You can choose to open one or multiple images in a Luminar Neo session and make basic or creative edits to them. Any edits made to these images will automatically be stored in your Luminar Neo Catalog.

There are several ways to open images for editing in Luminar Neo:

• You can add folders, leaving your photos exactly where they are on your hard drive.

• You can import images from a memory card or external drive, moving or copying them to a new location.

• You can open individual images from any location, which allows you to easily edit and export photos that you don’t want to keep in your Luminar Catalog.

Your copy of Luminar Neo can be installed and activated on your computer as a standalone application and a plug-in. Before installing your software, we suggest the following.

1. Make sure your computer operating system and drivers are up to date.

2. Disable any firewall or antivirus software that may interfere.

3. Make sure you are connected to the Internet to activate your software.

4. Quit any other host applications in which you want to install Luminar as a plugin.

Activating Luminar Neo is a straightforward process that requires only your Skylum account. There’s no need for a license key or activation code. Follow the steps below to get started.

After purchasing Luminar Neo, you’ll receive an email with the activation instructions with the download links from the Skylum Team at the email address you provided during the purchase.

Here's what it looks like:

Once you place the order, the installer should automatically download to your computer, unless it's blocked by your device's security settings (such as an antivirus program).

Alternatively, you can download the Luminar Neo installer by clicking here after you make the purchase:

By default, the installer will be saved to your Downloads folder.

• First, you’ll have to unzip the installation file:

• Once unzipped, double-click the Luminar Neo installer. You’ll see an installation screen:

• Click the ‘Accept’ button to proceed with the installation.

• If you use Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom Classic and wish to use Luminar Neo as a plugin, you’ll have the option to install the plugin on the next screen:

• Once the installation is complete, click the ‘Launch’ button to open Luminar Neo.

Now that Luminar Neo is installed, it’s time to activate it.

To activate the app, you have to sign in to your Skylum account.

Enter your email address to find out if you already have an account:

Sign in with your email address (the one you used during the purchase) and the password for your Skylum account. If you created a Skylum using a linked third-party account, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple, click the relevant button.

In case you don't have an account yet, it will be created during the process:

Important Notes

You can use Luminar Neo as a plugin for the following applications:

If you’re running macOS 12.0 or higher, you can use Luminar Neo as an Extension to Photos.

Here’s how to activate the Luminar Neo Extension.

1. Choose System Settings (System Preferences prior to macOS 13.0).

2. Choose Extensions.

3. Choose Photos.

4. Select the Luminar Neo Extension.

Here's how to send an image from Photos to Luminar Neo:

1. Launch Photos from your Applications folder.

2. Choose an image to edit in your Photos library.

3. Click the Edit Photo button.

4. Click the Extensions button and choose Luminar Neo.

5. Make any edits or adjustments in Luminar Neo.

6. When done, click the Save Changes button to send the adjusted image back to Photos.

Luminar Neo opens a wide range of file formats. It is compatible with most cameras and all common graphics formats. Supported file types include:

The option to install Luminar Neo as a Plug-in is presented when you run the installer. You can also choose to install it as a plug-in at a later time. Please note that installing plugins is an optional step that can be omitted.

1. Quit any host applications you are installing for.

2. Make sure Luminar Neo is open.

3. Choose Luminar Neo >Install Plugins (macOs) or Luminar Neo >File > Install Plugins (Windows).

4. Mark the desired host applications in the new dialog box that appears to show you which supported host applications you have currently installed on your computer.

5. Click the Install/Uninstall button for the corresponding apps in which you’d like Luminar to run.

Luminar Neo is a powerful addition to Adobe Photoshop. To apply Luminar Neo as a filter, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Photoshop.

2. Open an image you’d like to enhance.

3. Choose Filter > Skylum Software > Luminar Neo … (a dialog box will appear to indicate that Luminar is running).

4. Luminar Neo should automatically open the image you were editing. If needed, click the Luminar Neo icon in your Dock or Taskbar to switch to it.

5. Make any edits or adjustments in Luminar Neo

6. When done, click the Apply button to send the adjusted image back to Photoshop.

Please notice that we do not guarantee the performance for legacy Photoshop apps such as Photoshop CS.

Images in Adobe Lightroom Classic can easily be handed off to Luminar Neo for editing. To send a file from Lightroom Classic to Luminar Neo, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Lightroom Classic.

2. In Lightroom Classic, choose the image you want to work with within Luminar Neo from the Library or Develop module.

3. Send your image to Luminar Neo.

4. Right-click on the image > Export > Luminar Neo > You have an option to Open Source Files or, if you’ve made any changes in Lightroom that you’d like to transfer over to Luminar Neo, you can also choose to Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments.

5. After applying adjustments in Luminar Neo, your photo should appear in Lightroom’s Catalog > All Photographs.

To cancel the subscription, you need to proceed with the following steps:

Luminar Neo fully supports DNG files, including DNG files created by cameras and those created with the DNG Converter utility from images in another raw format.

The Catalog in Luminar Neo is your central hub for organizing and managing your photos efficiently. Whether you're working with a small collection or thousands of images, the Catalog helps you stay organized with intuitive tools for sorting, searching, and rating your photos. In this guide, we'll explore how to navigate the Catalog, import and organize images, use ratings, and maximize your workflow. Let’s dive in and unlock the full potential of the Catalog in Luminar Neo!

2. In the top right corner, click Sign In.

3. If you already have a Skylum Account, sign in with a linked Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple account, or sign in with your email and password. If you don’t have a Skylum Account, click Register and create an account by linking an existing third-party account or by providing your email address and creating a password.

1. In your Skylum Account, you will see a My software tab with all of your Skylum software, including Luminar Neo.

2. Find Luminar Neo in your list of software and download it by clicking the Download button.

• If you’ve bought Luminar Neo on the App Store, submit proof of purchase to our support team by clicking the link under "App isn't showing?" second section and they’ll help you right away!

As you work in Luminar Neo, your edits are stored in a Catalog file. This Catalog tracks your images and the edits you make to them. Luminar Neo lets you create multiple Catalogs to better manage your photos. You can have Catalogs for different clients and events, a Catalog just for family photos — the sky’s the limit. Using numerous, relatively small, Catalogs can significantly speed up your workflow.

Luminar Neo is designed to make photo editing intuitive and powerful, whether you're a beginner or a pro. We'll walk you through all tools and features, from importing images to applying AI-powered enhancements and making creative edits. Let’s get started!

If you want to change the device you are using for editing with Neo, you need to reset your activation counter. You can do this in your Skylum account or directly in Luminar Neo when you activate it on your new device. You can also purchase an extra seat as an option.

In-app activation counter reset

When you open Luminar Neo on your new device, log in with your Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple account or with your email and password:

If you've already used all available seats and wish to replace your seat(s) with another device(s), just select the license:

and click Sign out & Launch next to the device you want to remove:

Alternatively, you can also get a new seat if you don't want to remove Luminar Neo from other devices:

Reset activation in the Skylum account

Visit the My Software tab. In case you don't want to remove activation from your current device, check a number of available seats. You can always get additional seats by clicking Get Seats button:

If you wish to replace your seat with another device, the Reset buttons are available for each product you own. Click Activations > Reset activation to remove a specific device or Reset all activations to remove all activations at once:

Once you are done, press Download to install Luminar Neo on your new device:

Add an extra seat in Skylum account

If you want to keep Luminar Neo active on all your current devices, adding an extra seat is the perfect solution for you. You can easily purchase additional seats by clicking the "Get Seat" button and selecting the number of seats you need.

Please note that after the initial purchase, the cost of the extra seat will be added to your subscription invoice.

Luminar Neo constantly backs up its database as you work with it. This ensures your latest edits are stored. However, you may want to manually back up a Catalog in case your hard drive malfunctions. We suggest backing up your Catalog to an external drive or cloud storage.

Backing Up a Luminar Neo Catalog on Windows and macOS

1. With Luminar Neo open, make edits with the Catalog you want to back up.

2. Choose File > Catalog > Show in Explorer (Windows) / Show in Finder (macOS). This reveals the Catalog file nested inside a folder.

3. Go up one level in the folder structure and back up that entire folder for the complete backup.

To restore a backup, just copy it to your machine and choose File > Catalog > Open to select the Catalog Folder you backed up.

On macOS, you can also use the Backup command to store a backup Catalog:

1. Choose File > Catalog > Backup

2. Luminar Neo will open a Finder window that lets you choose where you want to save your backup file.

3. To restore a backup file, choose File > Catalog > Restore from Backup.

You can back up your photos by exporting them. JPEGs are relatively small files that are easy to manage. However, when exporting JPEG files, your images will lose quality due to compression. Saving your photos in the TIFF format creates archival-quality files that will be much larger than JPEGs with no loss of quality.

Luminar Neo automatically creates a Catalog when you first install it. A Catalog contains all information about your files, including metadata on flags and edits you make.

Remember that edits you make in Luminar Neo are always non-destructive and are saved in your current Catalog. This means you aren’t changing the actual files but rather are capturing instructions in a database. When you’re ready to share or use your files elsewhere, you can export images with your edits applied.

By default, the Luminar Neo Catalog is created in your Pictures folder. Ensure you don’t include the Catalog folder when adding images to Luminar Neo. Doing so will add all of Luminar Neo’s preview images to your Catalog, resulting in duplicate photos in your Luminar Catalog.

Luminar Neo creates a default Catalog when you first launch the application. You can use this one Catalog for all your photos or easily create new Catalogs. Luminar Neo Catalogs can be located anywhere on your hard drive. By default, Luminar Neo creates a Catalog in your Pictures folder. A Catalog contains a database of your images and their locations, thumbnails of these images, and a history of all adjustments applied to your images.

Creating a Catalog

To create a new Catalog:

1. Choose File > Catalog > New. A dialog box will open, asking you to name your new Catalog and choose where you want to store it.

2. Enter a Catalog name and choose a location. Many users choose their Pictures folder, but any drive and any location will work.

3. When you save the new Catalog, your current Catalog will close, and your new Catalog will open.

You can now add images as desired.

Switching Catalogs

If you’re working with multiple Catalogs, you can quickly switch between them:

1. To open a previously created Catalog, choose File > Catalog > Open.

2. In the Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) window, navigate to the Catalog you want to work with. It will appear as a folder.

3. Select your Catalog and click Open.

4. Your current Catalog will be closed, and the selected Catalog will be opened.

Adding a folder of images to your Catalog allows you to quickly access, organize, and work with photos located on your hard drive, on external drives, and even on synced cloud storage. When you add a folder, none of your photos are moved. Luminar Neo simply scans the folder and any subfolders and creates thumbnails and links to the images inside. Luminar Neo will keep your existing folder hierarchy, and folders in Luminar Neo are tied directly to folders on your hard drive.

There are two ways to add a folder to your Luminar Neo Catalog. Both methods accomplish the same goal:

Adding Folders from the Catalog Panel

• Clicking the + button near the Foder section opens a browser window in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS).

• In this browser window, navigate to the folder on your hard drive that you would like to add and select it.

When you select a folder, it will be added to your Folder list as a top-level folder. All subfolders within the added folder will also be added to your Catalog. The folder you have added will now appear under the Folders list in the Catalog panel. Each folder you add to your Catalog is considered a master folder. Any folders contained within a master folder are added as subfolders.

• Any folder with a small triangle to the left of its name is a master folder that contains subfolders.

• Clicking on this triangle will reveal the subfolders within the master folder.

• You can create additional subfolders to any master folder by right-clicking on the master folder and choosing the New Subfolder command.

Adding Folders from the Main Menu

You can also add a folder from the main menu by choosing File > Add Folder with Images … Once selected, the folder will be added the same way as with the first two methods.

Folders added from an External Hard Drive

You can add folders located on an external hard drive to your Catalog. The process is the same as for adding folders from an internal hard drive. However, be aware that if an external hard drive is disconnected from your system, the media contained on it will go offline. If this happens, the names of folders located on your external hard drive will be greyed out in the Catalog and a warning triangle will appear next to the folder names.

