Luminar NEO: How to use the Relight AI Tool

Discover the capabilities of Relight AI, a robust tool that empowers photographers to have more control over the lighting in their images. This versatile tool allows you to achieve a wide range of effects, including dramatic or artistic ones, as well as correct underexposed or overexposed areas, and enhance the overall lighting balance of your photos. Learn more about Relight AI by exploring our blog.

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In this article:

• What is Relight AI
• Introducing Relight AI sliders
• Getting started with Relight AI
• Video tutorial
• Luminar NEO

What is Relight AI

Relight AI is one of the new AI-powered tools in Luminar Neo. It analyses your image to find subjects and objects and determine the relative depth of those subjects and objects in the scene. The tool creates a 3D depth map of a scene and presents a handful of simple sliders to rebalance the exposure and temperature quickly. Relight AI is unique because it analyzes the scene in three dimensions, resulting in superior photorealistic results. This intuitive tool allows you to effortlessly fine-tune the lighting in your photos, even if the original shot didn't meet your expectations. Whether you want a soft, warm glow or a vibrant, dramatic effect, Relight AI empowers you to transform your images into captivating visual masterpieces.

Introducing Relight AI sliders

Standard Settings

Brightness Near

This slider increases or decreases the amount of light in the foreground.

Brightness Far

This slider increases or decreases the amount of light in the background.

Depth

This slider controls the transition point between foreground and background. Moving this slider to the left sets it closer to the camera and moves it further away to the right.

Advanced Settings

Dehalo

Blends the light gradually around the subject to restore detail and remove unwanted artifacts such as adjusting hair that blends in the background of a portrait.

Warmth Near

Refine the color temperature of the foreground by adjusting the amount. A negative value will cool the image by adding a blue tone, and a positive value will warm the image by adding a gold tone.

Warmth Far

Refine the color temperature of the background by adjusting the amount. A negative value will cool the image by adding a blue tone, and a positive value will warm the image by adding a gold tone.

Getting started with Relight AI

With Relight AI, you can easily adjust the exposure and warmth of both the foreground and background. 

Relight AI: 

• Open the image in Luminar NEO by using the Add Photos button in the Catalog module (L)
• Move to Edit module (E)
• Then, navigate to Relight AI tool in the Creative section of the editing toolbar (right side)
• Bring the Brightness Near slider to 100 to enhance the brightness of objects and elements close to the camera and those that the application recognizes as part of the image in close proximity. Bring the Brightness Far slider down to zero to make the parts of the image far from the camera darker. This will allow you to easily distinguish what the application recognizes as far or near.
• To adjust the depth of the image, move the Depth slider. This will bring the far area closer or increase the area considered near the camera. After finding the desired depth of the image, you can adjust the Brightness Near and Brightness Far sliders to your liking.
• Adjust the Advanced Setting sliders based on your photo or subject to achieve the best results.

Relight AI 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.

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