers additional tools like Remove Color Cast and a full HSL panel. The HSL panel allows you to fully control the hue, saturation and luminance of the primary colors on your image. In addition, the Color Tool allows you to completely change the colors in your photo to create subtle or dramatic changes.

TIP: The Hue Shift slider allows you to completely change colors of a subject with the use of masking.

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In this article:

  • What is the Color Tool
  • Introducing the Color Tool sliders
  • Getting started with the Color Tool
  • Video tutorial
  • Luminar NEO

 


 

What is the Color Tool

The Color tool is a useful way to control the intensity of colors in a photo. It’s often used in conjunction with the Light tool.

 


 

Introducing the Color Tool sliders

 

Standard Settings

Saturation

This slider adjusts the intensity of all colors in your photo.

Vibrance

This slider adjusts only the intensity of muted colors, ignoring well-saturated colors. It’s useful for achieving fine control when adjusting color.

Remove Color Cast

This slider automatically removes undesirable color casts in your images by detecting and adjusting the hue.

 

HSL

Hue/Saturation/Luminance

In this drop-down menu, you can toggle between adjusting the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance when adjusting the sliders below.

Hue

Adjusts the hue or basic color shades of your image for the selected target. Moving the Hue slider to the right results in a shift towards the next color in the list (for example, from Orange to Yellow). Sliding to the left shifts the hue toward the previous color in the list (for example, from Orange to Red).

Saturation

Adjust the color saturation for the selected target. Moving this slider to the right results in more intense color. Moving it to the left removes color.

Luminance

Adjust the brightness of the selected target color. Sliding this control further to the right results in a brighter color within the image. The further to the left, the darker the color.

Hue Shift

This slider lets you roll the hue in a photo for subtle or dramatic changes. A little hue shift is perfect to eliminate unwanted color tints, while a big shift is perfect for a dramatic style.


 

Getting started with the Color Tool

The Color Tool should be used at the beginning of the photo-editing process after you develop the image with the Develop RAW tools. Depending on the desired effect or look, you can make the basic color adjustments using Saturation, Vibrance and Remove Color Cast sliders. For more adjustments, use the HSL panel. The Hue adjusts the color in your image, the Saturation adjusts the color saturation of the individual colors and Luminance adjusts the brightness of the individual colors.

Color Tool: 

  1. Open the image in Luminar NEO using the Add Photos button (Cmd/Ctrl + O) in the Catalog module (L).
  2. Move to the Edit module (E).
  3. Open the Color tool in the Essential Tools section of the main toolbar.
  4. Use the Saturation slider to adjust the intensity of all colors.
  5. Use the Vibrance slider to fine-tune the intensity of muted colors.
  6. Try applying Remove Color Cast to remove any undesirable color cast.
  7. Additonally, use the HSL panel to finish the desired look.
  8. For dramatic changes, try the Hue Shift slider.

 


 

Color Tool video tutorial

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

 

 


 

Luminar NEO

Luminar Neo is the latest editing software from Skylum. It was announced back in September 2021, and it's been highly anticipated since.

Luminar Neo is an AI-powered photo editing software. Skylum has said that Neo isn’t replacing their previous release—Luminar AI. But Neo sets out to fix some of the issues users faced with Luminar AI.

We were impressed with the AI tools in Luminar AI. But like many others, we encountered performance issues. Luminar Neo uses the same AI tools, but the new high-speed core engine improves speed and performance.

Luminar Neo isn’t just more of the same. We’re happy to see Skylum has taken Neo in a different direction, adding layer and mask AI tools to the program. This broadens Neo’s appeal, taking it in an Adobe Photoshop direction.

Learn more about Luminar NEO here.

Use one of our discount codes: CPNEO10 will give you a 10% discount - CP10 will give you a $10 discount.

 

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