• When an offline folder is opened, thumbnails of the original photos will be available.

• You can select or reject offline images, but you won’t be able to edit them until the external hard drive is reconnected.

• Offline images will have a warning triangle in the upper left corner of the thumbnail.

• You can organize offline images into Albums, but you cannot move offline images into Folders.

When an external hard drive containing a folder in your Catalog is reconnected and mounted, the folder and all the images inside it will come back online. The folder will no longer be greyed out, and the warning triangle next to the folder’s name and on each of the images will disappear. Any selection or rejection of images done while the folder was offline will be preserved. Also, if any images had been edited before the external drive was removed, the edits will be remembered when the drive is reconnected.

If your system cannot locate a drive, you can right-click on a folder located on that drive and choose Locate Drive to select it manually.

Folders added from Synced Cloud Storage

Luminar Neo lets you add folders from cloud storage locations that are synced to your computer. In this case, synced means that a physical copy of the photo resides on either your internal or external hard drive. If only a reference copy of the photo is located in cloud storage, Luminar Neo will not be able to create a thumbnail or edit the image. Adding folders from synced cloud storage is very useful in situations where a client or family member adds images remotely to a cloud service. Once these images are synced locally to your computer, Luminar Neo will automatically add them to your Catalog.

Adding a single image makes it easy to work with individual photos in Luminar Neo. It’s also helpful in editing images not in your Luminar Neo Catalog. Editing a single image is similar to using previous versions of Luminar as a standalone application.

When to add a single image

When you want to edit a single image or several images but do not Add or Import them to your Catalog, you can add a single image to Luminar Neo. This is great when you want to develop a few photos or when you have a photo you want to quickly process but not keep in your Catalog after you’re done editing it. When you add a single image, the file remains in its original location on your hard drive and you can access the image in a special collection in your Catalog panel called Single Image Edits.

1. You can open a single photo for editing in one of four ways:

   • Click the Add Photos button at the top of the Catalog panel

   • Choose File > Edit Single Image…

   • Press Cmd+O (macOS) or Ctrl+O (Windows)

   • Drag an image onto the Luminar Neo application icon

2. A Finder or File Explorer window will appear. Navigate to the image(s) you want to edit.

3. Select the image(s) you want to edit. (You can select multiple images using the modifier keys Shift and Cmd/Ctrl)

4. Click Add. The image(s) you’ve selected will appear in the Filmstrip. If you’ve selected multiple images, the first image you selected will be opened in the main window and will be ready to edit.

5. To select another image to edit, scroll through the Filmstrip or open the Catalog tab.

6. In the main menu, you can save your edited images for use in other applications via File > Export.

Managing Images in the Single Image Edits Collection

Images will stay in your Single Image Edits collection until you remove them. This collection is built automatically. You can use the Showing: and By: drop-down menus in the top right corner of the Single Image Edits window to reduce the number of images shown or change the order in which they are displayed.

1. To remove an image from the Single Image Edits collection, right-click on the image.

2. Then select Remove from Single Image Edits in the menu that opens.

3. This will remove the image from your Catalog but keep the file safely in its original location. If you decide you want to keep a Single Image Edits photo in your Catalog, you can simply drag it to any of the folders in your Catalog panel. The original photo will then be moved on your hard drive to the folder you place it in within your Luminar Neo Catalog. Even though the image is now part of your regular Catalog, it will still show up under the Single Image Edits collection until you remove it from there.

You can enable the Filmstrip mode by clicking on the Show Filmstrip button:

Filmstrip in Edit is a feature within the Edit tab that allows users to quickly switch between images without needing to exit Catalog mode. This feature keeps the editing process seamless by enabling users to browse through their photo collection while staying in the editing workspace. It also supports quick synchronization of edits across multiple images, improving workflow efficiency and productivity by minimizing interruptions and focusing on image editing.

Smart Search is an AI-driven search feature designed to make finding images more intuitive and efficient. It allows users to search for images through basic attributes like filenames, dates, or file extensions and by analyzing the images' content. For example, users can search using terms related to objects (e.g., "tree," "stop sign," "car"), scenes (e.g., "beach," "cityscape"), or specific details (e.g., "two smiling boys"). This feature leverages machine learning to recognize visual elements within images, providing a faster and more accurate way to locate specific visuals from a large image catalog.

How to Use Smart Search:

• Keyboard Shortcut:

  • Windows: Press Ctrl + F to activate Smart Search.

  • macOS: Press Cmd + F to activate Smart Search.

• Search Box: Type your query directly into the search box to find images based on your criteria. You can search for:

  • Objects (e.g., "tree," "stop sign," "car")

  • Scenes (e.g., "beach," "cityscape")

  • Specific Details (e.g., "two smiling boys")

Importing images differs from adding a folder of images to your Luminar Neo Catalog. Importing physically moves your images or lets you create a copy of your images to a new location.

Import to

You can import images from an internal hard drive, an external hard drive, and even a memory card.

1. Create a new folder or select an existing folder in the Catalog panel.

2. Right-click on the folder and choose Import Images to This Folder.

3. Click the Browse button and navigate to the images or folder of images you want to import and select them. To locate the images you want to use on a memory card, they are likely in a folder labeled DCIM (for Digital Camera Images).

Action menu

Click the Action menu to choose whether you want to Copy the images to a new location or Move them to the new folder and erase them on the source disk.

Organizing Images During Import

To make it easier to find your best photos, Luminar Neo offers several ways to organize imported images. These commands automatically build subfolders based on different image or folder properties. Just click the Organize menu in the Import dialog to choose one of these options.

• Into One Folder. This will place all the images into a single level of the folder. No subfolders will be created.

• Keep Existing Folder Structure. If there are additional folders inside the folder you are importing, subfolders will be created to reflect the original folder structure.

• Year/Month/Day. Luminar will look at the creation date of the image and create subfolders based on the year, month, and day of the month the photo was taken.

• Year/Month. Luminar will look at the creation date of the image and create subfolders based on the year and month the photo was taken.

Subfolders

Mark the Include Subfolders checkbox if you want to take additional folders of images contained within a selected folder. If this is checked, Luminar will add images from all subfolders inside the selected folder. If left unchecked, only the images at the top level of the folder will be imported. The contents of the subfolders will be ignored.

There are times when you want to locate an original photo on your hard drive. Perhaps you want to save or archive the original on another drive or email it to someone. Often, you just want to find another image you shot simultaneously but that isn’t in your Luminar Neo Catalog. No matter your goal, Luminar Neo allows you to locate your original image files on your hard drive quickly.

Show in Finder / File Explorer

Here’s how to locate content in your Luminar Neo Catalog on your hard drive. This can be useful for operations like copying or backing up data.

Single Image

To locate a single image on your hard drive:

1. Select an image in your Catalog.

2. Right-click on the image and choose Show in Explorer (Windows) or Show in Finder (macOS).

3. Luminar Neo will open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) and reveal the file on your hard drive.

If you select multiple images before choosing Show in Explorer/Show in Finder, Luminar Neo will locate the first one you selected.

Folder

To locate a folder of images on your hard drive:

1. Switch to the Catalog view.

2. Under the Folders collection in the Catalog panel, select the folder or subfolder you wish to locate.

3. Right-click on it.

4. In the pop-up menu, choose Show in Explorer (Windows) or Show in Finder (macOS). Luminar Neo will reveal the folder on your hard drive.

A well-organized photo library helps streamline your editing workflow and makes it easy to find the images you need. Luminar Neo offers the tools to help you sort, rate, and categorize your photos efficiently. In this guide, we’ll explore how to import, tag, and structure your images using features like albums, favorites, and ratings. Let’s dive in and take control of your photo organization!

Once you have selected an image, you can view the Histogram by clicking View > Show Histogram.

The histogram can be a great help while correcting colors or adjusting exposure. A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonal values of your image. This graph illustrates how the pixels in the image are distributed across brightness levels. In other words, it shows the number of tones of a particular brightness found in your photograph, ranging from black (0% brightness) to white (100% brightness). Well-balanced images will have tonal values across the entire range of the histogram.

1. To read a histogram, start at the left edge, which shows the shadow regions. The middle shows the midtones (where most adjustments to an image are made). Highlights are to theright.

2. The histogram is able to display Red, Green, Blue channels separately or, by default, show them all at once. Click on the Histogram to switch between seeing a composite Histogram and viewing details for the Red, Green, and Blue channels (which can be useful for spotting tint issues and color casts). You can also see a grayscale average for luminance.

3. Additionally, clicking the two small triangles in the upper left and upper right corners will show hot and cold pixels, respectively. These are pixels that have shifted or been exposed to become absolutely black or white.

Cold & Hot Pixels

• Cold Pixels. To enable or disable warnings about absolutely black pixels, click the triangle on the left side of the Histogram. Purely black pixels will now be displayed in bright blue in the image. Cold pixels (in bright blue) indicate areas where black has achieved maximum concentration (a zero value).

• Hot Pixels. Clicking the triangle on the upper right of the Histogram will show where your image is completely white (where the histogram is clipped on the right side). Absolutely white pixels are displayed in red.

Once you’ve developed one image, it’s easy to reuse those adjustments on other photos. This process is called syncing and works by selecting the images you want to unify. Syncing is a global command that takes all the adjustments from one photo and applies them to one or more selected images.

To sync an image:

1. Open an image in Luminar Neo and edit it.

2. In the Catalog, select the adjusted image whose edits you wish to sync. It should have an orange border around its edges to indicate it is selected.

3. Identify multiple images that you want to apply the same adjustments to.

   • This can be done in Gallery Images Mode (double click on the photo to open gallery mode and press the G key to switch).

   • You can also select multiple images in the side Filmstrip (View > Hide/View Filmstrip)

   • Select the additional photos you want to use.

   • Hold down the Shift key and click to select a range of images.

   • Hold down the Cmd key (macOS) or Ctrl key (Windows) and click on individual photos to add them to the selection.

   • Additional selected photos now have a white border around them.

4. Choose Image > Adjustments > Sync Adjustments to unify the images or press Shift+Cmd+S (macOS) or Shift+Ctrl+S (Windows). The images will synchronize, once complete you’ll notice an adjustment badge in the upper left corner when viewing in the Gallery Images Mode.

5. Inspect the newly synced images and modify them as needed.

Luminar Neo attempts to accurately track both the edits applied to an image and its location on your hard drive or network. However, it is possible for an image to go missing. This typically happens for one of the following reasons:

• Luminar Neo was closed when you moved an image to another folder

• Luminar Neo was closed when you renamed an image or folder

• You moved an image at the Finder/Explorer level to a different location that isn’t in your Luminar Neo library.

• You unplugged or removed a hard drive or memory card that was in use.

The application may not know where the source file is stored if this happens. In this case, the photos will be added to a particular album called Lost Edits.

This shortcut only appears when images are lost. You will not see it unless there are missing pictures. Luminar still has a thumbnail image and a set of instructions that can be reconnected.

How to reconnect images in the Lost Edits folder

If the Lost Edits album appears, you should repair the connection promptly.

1. Locate the Lost Edits shortcut in the Catalog panel.

2. Click on the Lost Edits shortcut to see the missing images.

3. Right-click on the desired image and choose Locate Image.

4. A new navigation window opens.

5. Navigate to the new location where the file is stored.

6. Click the Select Folder button to relink the file(s).

The images will reconnect and once again be accessible in your Catalog:

• If the chosen folder is already in your Catalog, all edits are transferred to the selected image(s). The images are automatically removed from the Lost Edits shortcut. If multiple images are in the same folder, their Lost Edits will also be resolved.

• If the selected folder is not in your Catalog – the new folder is added to your Luminar Catalog, and all edits are transferred to the image(s). The images are automatically removed from the Lost Edits shortcut. If multiple images are in the same folder, their Lost Edits will also be resolved.

