Luminar NEO: How to use the Sky AI Tool
Jun 02, 2023
Enhance your landscape photos like never before with the Sky AI tool in Luminar NEO. Discover how this powerful feature enables photographers to effortlessly replace and enhance the skies in their images, opening up a world of creative possibilities. Say goodbye to dull skies and unlock stunning visual transformations with ease.
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In this article:
- What is the Sky AI Tool
- Introducing the Sky AI sliders and tools
- Getting started with the Sky AI Tool
- Video tutorial
- Luminar NEO
What is the Sky AI Tool
The Sky AI tool in Luminar NEO revolutionizes sky enhancement in photos. With advanced AI technology, users achieve stunning results by easily replacing dull skies, creating vibrant atmospheres, and adjusting colors and tones. The tool seamlessly integrates new skies, maintaining a realistic appearance. It saves time and eliminates complex manual techniques, empowering photographers to transform their images and unleash their creativity.
Introducing the Sky AI sliders and tools
Sky Selection
Sky Selection
Visually select the sky you want from the dropdown list and instantly have an idea of what your final result will look like. You can add your own skies individually or in bulk.
Sky Orientation
Horizon Position
Click this button to open the Shifting Horizon Control. There are three ways to use this tool to refine the position of the sky:
- Position: Grab the center-line of the pin to move the new sky vertically to freely place it exactly where you want it in the scene.
- Horizon Blending: Click and drag the line to smoothly adjust the transition between the current and new horizon. Use a higher value to achieve a more photo-realistic look.
- Rotation: Move the pointer to the outside line until it becomes a curved arrow for Rotation. Then, rotate the new sky on the Z-axis for perfect placement.
Vertical Position
You can freely offset your new sky vertically and place it exactly where you want it in the scene. SkyAI will perfectly scale it to fit while keeping it aligned with the horizon. The Vertical Position slider controls the Textures in the sky and water areas but moves them in opposite directions in relation to the Horizon Position line until you get the ideal match between your new sky and its reflection.
Horizontal Position
With this slider, you can freely position the sky horizontally and place it exactly where you want it in the scene. SkyAI will perfectly scale it to fit while keeping it aligned with the horizon.
Flip
Flips the new sky to change its direction in the frame. Beneficial when a photo has shadows that you’re trying to match.
Horizon Position
Shift
Set the desired position of your horizon line.
Rotation
You can rotate the new sky on the Z-axis for perfect placement.
Mask Refinement
Global
This slider affects how the texture is mixed into the scene. A higher value will increase the amount of new sky that is added.
Close Gaps
This slider fixes small details and holes not initially filled by the replaced sky. You may need to adjust it if the image has refined details such as trees or wires.
Fix Details
This slider fixes small imperfections around the edges of your new sky.
Vibrance
This slider adjusts only the intensity of muted colors, ignoring well-saturated colors. It’s helpful in achieving fine control when adjusting color.
Scene Relighting
Relight Strength
This slider adjusts the exposure of the scene to match the new sky.
Relight Saturation
This slider adjusts the saturation of the relighting effect to realistically add the color from the new sky to the scene.
Relight Human
This slider controls relighting for any people in the scene, matching people to the new sky for a more realistic effect. Use it on environmental portraits and lifestyle photos to see the drastic difference!
Reflection
Reflection Amount
Allows you to adjust the intensity of the reflection to your liking.
Water Blur
Allows you to blur the reflected sky to better match an uneven water surface due to waves or ripples.
Sky Adjustments
Defocus
This slider defocuses the sky and is useful when a shallow focus is used with a foreground object.
Grain
Use this slider to match new skies to the grain in the original photo for a seamless, realistic effect.
Atmospheric Haze
Use this slider to add a soft haze to the sky. Haze is helpful in matching a replacement sky to the original image, especially if there’s moisture in the sky or environmental pollutants.
Warmth
Use this slider to adjust the color temperature of the image.
Brightness
This slider darkens or lightens the new sky. It’s useful for matching the original scene.
Getting started with the Sky AI Tool
With these simple steps, you can effortlessly enhance the sky in your photos using the powerful Sky AI tool in Luminar NEO. Enjoy the creative possibilities and transform your images with stunning skies.
Sky AI Tool:
- 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 the Sky AI tool in the Creative section of the editing toolbar (right side)
- Choose from the various sky presets available, or load your own skies from the Sky Selection drop-down menu by choosing Show Custom Skies … and copying your own JPEG files into the folder that opens.
- If needed, use the refine options to adjust the detection and blending of the new sky with your photo.
- Fine-tune the sky by modifying parameters such as color, tone, and mood using the adjustment sliders.
- Experiment with different skies and adjustments until you achieve your desired result.
- Preview the image to ensure the sky integration looks natural and seamless.
- Once you're satisfied, save your edited image in your preferred file format.
Sky AI 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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