Matching Criteria

In order for the selected photos to reconnect, Luminar checks 3 parameters for the selected images.

• Source file name

• Image dimensions in pixels

• Original creation date

If all three properties match, the image will reconnect automatically. However, it is still possible to reconnect if the file name is changed as long as the image dimensions and creation date still match. If these properties do not match, you will receive an alert that Image (image_name) is not found in the selected folder and the folder cannot be added.

Once a photo is matched, the following occurs:

• If all photos from the Lost Edits shortcut are located, the shortcut disappears from the shortcuts list.

• All attributes are transferred and are available for the selected photos.

• If there were multiple images from the same folder in Lost Edits > all these images will be located and added to the Library.

• For Raw+JPEG files, these will also be reconnected

Reconnecting Lost Folder

As you work with folders and hard drives, it’s possible that images may move from time to time. For example, if an external hard drive is unmounted or disconnected, the folders linked to that hard drive will be grayed out. When you open those folders, you’ll still see image thumbnails and be able to set flags for the images. However, you won’t be able to edit or move those images while the drive is offline.

To bring these folders back online, simply reconnect or remount the external hard drive, and Luminar Neo will re-establish its link with the folders. Once reconnected, folders will no longer be grayed out, and you can edit and organize the images within them as usual.

In case you moved/renamed the folders while Luminar Neo was inactive, please follow the steps below in order to reconnect the Luminar Neo catalog with the folder(s):

1. Go to the Catalog tab (in the top-bar menu);

2. Right-click the folder with an exclamation mark next to it;

3. Choose Locate Folder from the drop-down menu:

4. In the window that opens, find and select the necessary folder.

A key benefit of working with Luminar Neo’s Catalog is organization. Finding your best and favorite photos makes your Catalog more useful. Taking the time to organize in Luminar Neo is essential.

Folders are the primary organizational tool in Luminar Neo. Folders in Luminar Neo are directly connected to folders on your hard drive. In addition to organizing folders on your hard drive within Luminar, you can also organize your images virtually using Albums. Albums let you organize your images into groups without affecting their location on your hard drive. Let’s explore both approaches. Moving Images Between Folders Using Albums to Organize Images Moving Images from the Single Image Edits Shortcut to an Album

Organizing your images within folders in Neo is a great way to keep your photo collection in order. All changes you make to folders in Luminar Neo directly affect how the folders on your hard drive are organized and vice versa. If you create subfolders or add new images to folders on your hard drive, your Luminar Neo Catalog will automatically be updated to reflect those changes.

What Are Folders?

When you add a folder of images to Luminar Neo, you create a direct link to that folder on your hard drive, along with all the subfolders and images it contains. You should consider managing folders and their contents in Luminar Neo as an alternative to managing these items directly within File Explorer in Windows or Finder in macOS.

Master Folders

There are three ways to add a folder to your Catalog:

• Click the Add Photos button at the top of the Catalog panel.

• Click the Add Folder icon (the + sign to the right of the word Folder) in the Catalog panel.

• Go to File > Add Folder with Images…

The folder you select will be added to your Folder collection as a top-level folder. All folders contained within that top-level folder will also be added as subfolders.

Using Subfolders

Any folders that already exist within a master folder you add to Luminar Neo are added to your Catalog as subfolders. If a new folder is added to a master folder from within the operating system, Luminar Neo will recognize that change and automatically add that subfolder to your Luminar Neo Catalog. You can also add subfolders to Luminar Neo. Subfolders make organizing images by client, location, or event easy.

Creating Subfolders

As you work in your Luminar Neo Catalog, you may want to create additional folders to get organized. You can quickly create subfolders inside any folder in your Catalog in two ways:

• Right-click on a folder and choose New Subfolder.

• Select a folder in the Catalog panel and choose File > New Subfolder from the main application menu.

A new subfolder called "New folder" will be created (you can rename it). This subfolder will also be created on your hard drive within the master folder.

Additionally, you can drag folders from one level to another to create nested folders. Simply drag a folder on top of another to nest it and convert it into a subfolder. The nested folder (now a subfolder) will be relocated both in your Luminar Neo Catalog and on your hard drive.

Renaming Folders

As you organize images, you may want to rename folders or subfolders. You might name folders to identify the status of images (such as “Selects”) or to split up collections by date or location.

If you rename a folder or subfolder within Luminar Neo, the name of the linked folder or subfolder will also be changed on your hard drive. If you change the name of a folder on your hard drive while Luminar Neo is running, your Catalog will automatically update to reflect the new name.

Moving Images Between Folders

You can move images and subfolders from one folder in your Catalog to another. When reorganizing your photos in Luminar Neo, you can select single or multiple images and drag them to master folders or subfolders. These images will be relocated on your hard drive to match their new locations inside your Catalog. You can also move an entire subfolder of images from one folder to another, which will also affect the folder structure on your hard drive.

Moving Images from the Single Image Edits Shortcut to a Folder (macOS)

The Edit Single Image command is a great way to work with individual images without having to add them to your collection of folders. Any image you open is tracked as a recent file in the Single Image Edits shortcut.

Images that have been temporarily added to Luminar Neo using the Edit Single Image command can be permanently added to your Luminar Neo Catalog.

1. Click on Single Image Edits in the top section of the Catalog panel.

2. Select an image (or multiple images)

3. Drag the image thumbnails onto any folder or subfolder in the Folders section of the Catalog panel. The images will be physically moved from their original location into the folder you specified on your hard drive.

These images will still appear in the Single Image Edits shortcut even though they are now part of your Library. To remove them from the Single Image Edit shortcut, select them and just press the Delete key. The image is removed from the Single Image Edits collection. Though no longer in the Single Image Edits collection, the images are in the new location you added to your Library.

Using Albums to Organize Images

Albums let you organize your images into groups without affecting their location on your hard drive. Albums are a helpful way to sort your images into groups or categories, such as people, places, and pets.

What Are Albums?

Albums are virtual storage locations. Think of them as playlists for your photos. A song on your hard drive can live in a playlist based on the artist, the year it was released, or the musical genre it belongs to. So can a photo. One photo can be assigned to multiple albums. These might be named for the subject, where the photo was taken, or the event where the photo was shot.

How Are Albums Different from Folders?

Folders in Luminar Neo are directly linked to (and affect) folders on your hard drive. On the other hand, when you move an image between albums — or even one image into multiple albums — the folder structure on your hard drive doesn’t change as it does when working with folders. Also, if you delete a photo from an album, it remains in its original folder in Luminar Neo and on your hard drive.

Thus, albums allow you to organize your images inside Luminar Neo without affecting the structure of images on your hard drive.

Creating an Album

Creating albums is an easy way to organize your photos.

1. To create an album, select a single image or a group of images in your Catalog.

2. Click the Add Album button (the small + button to the right of the word Albums) in the Catalog panel. A new album will be created named “New Album,” and the image or group of images you selected will be placed in that album. You can also create a new album by selecting an image or images and choosing File > New Album, by right-clicking on an image or series of images and choosing Create Album, or by pressing Cmd+N (macOS) / Ctrl+N (Windows).

3. When you create an album, its name will be highlighted so you can easily rename it. Give your new album a descriptive name.

Renaming Albums

You can rename an album at any time by right-clicking on it and selecting Rename from the pop-up menu. It’s possible to have two albums with identical names, so be careful when naming albums so you can easily find your images in the future.

Copying Images Between Albums

Dragging images from one album to another puts those images in a new album without removing them from the first album. For example, you may have photos of people in your Paris Travel album and want those photos in your People album.

Removing Files from Albums

Removing an image from an album is easy; after doing so, the image file will remain in its original folder on your hard drive and in your Catalog.

1. Choose the album you want to remove an image from.

2. Select the image you want to discard (hold down the Shift key to select a range of images).

3. Right-click on one of the selected images, choose Remove from Album, or press the Delete key.

Your images will be removed from the selected album but live in other albums and their original folder(s). Removing an image from an album does not affect the original file on your hard drive.

Moving Images from the Single Image Edits Shortcut to an Album

Over time images in your Single Image Edits shortcut will accumulate. These images are considered temporary and do not reside in any of the Folders in Luminar. You can organize images you brought into your Single Image Edits shortcut into an existing Album or create a new album.

This is a great way to organize images you want to edit but not affect where they are located on your hard drive. When you remove an image from the Single Image Edits shortcut, it will also be removed from any Albums you have added it to.

Using Shortcuts to Find Your Photos

One of the easiest ways to find your images is with shortcuts at the top of the Catalog panel. Luminar Neo makes it easy to locate your photos based on standard and powerful criteria.

All Photos

Selecting the All Photos shortcut loads all photos in your current catalog. If you click on the small disclosure Triangle, you can browse your Library by Year, Month, or Day. Photos are automatically sorted based on their file creation or capture date.

Single Image Edits

If you have chosen to use the Edit Single Image command, the Single Image Edits shortcut will appear in the list. Selecting this will show all of the images you have temporarily added to your library to process.

Favorites

If you have Flagged any images as Favorites, the Favorites shortcut will appear. This is the quickest way to find all of your favorite images. Combining this option with a selection from the Viewing Filter allows you to filter your favorite images by additional criteria. Click the dropdown list next to the words Showing: All Photos in Gallery View to get started.

Recently Added

Recently added photos appear under the Recently Added shortcut. If you click on the small disclosure triangle you can browse these images by the specific day they were added to your library.

Recently Edited

If you want to review images that you have edited quickly, select the Recently Edited shortcut. All of your edited images will appear. If you click on the small disclosure triangle, you can refine what Luminar Neo shows you by Today, Yesterday, This Week, or This Month.

Lost Edits

Trash

You can review images you’ve queued for deletion in the Trash shortcut. The images can either be deleted from Luminar Neo and moved to the system trash for cleanup or returned to the Luminar Neo catalog.

Custom Shortcuts

Right-click on a folder or album to choose Add to Shortcuts for quick access. If you ever change your mind, just right-click on the shortcut and choose Remove from Shortcuts. You can also drag shortcuts in the list into a new order.

Using Search to Find Your Photos

You can find photos in Luminar Neo with the Search tool located in the top left of the Catalog panel. The Search tool lets you quickly find images by image name, folder name, date, or extension.

Filtering Catalog is a feature that allows users to sort and narrow down their photo collection by applying filters based on various metadata (data about the image) and image attributes. This includes:

• Filter by camera model (the specific camera used to take the photo).

• Filter by focal length (the distance between the camera lens and the image sensor, affecting zoom and field of view).

• Filter by ISO (a camera setting that controls the sensor's sensitivity to light).

• Filter by shutter speed (when the camera’s shutter is open to let light in, affecting exposure).

• Filter by aperture (the size of the camera's lens opening, impacting the depth of field and brightness).

• Filter by rating (user-assigned ratings, such as star ratings for favorite or important images).

These extensive filtering options enable users to quickly locate specific images based on detailed criteria, making it easier to manage large photo collections.

The Showing All Photos drop-down menu (located to the left of the By menu in the upper right corner of the Catalog) allows you to filter your images by Favorites, Rejected, Unmarked, RAW, and Edited. Finding the best ones can be tricky with hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of pictures. The Showing menu allows you to filter your photos quickly.

Combining the filters in the Showing drop-down menu with the sorting functions in the By menu allows you to find exactly what you need in a few clicks. For example, you might show only Favorites organized by Capture Time.

Showing Filters

• Favorites. This filter shows only images you have flagged as favorites.

• Rejected. This filter shows only images you have rejected.

• Unmarked. This filter shows all images not tagged as either Favorite or Rejected.

• RAW. All photos in RAW format

• Edited. This filter shows all images you have edited. Showing only edited images makes it easy to find the photos you have already processed.

Moreover, you can filter your photos by capture time too:

Adjusting image thumbnail size

When viewing photos in the Gallery view, image thumbnails can be resized for better viewing. From the Thumbnail Size dropdown menu, choose between Small, Medium, Large, and Largest.

Sort Folders and Albums is an organizational feature that helps users manage their photo catalog more efficiently by allowing them to sort folders and albums using various attributes. Users can arrange their collections based on criteria such as date, name, size, or custom attributes. This feature simplifies the management of large photo collections, making it easier to find and access specific albums or folders, thus streamlining workflows for photographers and editors.

How to Sort:

• Select your desired sorting option from the folder or album dropdown menu to quickly organize your collection.

Sorting Options

Users can sort their folders and albums based on several criteria:

• Folder Name: Sort your folders and albums alphabetically for easy retrieval by title.

• Creation Date: Organize your collections chronologically. This is especially useful when working on time-sensitive projects or reviewing recent shoots.

• Recently Updated: Sort folders and albums based on when they were last updated. This is helpful for quickly accessing collections you’ve recently edited or added new photos to, ensuring you can pick up right where you left off.

• Photo Count: Arrange folders and albums by the total number of photos they contain. This helps you identify larger or smaller collections at a glance, which can be useful for organizing and prioritizing your workflow based on the size of your projects.

Over time, your photo catalog will grow. One of the key benefits of a Luminar Neo catalog is finding just the images you want to work with, view, or share. Flags make it easy to find your favorites.

Understanding Flags

Flags are an easy way to rate and sort images. There are three types of Flags that you can apply to an image.

• Favorite. Favorite images are the images you may want to work on later or easily find again.

• Rejected. These are images you know you will not want to use. This could be based on focus issues, closed eyes, or other problems that can’t be fixed in editing.

• Unmarked. Images that are neither Favorite nor Rejected remain unmarked. You can filter out everything but unmarked images to determine if you want to flag or reject them. Images that have been Favorited or Rejected can have their rating removed using the Unmarked command.

Choosing Favorite Images in the Catalog View

The most accessible place to choose your favorite images is the Catalog. This is because you can compare images to each other.

In the Gallery View, you can directly mark a photo as a favorite on the image thumbnail. When you hover your mouse over a thumbnail that is unmarked, a small outline of a heart appears in the lower right corner of the thumbnail.

To start:

1. Click a Shortcut in the Catalog panel or choose a Folder, Subfolder, or Album for the images you want to work with.

2. Press the L key, ensuring you are in Gallery View mode.

3. Adjust the thumbnail size (Small, Medium, Large, or Largest) with the Zoom Controls in the upper left corner so you can easily see image details.

4. Click the hollow heart icon on the lower right edge of each thumbnail; the heart can be toggled on or off with each click to mark Favorite or Unmarked.

Marking Favorite Images in the Single View

You can also add a Flag to an image in the Edit panel or Single Image Catalog view. This can be useful as you enhance the image as you might change your mind about how good it is (especially after taking advantage of Luminar Neo’s tools).

To start:

1. Click a Shortcut in the Catalog panel or choose a Folder, Subfolder, or Album for the images you want to work with.

2. Press the G key, ensuring you are in Gallery View mode. This mode makes it easy to get an overview of a folder or album’s contents so you can choose the image you want.

3. Choose the image you’d like to edit and double-click to enter the Single Image view.

4. The individual image opens, and you should see flags and other helpful information below the image on Canvas.

5. If hidden, click the View menu and make sure the Show Photo Actions Panel is marked. You can now flag directly below the image.

From left to right, here’s what’s displayed

• Filename. Matches the name of the file on your hard drive.

• Favorite. Click the heart to flag the image as a favorite.

• Rejected. Click the X to reject the image.

• Visibility Icon. Click to view the before and after if the image is edited.

• Zoom. Click the dropdown menu to change the Zoom percentage.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to label images.

• P Favorite

• X Rejected

• U Unmarked

The Star Ratings feature in Luminar Neo allows you to easily rate and organize your photos, helping you quickly identify your best shots and sort through large collections. You can rate each photo with a score ranging from 1 star to 5 stars.

Viewing and Filtering by Star Ratings

Once you've rated your photos, you can filter and sort your library based on star ratings, making it easy to find your best images when you need them.

To filter your images by star rating:

1. Go to the All Photos.

2. Select the Rating option.

3. Choose the desired star rating to display only photos with that specific rating.

The By drop-down menu lets you choose the order in which you view images in the Catalog.

The By menu lets you easily switch between different sorting options depending on your needs in the upper right corner of the Catalog. For example, you can find your photos using By Capture Time, Edit Time, Pick (Flag status), File Name, File Type, File Size, and Ascending or Descending.

• Capture Time. This option sorts your images using date and time metadata. This allows you to quickly find your most recent (or the oldest) photos in a folder or album.

• Edit Time. This option allows you to sort your photos by the last date you edited them in Luminar Neo. This is great when you reopen your Catalog after a break and want to locate the images you were last working on quickly.

• Pick. This option groups and sorts your images by how you have flagged them. If you sort by ascending, you will see Unmarked, Rejected, and Favorite images in that order. Switching to Descending reverses the order, showing Rejected images first, then Favorites, and finally Unmarked.

• File Name. This option sorts your images by file name. Files starting with a number will appear first, followed by letters from A to Z. When set to Descending order, images will be sorted from Z to A and then numerically from highest to lowest.

• File Type. This option categorizes and sorts images by file type, such as JPEG, TIFF, and raw. These groups are sorted alphabetically by the file identifier. For example, Sony raw images would appear first, as they are ARW files. Canon raw files would appear second, as they are CR2 files, followed by JPG, Nikon NEF files, Fujifilm RAF files, and TIFFs.

• File Size. You can sort your photos by the size of the files. This is useful if you have multiple versions of the same photos, perhaps low-quality thumbnails and the original JPEGs. Sorting by size lets you easily group photos and quickly delete them from your Catalog in the case of low-resolution thumbnails.

• Ascending. This option works with the other filter criteria, sorting filter results from smallest to largest, A to Z, lowest number to highest number, oldest to newest, and so on.

• Descending. This option works with the other filter criteria and reverses the sorting order, displaying results from largest to smallest, Z to A, newest to oldest, etc.

When you use Luminar Neo as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom Classic, all tools located in the Edit and Presets tabs will be accessible.

Also, you can use the HDR Merge, Focus Stacking, and Upscale AI tools in the Lightroom plugin. Achieve even more impressive results with any editing workflow.

Moreover, please keep in mind that if you invoke Luminar Neo from Photoshop or select the “Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments” option in Lightroom Classic, you’ll get a TIFF file in the Luminar plugin.

Therefore, if you need to work with the RAW file in Luminar, you need to upload it in standalone mode.

Alternatively, using Lightroom Classic, you can choose ‘Export Original’ after right-clicking the photo > Export > Luminar Neo > Open Source Files.

When you use Luminar Neo as an Extension to Photos on macOS, Catalog tools are not available.

Luminar Neo’s Catalog Tools go beyond simple photo organization—they empower you to transform and enhance your images with advanced features. From creating stunning panoramas with Panorama Stitching to enhancing details through HDR Merge and Focus Stacking, these tools are designed to elevate your editing process. You can also enlarge images without losing quality using Upscale AI and explore creative possibilities with Generative Features. In this section, we’ll dive into each of these powerful tools and show you how to make the most of them in your workflow.

While editing, you can move images to the trash directly from within Luminar Neo. This makes it easy to organize your hard drive and reduces clutter. Remember that deleting files from folders in Luminar Neo will also delete them from your hard drive. To help you avoid permanently deleting your original photos unintentionally, Luminar Neo includes multiple warnings.

Deleting a File in Luminar Neo

To delete one image or multiple images in Luminar Neo, select one or several images in the Catalog, right-click on the image(s), and choose Move to Luminar Trash from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, you can press Cmd+Delete (macOS) or Ctrl+Delete (Windows). The selected images will be hidden in the current folder Luminar Neo and placed into the Trash shortcut.

The Trash shortcut in Luminar Neo is a staging area. When files are in the Trash shortcut, they are still on your hard drive in the same place they had been. Click on the Trash shortcut to see additional controls.

Restoring Files from the Trash

Images in the Trash shortcut are still on your hard drive and can easily be restored to their original location in your Catalog.

To restore images from the Trash:

1. Select the image(s) you want to restore.

2. Choose Image > Put Back to restore the image(s) in your Catalog, or right-click on the image (or one of the selected images) and choose Put Back.

Emptying the Trash in Luminar Neo

To permanently remove an image from the Luminar Neo Catalog:

• All references to the image in its folder are removed from Luminar Neo.

• All edits are removed (be sure to export a new file to your hard drive if you want to save these first).

• Any references to the image are removed from Albums.

There are two ways to empty the Trash in Luminar Neo:

• Right-click on a single image or on one of the multiple selected images and select Delete from the pop-up menu.

• Click the Empty Trash button at the top of the Catalog window.

This will send all images in the Trash shortcut in Luminar Neo to your operating system’s Trash (macOS) or Recycle Bin (Windows).

At this point, your files are not yet deleted from your hard drive. Luminar Neo has only moved your files to the operating system’s Trash (macOS) or Recycle Bin (Windows). You can still open your computer’s Trash/Recycle Bin and retrieve the files. To permanently delete the files, empty the Trash or Recycle Bin.

Emptying the Trash/Recycle Bin

Some photographers choose to shoot raw and JPG files simultaneously in order to have the JPG files as a reference for in-camera processing or as a backup. Luminar Neo makes it easy to organize files that are captured in raw and JPG pairs.

When you import raw and JPEG pairs, you can decide which files you see to keep your Catalog uncluttered.

1. Click the View menu, choose View > Raw + JPEG Pairs and select the desired option.

2. Choose one of these based on need.

   • Show Raw Only. If a raw and a JPEG exist in the same folder with the same file name, Luminar Neo will only show the raw image.

   • Show JPEG Only. If a raw and a JPEG exist in the same folder with the same file name, Luminar Neo will only show the JPEG image.

   • Show Separately. This option will show all raw and JPEG images in your Catalog so you can use JPG files as a reference while you edit.

3. You can change your view at any time.

Or you can choose RAW format in the Catalog filter:

Here are some rules when it comes to adjusting and flagging image pairs:

• Edits to JPG and raw files are independent but can easily be synced. Use the View menu described above to control which images are shown for a clutter-free Catalog.

• Flagged, Rejected, and Unmarked flags are applied to the JPG and raw files in a pair when you modify either.

• If you move a JPG or raw file part of a pair, the other file in the pair will be moved along.

• If you choose to view Raw Only or JPG Only, deleting a raw or JPG image will move both files in the RAW/JPG pair to the Trash collection in Luminar Neo.

• If you are viewing raw and JPG files separately, you can delete raw and JPG images independently of each other.

What is GenSwap

GenSwap is advanced Generative AI technology that empowers photographers to alter image compositions by substituting or exchanging objects and effortlessly incorporating new AI-generated details based on user input.

GenSwap enables users to enhance their images by introducing elements like trees, animals, and more, turning ordinary photos into captivating visuals. For instance, you can replace an unappealing tree with a more attractive one, introduce a bird into the sky, or place a stone in the desert to enrich and improve your photograph.

Prompt Input: Once a selection is made, the prompt text box labeled "What do you envision here?" will appear. Enter your detailed prompt in the designated text field, using nouns or adjectives plus nouns. Specify precisely what you want to see, such as "blue sea" or "big tiger," and refrain from using verbs like "change," "erase," "remove," "add," or "create."

Undo/Redo Functionality: allows you to reverse or repeat the previous action.

Preview Icon: To observe the outcomes before and after, click the preview icon, represented by an eye symbol.

Zoom Feature: Adjust your view using the zoom slider or the left and right bracket keys to magnify or shrink the view of the image.

Select: When swapping an object, activate the "select" option, fine-tune the brush size, and paint over the region you wish to substitute. It's advisable to be generous with your selection, providing the tool with more intricate details to enhance accuracy.

Deselect: Once an object is selected, enable the "deselect" option, refine the brush size, and paint over the area you want to exclude from the selection.

Reset Selection: Following the application of GenSwap, the object remains selected. If the desired outcome isn't achieved, you can reapply the swap tool by selecting it again. If you wish to replace a different object, reset the current selection and create a new one.

Swap button: Simply click the swap button to utilize GenSwap and replace the selected object in your image. This innovative tool goes beyond essential swapping, harnessing content-aware AI techniques for a refined result. You can continue to choose the swap button to cycle through different outcomes, fine-tuning your edits until you achieve the desired result.

Cancel Button: If you opt not to implement the alterations, simply click the cancel button.

Save Button: When content with the GenSwap outcomes, click the save button to confirm the changes. This will generate a new image saved in TIF format, renamed with the GENSWAP extension, and added to the Genitive Creations folder.

Applying GenSwap

Below is a step-by-step guide for swapping objects in an image with GenSwap.

1. Begin in the Catalog view and choose an image with objects you want to swap.

2. Adjust the brush size and select the object generously. Precision is not required. You can deselect a selection by clicking the Deselect button.

3. Write a descriptive prompt in the prompt text box using nouns or adjectives plus nouns. Specify precisely what you want to see, such as "blue sea" or "big tiger," and refrain from using verbs like "change," "erase," "remove," "add," or "create."

4. Click the Swap Button to initiate the object replacement. You can repeatedly select the swap button to explore different outcomes, fine-tuning your edits until you achieve the desired result.

5. Click the preview icon to view the before and after results.

6. Confirm your changes by clicking the save button.

7. The modified image will be renamed, with "GenSwap" included in the filename, and then saved in the Genitive Creations folder.

Check the video for more information:

What is GenErase

GenErase is an advanced Erase tool representing the next generation of image editing. It not only removes undesirable visual distractions from your images but also applies content-aware AI techniques to replace these elements intelligently. This process results in a composition that is both focused and devoid of distractions. GenErase's unique capability is to uphold the integrity of your photos by automatically filling in the erased areas with textures and elements that seamlessly match the surrounding context, all thanks to the power of AI. GenErase excels at effortlessly eliminating objects like litter, street signs, utility poles, vehicles, graffiti, crowds, and more, preserving the inherent beauty of your composition.

Zoom Feature: Adjust your view using the zoom slider or the left and right bracket keys to magnify or shrink the view of the image.

Select: When you need to replace an object, activate the "select" option, fine-tune the brush size, and paint over the region you wish to substitute. It's advisable to be generous with your selection, providing the tool with more intricate details to enhance accuracy.

Deselect: Once an object is selected, enable the "deselect" option, refine the brush size, and paint over the area you want to exclude from the selection.

Reset Selection: Following the application of GenErase, the object remains selected. If the desired outcome isn't achieved, you can reapply the erase tool by selecting it again. If you wish to erase a different object, reset the current selection and create a new one.

Erase button: To utilize GenErase and eliminate the selected object while also intelligently replacing unwanted visual distractions in your images, simply click the erase button. This innovative tool goes beyond essential removal, harnessing content-aware AI techniques for a refined result. You can continue to select the erase button to cycle through different outcomes, fine-tuning your edits until you achieve the desired result.

Cancel Button: If you opt not to implement the alterations, simply click the cancel button.

Save Button: When content with the GenErase outcomes, click the save button to confirm the changes. This will generate a new image saved in TIF format, renamed with the GENERASE extension, and added to the Genitive Creations folder.

Applying GenErase

Below is a detailed, step-by-step guide for replacing undesired objects in an image with GenErase.

1. Begin in the Catalog view and choose an image with objects you want to replace.

2. Adjust the brush size and select the unwanted object generously. Precision is not required. You can deselect a selection by clicking the Deselect button.

3. Click the Erase Button to initiate the object replacement. You can repeatedly select the erase button to explore different outcomes, fine-tuning your edits until you achieve the desired result.

4. To switch to a different object, select the Reset Button and pick the desired object. For optimal results, handle individual objects separately.

5. Confirm your changes by clicking the save button.

6. The new image will be saved in the Genitive Creations folder.

Check the video for more information:

Virtual Copies allow users to create multiple versions of a single photo without duplicating the original file. This feature is particularly useful for photographers and editors who want to experiment with different editing styles, crops, and adjustments while keeping the original photo intact. Each virtual copy can have its own unique edits, giving users the flexibility to explore creative possibilities without consuming additional storage space or risking changes to the original image. This fosters creative experimentation and ensures the preservation of the unaltered photo.

How to Create a Virtual Copy:

• Keyboard Shortcut: Create a virtual copy using Windows: Ctrl + ' or macOS: Cmd + '

• Right-Click: Right-click the image and select "Virtual Copy" from the menu.

• Actions Menu: You can also create a virtual copy by selecting it from the Actions drop-down menu.

To remove a virtual copy, simply move it to the trash can. This will delete the virtual copy, but the original image will remain unaffected.

Batch Processing is a powerful way to open, edit, and save many images at once, saving time and effort. The HDR Merge Batch Processing tool is ideal for working on single images as well as many sets of bracketed exposures. Luminar will automatically group brackets based on EXIF data stored in each image, including exposure settings, aperture settings, ISO levels, lens data, and time shot.

1. Capture bracketed photos: You’ll need to capture a series of bracketed photos with your camera, typically varying by exposure value (EV) increments (e.g., -2, 0, +2). Make sure to use a tripod to avoid misalignment between shots.

2. Import your images: Open Luminar Neo and import your bracketed photos into the software. You can do this by clicking the “Add” or “+” button and selecting the images from your computer.

3. Selecting Images: You can choose up to 1000 images that you want to merge into HDR images. Just drag and drop them onto the HDR Merge tool.

4. Batch Processing: Now, look for the option called Batch processing. This allows you to work on multiple images all at once, saving you time.

5. Tweaking Settings: Click on the three dots icon for more settings. Here, you can adjust things like Auto Alignment (to make sure all your images line up perfectly), Chromatic Aberration Reduction (to remove those weird color edges), and Ghost Reduction (to fix any blurry spots caused by movement). If you choose Ghost Reduction, you'll also pick a base image as your reference and decide how strong you want the effect to be. You have the flexibility to organize images by dragging them into your desired sequence. Additionally, if an image doesn't match the defined set, you can remove it by clicking on the X icon. To delete the whole group of images, just click on the trashcan icon.

6. Merging the Images: Select “Continue” to start the HDR merging process. Luminar Neo will take all your chosen exposures and blend them into one image with beautifully balanced lights and darks.

7. The newly merged HDR image will be saved as a Tiff file in the HDR Folder. You can leave it there or move it back to its original folder.

Using the HDR Merge feature in Luminar Neo, you can create stunning images with a broad dynamic range, capturing details in both highlights and shadows that would be difficult to achieve in a single exposure.

Make every part of your photo crisp by stacking up to 100 photos with different depths of field. Focus Stacking will align, crop, and balance them automatically. The AI algorithm chooses the parts with the best focus across all photos and corrects lens and chromatic aberration in raw files. The result is an image in which every detail pops — in macro shots, still life compositions, or multi-layered landscapes. Here’s a step-by-step guide on using Focus Stacking in Luminar Neo:

1. Capture multiple images: First, take a series of photos with varying focus points, covering the entire depth of your scene. Use a tripod to ensure consistency and alignment between shots.

2. Import your images: Open Luminar Neo and import the images you want to stack. You can do this by clicking the “Add” or “+” button and selecting the images from your computer.

3. Access the Focus Stacking in Luminar Neo’s Catalog mode: Select your photos and drag them to the Focus Stacking window.

4. Click the gear icon for additional settings: You can select Auto Alignment and Chromatic Aberration Reduction. Selecting Auto Alignment will enable you to choose a reference image. Luminar Neo does a great job of selecting this image for you.

5. Merge the images: Click “Stack” to initiate the Stack merging process: Luminar Neo will combine your images into a single focused image.

6. The merged image is saved as a Tiff image in the Focus Stacking Folder. You can leave the image in this folder or drag and drop it into the original folder.

7. Fine-tune your image: You can now use Luminar Neo’s editing tools to adjust exposure, contrast, colors, and other aspects of your image to achieve the desired look.

What is GenExpand

GenExpand is a groundbreaking tool that empowers users to break free from traditional aspect ratios and add a new dimension to their original compositions. You can effortlessly extend the boundaries of your photos, whether you're creating panoramic landscapes or giving your favorite images more space.

As you expand the image border, GenExpand intelligently analyzes the image and anticipates how the additional space will be populated. For enhanced precision and creative authority, craft a specific prompt outlining your desired content for the new area, and GenExpand will incorporate this guidance into the expansion process. GenExpand does require internet access.

Guidelines for optimal results

To maintain quality: The canvas can be expanded by an additional 25% beyond the original image dimensions.

The prompt: Can assist you in realizing your vision or addressing undesired outcomes.

Effectiveness: It's much more effective to focus on one side rather than expanding two or more at a time.

Smaller expansion is better: It's better to generate about 10% of the pictures instead of going with 25%. this helps keep AI from having to imagine too much.

Reapply: You can expand one photo multiple times

Quality: For optimal results in the generated portion using a higher resolution photo, focus on generating more side-by-side content rather than expanding all four sides of the image.

GenExpand options

Prompt Input: Once an expansion is made, the prompt text box labeled "What do you envision here?" will appear. Enter your detailed prompt in the designated text field, using nouns or adjectives plus nouns. Specify precisely what you want to see, such as "blue sky" or "sandy beach," and refrain from using verbs like "change," "erase," "remove," "add," or "create." If no prompt is added, GenExpand will intelligently analyze the image and anticipates how the additional space will be populated.

Undo/Redo Functionality: allows you to reverse or repeat the previous action.

Zoom Feature: Adjust your view using the zoom slider or the left and right bracket keys to magnify or shrink the view of the image.

Expand button: Simply click the expand button to utilize GenExpand and add to the selected area in your image. This innovative tool goes beyond essential expanding the image, it harnessing content-aware AI techniques for a refined result. You can continue to choose the expand button to cycle through different outcomes, fine-tuning your edits until you achieve the desired result.

Cancel Button: If you opt not to implement the alterations, simply click the cancel button.

Save Button: When content with the GenExpand outcomes, click the save button to confirm the changes. This will generate a new image saved in TIF format, renamed with the GenExpand extension, and added to the Genitive Creations folder.

Check the video for more information:

Upscale a photo up to 6X and enhance image resolution naturally with AI. Crop an interesting frame from a panoramic landscape, get high-quality zoom-ins of wildlife, improve macro shots, enhance old photos, prepare your images for printing, and more. Here’s a step-by-step guide on using UpscaleAI in Luminar Neo:

1. Open Luminar Neo as a stand-alone program.

2. Click on Add Photos and then click on Add Image.

3. Select your file and click Open.

4. Click Catalog at the top of the menu.

5. Drag the image down to the Upscale AI box at the bottom where it says Drag a photo here to start.

6. Choose the amount you want to upscale your image by.

It will take a few moments to upscale. Once the task is complete, a copy of your upscaled image will be placed in the Upscale folder. To avoid confusion, the upscaled image file name will also be changed, with image_upscale added to the end of the original file name.

In the captivating world of photography, few techniques are as cherished and revered as the art of creating panorama and High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. These awe-inspiring panoramas have an innate ability to transport viewers into the very heart of a scene, offering a breathtaking perspective that extends beyond the confines of a single frame. To fuel the creative passion of photographers even further, the groundbreaking release of Luminar Neo's newest Panorama Stitching, has emerged as a game-changer—giving photographers the remarkable ability to seamlessly merge the realms of panorama and HDR photography from not only still images but even video footage! Imagine the possibilities when two remarkable techniques intertwine to produce unparalleled visual masterpieces! Let me show you how it’s done.

Crafting panoramas from videos

Combining HDR with panoramas was already impressive, but now, behold the exceptional prowess of the Panorama Stitching tool that sets it apart from the rest. Crafting panoramas from videos is awe-inspiring, but the true marvel lies in the seamless merging of selected video segments, unlocking a whole new realm of creativity. This extraordinary feature deserves its own dedicated tutorial, but fear not—I won't keep you waiting. Prepare to be amazed by watching this video and witnessing the boundless possibilities that await!

How amazing was that! Creating perfect panoramas from videos can be a rewarding and visually stunning endeavor. To accomplish this, consider the following expanded suggestions:

1. Capture a Wider Perspective: When shooting the video intended for a panorama, ensure you use a wider field of view to encompass the entire scene. This means using a camera or smartphone with abroader lens or adjusting the camera settings to capture a wider angle. A wider perspective will provide more image data for stitching the panorama together later, resulting in a seamless and comprehensive view of the landscape.

2. Steady and Stationary Focus: To maintain the consistency and sharpness of the panorama, choose a stationary object within the scene and focus on it. It could be a tree, a building, or any fixed element that won't move during the video recording. By keeping your focus locked on this stable reference point, the subsequent frames of the video will align more effectively, reducing potential distortions during the stitching process.

3. Smooth and Controlled Panning: When recording the video, employ a smooth and controlled panning motion. Avoid sudden movements or jerks, as they can lead to misalignment when stitching the frames together. Use a tripod or stabilizing equipment to ensure steady footage, greatly improving the final panorama's quality.

4. Pay Attention to Overlapping Elements: While recording, be mindful of the composition and avoid overlapping important elements within the scene. Overlapping objects can make it challenging for panorama software to distinguish between them, resulting in a distorted or messy final image. Take your time to compose the shots carefully, ensuring each element has a distinct space in the frame.

5. Consistent Lighting and Exposure: To achieve a harmonious panorama, maintain consistent lighting and exposure settings throughout the video. Drastic changes in lighting conditions or exposure settings between frames can create visible seams and inconsistencies in the final result. If shooting in manual mode, lock the exposure and white balance settings to maintain uniformity.

By following these suggestions, you'll be well on your way to creating captivating panoramas from your videos, offering immersive and breathtaking views of the landscapes you capture.

Range of projection modes

Spherical

Spherical panoramas are best suited for capturing and presenting scenes with significant detail in all directions, offering viewers an immersive and all-encompassing experience. Particularly valuable in Landscape and Architecture Photography, these panoramas provide a comprehensive perspective of vast landscapes, capturing the entire scene from horizon to sky to foreground. The seamless stitching of overlapping images creates a distortion-free, lifelike representation with added depth and interest from foreground elements, allowing interactive exploration and connecting viewers with breathtaking landscapes' grandeur, beauty, and atmosphere.

Cylinder

Cylinder panoramas are best suited for capturing scenes with a horizontal emphasis or expansive width. They excel in showcasing cityscapes, urban landscapes, and wide scenic environments, providing a broad view of these settings. Cylinder panoramas are also ideal for presenting architectural structures with wide facades and interiors featuring significant horizontal features, offering an immersive and continuous view of these spaces.

Mercator

The Mercator projection applies adjustments as if the image is projected onto the exterior surface of a sphere. This approach is particularly suitable for panoramas captured while moving around a subject rather than rotating the camera. It can be likened to imagining a panorama of the Earth and then flattening it to create a Mercator map.

Plane

Plane in panoramas refers to a method of displaying the curved panoramic image on a flat surface, like a computer screen. It determines how the wide-angle view is mapped onto a 2D plane for viewing without distortion.

Fisheye

Fisheye panoramas encompass an extremely wide field of view, often exceeding 180 degrees. They produce a distinct visual effect known as barrel distortion, curving straight lines near the edges inward toward the center, resulting in an immersive and artistic representation of the scene. Fisheye panoramas are particularly popular in creative and experimental photography, adding a surreal and captivating quality to the panoramic images.

Presets in Luminar Neo are a powerful way to enhance your photos with just one click. They offer a quick and easy starting point for editing, applying a range of styles and adjustments that can transform your images instantly. Whether you're looking for a subtle enhancement or a bold, creative look, Presets help streamline your workflow and spark inspiration. In this section, we’ll explore how to apply, customize, and create your own Presets to make the most of your photo editing experience.

Editing is at the heart of Luminar Neo, offering advanced tools and AI-driven features to help you bring your creative vision to life. Whether you're making quick adjustments or diving into detailed, professional edits, Luminar Neo provides intuitive controls for enhancing color, lighting, composition, and more. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential editing tools, techniques, and tips to help you achieve stunning results with ease.

Custom Preset

The Skylum team or other professional photographers will occasionally release a Presets collection. When you import a Custom Luminar Preset Collection, it will create a new Collection in the Purchased section in the Preset browser.

To add a Custom Luminar Neo Preset Collection, select File > Add Luminar Neo Preset Collection… An open dialog will be displayed, allowing you to browse your computer and choose the Collection you wish to add.

Alternatively, you can add a Custom Luminar Neo Preset Collection from the Presets tab by clicking on + Add on the Purchased button on the Presets panel or at the top of the Purchased Presets section.

After adding a Preset Collection to the custom folder, you’ll find it in the Purchased area of the Presets tab in Luminar Neo.

Purchased presets from Skylum Marketplace

Luminar Neo was built on the belief that photo editing should be fast, easy, and fun. Our Preset-based editing approach helps Luminar Neo achieve this goal. Presets combine efficiency with creativity. By using AI to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every image, Presets automatically correct common capture problems and apply enhancements that inspire new ideas.

The Presets included in Luminar Neo were created in collaboration with professional photographers and retouchers to produce high-quality results. Based on in-depth research, Presets are composed to reflect the classic design and modern, popular trends, producing fresh and engaging images with maximum impact. Once refined, customized Presets can be saved and easily synced across large batches of photos, including across sets of images from different sessions and taken in different environments.

Use Presets as a starting point or when you need inspiration.

In order to save time when developing your image, you’ll find an extensive collection of Presets. Professional photographers and image retouchers help create these Presets to save you time and offer inspiration.

To apply a Preset

1. Make sure an image is open in Luminar Neo.

2. Click Presets at the top of the window to switch to the Presets Browser. This opens the Presets panel.

3. Choose a Preset collection

   • Use suggested templates in the For This Photo section

   • Browse other collections organized by categories.

4. Examine the Presets available by exploring their icons.

5. When ready, click on a Preset name to apply it. To apply a different Preset to your photo, click on its name.

Additional Controls

1. Click the Heart icon next to a Preset to add it to your Favorites list for easy access.

2. In order to quickly return to the original state of a photograph, just use the Reset Adjustments command or Ctlr/Command + Z. You can find this in the ellipsis menu (…) to the right of the selected template name at the bottom right corner of the screen. The Reset Adjustments command resets all tool adjustments including Presets, but won’t affect tools such as CropAI

Preset Panel

Clicking the Presets tab on the top toolbar opens the Preset Panel.

• For This Photo. Uses content-aware technology to suggest what Presets may work best for your photo.

• Membership. Find there all the installed Presets from Membership. [only for owners]

• Favorites Collection. This collection contains Presets you have favorited by selecting the heart icon next to the preset’s name.

• Purchase Presets Collection.This collection contains Presets you have purchased.

• User Presets Collection. This collection contains Presets you have edited or created from scratch and then saved for later use.

Sorting for Presets and Collections

In Luminar Neo, you can sort your presets collections to quickly find the look you need. You can organize them by the following attributes:

• Recently Added: Display the most recently added collections at the top.

• Collection Name: Arrange collections alphabetically.

• Ascending: Sort collections from A to Z.

• Descending: Sort collections from Z to A.

Rearranging Presets within a Collection

You can easily rearrange the order of presets within a collection for My Presets and Favorites categories. Simply drag and move a preset to the desired position, whether it’s at the top, bottom, or anywhere in between. This helps you prioritize your favorite presets for quicker access.

Removing Preset Collections

If you no longer need a preset collection, you can easily remove it. Right-click on the collection you want to delete and select Delete Collection. This helps keep your workspace organized and clutter-free.

Get editing suggestions with For This Photo

The Presets panel uses content-aware technology to suggest what Presets may work best for your photo. Luminar Neo scans each image and compares its contents and their needs to a built-in collection of editing Presets. This allows Luminar Neo to suggest new styles as well as useful fixes.

To get editing suggestions

Taking advantage of the For This Photo tool is easy. Luminar Neo uses content-aware technology to determine what Presets may work best for each photo.

1. Open an image or select an existing photo in your catalog.

2. Click the Presets button at the top of the window.

3. Locate the For This Photo section near the panel’s top (scroll if needed).

4. Let Luminar Neo analyze your image. When complete, suggestions will appear. You can see suggested Presets at the top of the Presets panel in the For This Photo area.

5. Scroll through the suggested collections by clicking the arrows to the right and left of the collection image to review your suggestions.

6. When you’ve chosen a collection, click to open it. You can now:

   • Click on an individual Preset to apply it.

   • Click on a new Preset to try out another option.

Follow these steps to edit an image using Luminar Neo.

1. Select an image from the Catalog or choose to edit a single image from Single Image Edits

2. Click Edit on the top toolbar to reveal Luminar Neo’s tools

3. A good starting point is the DevelopRAW or EnhanceAI tool. Select one of these tools and edit your image. Select other tools to complete your edit.

4. Click the Edits tab to make changes to a tool that was applied. Notice that you can add the same tool more than once.

5. Click the Share Button on the top toolbar for export options.

Layers provide maximum flexibility in the creative image editing process to separate different elements of an image. A layer can be compared to transparency in which images are applied and placed over or under an image. Luminar Neo offers the ability to use numerous raw files as image layers and can apply any tool to any layer. Tools can be added in any order, multiple times, and with unique masks. Layers are non-destructive, allowing previous steps to be modified to correct mistakes and can be saved with a preset for later use. Layers can be an integral part of your creative process.

Discover more efficient workflow tips:

Follow these steps to add, remove, or hide a layer.

Adding a Layer

To add a new layer in Luminar Neo, click the + icon in the Layers panel. This will open the Add New Layer panel with these options to add to the layer:

• My Images

• Flares

• Light Leaks

• Stardust Bokeh

• Sparklers

Removing a Layer

To remove a layer, press the keyboard shortcut Delete key or right-click on the layer and select Remove Layer. Another option is to hide the current by selecting Hide Layer instead of removing it. This is useful when you want to create different versions of an edit.

Layer properties can be found on the Tools panel, which consists of two tabs: Properties and Masking.

Properties

• Opacity. The Opacity slider enables you to lower or fade the amount or strength of the Layer as a whole. Lowering the opacity of a layer can help refine the blending of the image on the layers and any tools applied without altering the settings of individual tools separately.

• Blend Modes. A blend mode compares the content of two layers and enacts changes based on the content of both layers.

• Horizontal Flip. A transformation feature allows you to mirror a layer horizontally (from left to right).

• Vertical Flip. Enables you to create a mirror layer vertically. It flips the content from top to bottom.

• Image Mapping. Automated linking of different sections of an image

Masking

• Brush Mask. Using a Brush Mask is one of the easiest ways to mask an image. You can use brush strokes to add to or subtract from the mask.

• Linear Gradient Mask. The Linear Gradient Mask is useful for creating a gradual blend.

• Radial Gradient Mask. A Radial Gradient Mask offers a quick and easy way to mask an elliptical area of your photo.

• Mask AI. MaskAI detects up to nine separate elements in a photo: people, skies, buildings, vehicles, water, plants, mountains, and both natural and artificial ground for the perfect mask.

Mask actions

• Fill. This option covers your entire image with a mask. After using Fill, you can select Paint and use the Erase mode to subtract from the mask.

• Clear. This option removes your mask entirely. After clicking Clear, you can use the Paint Mask, Gradient Mask, or Radial Mask tools to add details to the image.

• Invert. This option inverts any mask you’ve created to reverse its opacity and transparency values.

• Copy. This option copies the current mask to the clipboard. To use this copied mask, create a new mask using any tool and paste it into the new tool mask.

• Paste. This option pastes the current mask stored on the clipboard for use on another tool mask.

• Show. This option controls the visibility of the mask. Clicking Show displays the mask as a red overlay. You may continue drawing your mask for greater precision while this overlay is shown. Click Show again to remove the red overlay.

The Merge Layers feature allows you to combine multiple layers into a new merged layer.

How to Merge Layers

• Select the layers you want to merge.

• Hold Shift on your keyboard.

• Right-click on the selected layers.

• Click the Merge Layers button.

This will create a new merged layer while keeping the original layers intact.

Saving a Custom Preset

As you adjust a Preset or build your recipes from scratch, you may find a particular combination. A Preset can store a lot of control in an easy, one-click effect.

After editing your image, saving your new style as a Luminar Neo Preset is easy.

1. Adjust an existing Preset or add your own tools to an image.

2. In the bottom Actions dropdown, click the Save as Preset.

3. The item is saved to your My Presets tab.

4. You can rename the Preset or keep the default name in the My Preset tab.

Modifying Custom Presets

1. Your new Preset can be found under Preset panel > My Presets.

2. Click the item menu next to the Preset name if you want to manage or rename the Preset.

• Edit. Loads the Edit panel allowing you to make changes.

• Rename. Renames the current My Preset.

• Delete. Deletes the current My Preset.

• Show in Finder/Show in Explorer. Opens an operating system window for the currently selected Preset file. This allows you to copy the Preset and pass it on to someone else.

Sharing a Custom Preset

Any Luminar Neo Preset you make can be shared with other users, manually backed up to a new location, or copied to a new computer. You can freely export your own Presets and import another person’s Presets into your application.

1. To view any Presets, navigate to the User Presets section in the My Collection area of the Presets panel.

2. Click the item menu (three dots) next to a custom Preset and choose Show in Finder (macOS) or Show in Explorer (Windows).

3. Select the Presets you want to share, then send them to fellow Luminar Neo users. Be sure to copy the entire parent folder which contains the preset file, resource file, and custom icon.

4. To copy Presets on another machine, just reveal the folder as described above. Then go up one level to the Users folder.

5. Simply drag the new Presets into your Luminar Neo Presets User Folder.

6. For best results, restart Luminar to load all the new Presets.

Once you’ve added a new layer, it’s easy to transform it into a new size.

Automatically transform a Layer.

• Horizontal Flip. Choose between automatically aligning the horizon (Auto Horizon Alignment) and straightening the verticals (Auto Verticals Straighten).

• Vertical Flip. Choose between automatically aligning the horizon (Auto Horizon Alignment) and straightening the verticals (Auto Verticals Straighten).

Manually transform a Layer.

Use these controls to transform an image on a layer manually.

• Drag any corners or resize handles to enlarge the image proportionately.

• Drag between any corners to enlarge and free-transform the image.

• To rotate an image, click and drag just outside a corner to rotate.

Once created, layers can be reorganized in any order. The exception is the bottom first layer. This is the base layer, and it can not be moved.

Click and drag the Layer

To change a layer’s order, click and drag the layer to a new position. This is useful to see how a layer interacts with other layers.

*If the tool is not available, you may need to use the Upgrade option

Automatically remove the background behind one or multiple subjects in your photo. The neural network in Background RemovalAI can detect the main subject and up to nine types of other elements in your photo, and you can select which ones to keep. Plus, use a refinement brush to fix any imperfections. Here’s a step-by-step guide on using Background RemovalAI in Luminar Neo:

1. Select an image: click the Edit tab

2. Layer Properties: select the Masking tab and choose Background RemovalAI

3. Selection: Select the chosen main object or choose from additional elements found in the image.

4. Remove the background: Click “Remove” to initiate the Background Removal process. Luminar Neo will remove the image’s background, revealing a transparent checkbox background.

5. Click Refinement Brush for additional finetuning: A Transition Mask will appear, highlighting Transition in a white checkerboard pattern, Object in orange, and Background in blue. Select a brush and apply it to refine each section.

The final image will appear with a transparent background. Use Layers to add a new background and move the layer to the bottom of the Layers palette. This will reveal the image on a new background.

Location in Neo: Edit view -> Layer Properties -> Masking

NoiselessAI in Luminar Neo is a sophisticated, AI-powered noise reduction tool designed to eliminate luminance and chroma noise from your images, resulting in cleaner and visually appealing photos. This advanced tool works with various image formats, including raw and non-raw files, and offers optimal results when applied to raw photos.

Leveraging intelligent algorithms, Noiseless AI analyzes the image’s noise level and suggests one of three noise reduction presets – low, middle, or high – for a quick and effective noise reduction solution throughout the image. Additionally, it provides manual control through sliders for Luminosity Denoise, Color Denoise, Details, and Sharpness, allowing you to fine-tune the balance between noise reduction, detail preservation, and image sharpness.

NoiselessAI in Luminar Neo empowers photographers to confidently use higher ISO settings without compromising image quality and to achieve superior results while maintaining full creative control over their images.

Luminar Neo’s NoiselessAI tool, the Luminosity Denoise, Color Denoise, Details, and Sharpness sliders work together to help you achieve noise-free images while retaining detail and sharpness:

1. Luminosity Denoise: This slider targets luminance noise, which manifests as random variations in brightness or grayscale values, creating a grainy appearance in your image. Adjusting the Luminosity Denoise slider reduces this noise, resulting in a smoother image while preserving important details and textures. Finding the right balance is crucial to avoid over-smoothing and losing detail.

2. Color Denoise: This slider removes chroma noise, which appears as random color speckles or blotches in your image. By adjusting the Color Denoise slider, you can eliminate these color artifacts effectively, producing a cleaner and more visually appealing photo. Be careful to maintain a balance that preserves natural colors without introducing color casts.

3. Details: The Details slider enables fine-tuning the balance between noise reduction and detail preservation. Increasing the Details value helps retain finer details and textures in your image while reducing noise. Be cautious not to push it too far, as overemphasizing details can reintroduce noise or create artifacts.

4. Sharpness: The Sharpness slider enhances overall image sharpness by accentuating edges and details in the photo. Adjusting this slider counteracts potential sharpness loss from noise reduction, resulting in a more detailed and crisp image. Use this slider judiciously to avoid unnatural-looking edges or halo effects.

Using the NoiselessAI tool in Luminar Neo requires finding the right balance among these sliders to achieve optimal noise reduction while preserving essential details and textures in your images.

The CropAI tool automatically adjusts the photo’s composition, crop, and perspective. If needed, you can manually fine-tune any aspect of the resulting composition. The crop tool is non-destructive and can be applied, edited, or reset anytime without affecting the image. The crop tool settings are not saved with presets.

Automatically Cropping with CropAI

Use these controls to crop an image or fix perspective problems automatically.

• Composition AI. Automatically crop your photo based on an analysis of its contents.

• Perspective.

  • Horizon Alignment. Automatically levels the image horizontally. Suitable for images that aren’t level with the horizon but have a natural horizon or straight horizontal lines.

Manually Cropping with CropAI

Depending on the intended use of the final image (print, web, social media), you may require a very specific aspect ratio for your final image. Straight out of a camera, your photos won’t be in that aspect ratio. To solve this problem, use manual tools to take complete, precise control over how an image is cropped.

Use these controls to crop an image or fix perspective problems manually:

1. Drag any corners or resize handles to modify the cropping rectangle.

2. To move the image inside the crop, just click inside the image crop area and drag to re-position the image behind the cropping rectangle.

3. To rotate an image, click and drag just outside a corner to rotate. A grid overlay appears to help you with accurate cropping.

4. When happy with the cropping, switch to another tool to apply the crop.

5. If you want to cancel the crop, click the Reset tool reverse arrow icon.

There is also an additional helpful functionality for cropping:

• Rotate & Flip. Uses one-click tools to adjust the crop of the image quickly.

  • Rotate Left (CCW). Rotates the image 90˚ counter-clockwise.

  • Flip Horizontal. Reverse the left and right sides of the image, creating a mirror image.

  • Flip Vertical. Reverse the top and bottom sides of the photo.

Ratio

You can choose Aspect Ratio from the Ratio drop-down menu. The image is displayed with a grid that represents the ratio chosen in the Aspect drop-down menu. Here's the list of commonly used ratios:

• Free. Create a custom shape by dragging it to taste.

• Original. Preserves the original shape of the photo but allows you to crop more tightly to remove details from the edges

• Transposed. The original dimensions are reversed for the crop.

• 1: 1 (Square). A square-shaped image is created.

• 4: 5. A near-square image that’s common for many photo sizes

• 8.5: 11. A common size for documents.

• 5: 7. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

• 2: 3. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

• 4 : 3. A rectangular image that’s common for many photo sizes

• 21: 9. A ratio that presents an ultra-wide view.

• 16: 9. A ratio used by televisions, many electronic devices, and presentations

• 16: 10. A ratio that matches many computer displays.

• Facebook Cover. A useful size for a page banner on Facebook.

• Facebook Feed. A common size for an image posted to Facebook.

• Enter Custom. Offers the ability to choose a specific aspect ratio.

Luminar Neo has tools that will help you improve your image quality. In the Edit view, on the right-side tools panel, you'll find the Image Quality section, which consists of two tools: Noiseless AI and Supersharp AI.

SupersharpAI refines the blur on an object’s outlines caused by movement, missed focus, or a shaky camera and logically stabilizes the photo. The neural network, at its core, analyses depth, perspective, and the environment of the photo and works out with a compression algorithm. The result is a crisp and naturally sharp photo, just as it was meant to be.

Universal correction: a general sharpening technique applied to an entire image to improve its clarity and sharpness. It aims to restore lost detail and remove any softness in the image caused by camera shake or other factors.

Motion Blur correction: a specialized technique used to sharpen blurred images by camera movement during exposure. It uses advanced algorithms to analyze the blur’s direction and intensity and then applies a correction to restore the image’s original sharpness. This technique can be particularly useful for photos taken while moving, such as while walking or driving, or for photos of fast-moving subjects, like athletes or wildlife.

Low, Middle, and High: determines the sharpening strength applied to the image.

Face EnhancerAI: enhance faces and make them appear clearer and sharper in blurry photos.

The Develop/DevelopRAW tool contains the most essential controls for adjusting the color and tone of an image. Adjustments made with this tool will set the stage for all further adjustments. The RAW indicator will only show next to Develop when an unedited raw file is opened for editing. All RAW images will automatically apply the DevelopRAW tool as the first tool in the Edits panel. If a different tool is applied first to a RAW image, the DevelopRAW tool will automatically be applied as the first tool without any settings. Settings can be adjusted at any time.

Camera Profile

For maximum control over your raw files, be sure to give DNG camera profiles a try. Luminar recognizes the industry standard DCP files you may already have on your computer (or have bought from third parties). These offer a high degree of control over how a raw file’s color and tone are handled.

Light

• Exposure. This slider adjusts the global luminance of the image. Moving it to the left results in a darker image (reduced exposure value). Moving it to the right results in a brighter image (increased exposure value).

• Smart Contrast. This slider adjusts the contrast of the image. Contrast refers to differences in luminance or color that allow you to distinguish objects in an image from one another. Practically speaking, contrast is determined by the difference in the color and brightness of an object relative to other objects within the same field of view. This slider’s innovative capabilities limit color shift and prevent details from becoming blocked up.

• Highlights. This slider adjusts the brightness of the brightest areas of the image. Moving it to the right causes bright areas to become brighter, while moving it to the left makes them darker.

• Shadows. This slider adjusts the brightness of the darkest areas of the image. Moving it to the right causes the darkest areas to become brighter, revealing additional details. Moving it to the left makes such areas darker.

Blacks & Whites

• Whites. This slider adjusts the white point of the histogram and white tones in the image. When you move it to the right, the brightest tones become brighter while the histogram compresses to the right. Moving it to the left causes the white tones in the image to become darker as the histogram compresses to the left.

• Blacks. This slider sets the histogram’s black point and adjusts the image’s black tones. Moving it to the right makes the black tones brighter as the histogram compresses to the right. Moving it to the left makes the black tones darker as the histogram compresses to the left.

Curves

This is one of the most powerful tools for adjusting your image’s tone. It allows you to brighten, darken, add contrast, and shift colors. Curves can be applied to all color channels together or to each color channel individually and can help you manually fine-tune the brightness and contrast of an image.

• Color selectors. You can use the white, red, green, and blue color selectors to make curve adjustments to all channels equally or to an individual channel (such as blue to emphasize the sky).

• Control points. You can add up to 10 control points. Drag up to add contrast to an area and drag down to lighten the area. Multiple control points can be employed for contrast adjustments based on tonal range.

Color

• White Balance. To calculate a custom white balance, choose the Eyedropper tool (to the right of the White Balance drop-down menu) and click on an area in your image that should be a white or neutral gray. If you are working with a raw file, you can use the White Balance drop-down menu to choose from various presets similar to those found in a camera’s white balance menu.

• Temperature. This slider warms or cools an image by adding Cyan or Yellow to change its color temperature.

• Tint. This slider adjusts the amount of green or magenta and is useful for removing color casts from an image.

• 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 helpful in achieving fine control when adjusting color.

Sharpness

• Sharpen. The Sharpen tool helps focus soft edges in a photo to increase the clarity of focus. Use this tool to improve image quality significantly. Keep in mind that too much sharpening can give your photo a grainy look.

• Radius. This slider allows you to adjust the distance from contrast edges at which the sharpening effect is applied.

• Masking. This slider controls the zone in which details are amplified. Moving it to the left increases the size of the zone and makes the image more detailed. Moving it to the right reduces the size of the zone of sharpened zones.

Noise Reduction

Upon close inspection, you may notice unwanted and distracting noise or grain in your image. This is typically caused by shooting photos with a high ISO setting on a digital camera, but it can also be caused by underexposure or a long shutter speed. An entry-level consumer camera is more likely to exhibit noise problems than a professional camera. Fortunately, Luminar Neo offers an easy tool to reduce or remove unwanted noise.

• Luminosity Denoise. This slider removes grayscale noise from an image.

• Color Denoise. This slider removes color noise from an image.

• Boost. This slider increases the aggressiveness of the Denoise tool.

Optics Auto Corrections

This tool is helpful in enhancing your image and removing lens imperfections. Its sliders are designed to remove flaws in the image caused by the lens or camera handling. The exact controls you’ll see vary between standard and raw files.

• Auto Distortion Corrections (raw only). Click this option to automatically correct lens distortion. This tool analyzes your image and its metadata to calculate an automatic fix. Get rid of wide-angle distortion and get truer perspective lines and more attractive portraits.

• Auto Fix Chromatic Aberrations (raw only). Chromatic aberration is a type of color fringing. It often happens with telephoto lenses and in areas of high contrast. Chromatic aberrations tend to show up as magenta or green edges around objects.

• Auto Defringe. This adjustment can remove halos and edge noise (particularly in high-contrast areas).

Optics Manual Corrections

• Lens Distortion. Drag this slider to the left to widen the barrel shape of the lens. Drag it to the right to pinch the barrel shape and compensate for lenses with wider angles.

• Devignette. This slider removes any darkening at the edges of an image caused by the lens itself. This is a corrective tool, not a stylizing tool. If you want an artistic vignette, be sure to explore the Vignette tool.

• Devignette Midpoint. This slider refines which areas are brightened or darkened by the Devignette slider.

Transform

If your image needs to be scaled or transformed, use these sliders to adjust perspective distortion manually.

• Vertical. Tilts the image vertically to correct for vertical distortion, which, for instance, can occur when a tall building is photographed at street level.

• Horizontal. Tilts the image horizontally to create straight lines and correct for horizontal distortion, which, for instance, can occur when an object is photographed off to the side.

• Aspect. Moving the Aspect slider to the right corrects for horizontal aspect distortion. Moving it to the left corrects for vertical aspect distortion. The Aspect slider can work in tandem with the Vertical and Horizontal sliders. For example, making a correction with the Horizontal slider may distort the aspect of a subject. To correct this, you can move the Aspect slider until the subject looks natural.

The Essential Tools are some of the most frequently used tools in Luminar Neo. These tools perform core adjustments that are useful for most images.

1. Select an image in your Catalog or open a single image.

2. Click the Edit Tab.

3. Choose the desired tool from the Essentials Tools section in the list.

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

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 helpful in 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 a 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 for eliminating unwanted color tints, while a significant shift is perfect for a dramatic style.

The EnhanceAI tool contains two helpful adjustments that harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to enhance your photos. This tool automatically analyzes your image and instantly corrects it while still offering control over the final amount of correction.

• AccentAI. Under the hood, AccentAI uses more than a dozen controls. This tool tends to yield naturally beautiful results with one simple slider. The AccentAI tool can substitute for many traditional controls, including shadows, highlights, contrast, tone, saturation, exposure, and details.

• Sky EnhancerAI. Luminar Neo detects and analyzes the sky in an image to improve the sky’s texture, tone, and colors. The Sky EnhancerAI tool can recognize the sky in most photos as well as distinguish between water and other elements. It also detects objects in the foreground (and their edges) for perfect masking. Sky EnhancerAI performs the necessary improvements to recover details and improve the texture of the sky and clouds, selectively adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, and vividness. It is designed to work with most photographs of the skies and works from the blue hour in the morning to the blue hour in the evening. However, it is not designed to work with night skies.

The Structure AI tool allows you to adjust the detail and clarity of an image. You can use this tool to reveal a great deal of detail or get a smoother image with less detail. StructureAI is the primary tool for increasing the contrast of an image and visualizing more details. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, StructureAI is content-aware and can adjust areas variably based on the subject. It is also human-aware, so it doesn’t overprocess people in your images. As a result, faces and skin look natural while the objects around them look detailed.

• Amount. This slider selects the strength of the StructureAI effect. Moving it to the right increases the amount of visible detail in the image. Moving it to the left removes detail and flattens the image. This tool is soft and produces natural results.

• Boost. This slider adjusts the overall display of details. Moving it to the right accentuates details. Compared to Amount, Boost emphasizes small details and is more aggressive. It offers an HDR-like look.

The Erase tool helps you remove unwanted objects with a few clicks. As soon as the Erase tool is selected, the cursor becomes a brush. When brushing over areas to erase, a red overlay appears showing the selection.

• Select and Deselect. By default, the Select button is chosen. When brushing over an image with Select chosen, you select areas to erase (indicated with a red overlay). By clicking the Deselect button, you can deselect areas to erase (removing the red overlay).

• Size. This slider increases or decreases the brush size. You can also use the left and right bracket keys ([ and ]) to decrease and increase the brush size. It’s a good idea to keep the brush slightly larger than the size of the object or blemish you’re erasing.

• Erase. Click this button to erase areas of your selected image (indicated with the red overlay).

• Clear Selection. Click this button to clear your current selections so you can start over.

• Restore. Click this button to restore the current selection.

The Erase tool serves a similar purpose to the Clone tool, allowing you to remove unwanted objects or details. But its approach is different from Clone. Rather than setting a source point for pixels, with Erase, you simply click and brush over unwanted areas. Luminar Neo then examines the surrounding pixels and generates a new texture based on its awareness of what’s nearby in the photo. It then matches the original pixels’ texture, lighting, and shading. This approach is often reasonably practical, as this tool is fast and easy to use.

Objects Removal

Remove Powerlines

The Remove Powerlines tool is helpful for automatically removing unwanted objects like power and phone lines from the sky of a landscape photo. Getting a clear image in just a few seconds is now easy. This tool saves time when editing photos of weddings, landscapes, and popular sightseeing spots, getting rid of power lines, phone lines, and other annoying little details in the sky.

Remove Dust Spots

The Remove Dust Spots tool helps remove dust spots and particles caused by dirt on their lenses or sensors. Since this is a common problem, removing the undesired effects of such foreign objects on photos with the help of AI (rather than erasing or cloning) can help photographers create better photos faster and more efficiently. Remove Dust Spots in Luminar Neo automatically removes the effects of dust and debris on the camera sensor and lens. This feature is helpful not only for lenses that quickly get dirty but also for fixing photos taken in such situations as when dirt and dust quickly get into lenses or sensors and ruin photos that a photographer has traveled many miles to capture.

The Vignette tool darkens or lightens the edges of your image. This is quite an old technique to emphasize the subject in photos. The effect typically leaves the center of the image unaffected while shading or lightening the edges. Luminar Neo goes further by letting you place the center point of the vignette anywhere in the image.

Standard Settings

• Choose Subject. Click this button to enable a crosshair. You can then click within the photo to center the vignette. This allows you to adjust the focus of the vignette by offsetting it and guiding the viewer’s eyes to your subject.

• Amount. This slider adjusts the darkening around the edges of the photo. Move it to the left to give more shading or to the right to brighten the edges.

• Size. This slider sets the size of the obscured area. Moving it to the left increases the darkened area. Moving it to the right decreases the darkened area.

Advanced Settings

• Mode: Post-crop / pre-crop. Choose pre-crop or post-crop options to apply a vignette automatically before or after cropping on all new edits.

• Roundness. This slider changes the shape of the shaded area.

• Feather. This slider sets the smoothness of the transition between the area of shading and the rest of the image.

• Inner Light. This slider increases the brightness in the image’s central region, which is not affected by shading. It allows you to create a contrast effect.

The Landscape Tools are specifically designed to enhance and optimize landscape photography. These tools offer specialized adjustments tailored to the unique requirements of landscape images, allowing users to achieve stunning results.

The Denoise Tool. Upon close inspection, you may notice unwanted and distracting noise or grain in your image. This is typically caused by shooting photos with a high ISO setting on a digital camera, but it can also be caused by underexposure or a long shutter speed. An entry-level consumer camera is more likely to exhibit noise problems than a professional camera. Fortunately, Luminar Neo offers an easy tool to reduce or remove unwanted noise.

Standard Settings

• Luminosity Denoise. This slider removes grayscale noise from an image.

• Color Denoise. This slider removes color noise from an image.

Advanced Settings

• Boost. This slider increases the aggressiveness of the Denoise tool

The Black & White tool converts a color photo to black and white. It also contains several controls to manipulate the monochrome look.

• Convert to B&W. Click this button to convert between color and black & white.

• Luminance. When the Luminance button is selected, the Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, and Magenta color sliders control the brightness of each respective color as it’s converted to black and white.

• Saturation. When the Saturation button is selected, each color slider introduces the respective color into the black and white image where it was present in the original color image.

Twilight Enhancer AI feature within Luminar Neo replicates the enchanting ambiance experienced during the Blue and Golden Hours in photography. This feature enhances landscape and outdoor photographs by infusing them with the naturalistic lighting and color effects characteristic of these magical times of the day. By intuitively adjusting colors and swiftly fine-tuning settings, users can attain impressive outcomes, whether they begin with a preset or tailor each detail to their liking.

Presets for Quick Application

Pre-defined presets such as "Blush," "Golden," "Blue," "Emerald", and "Mauve" offer instant, one-click applications of Twilight Enhancer AI effects, streamlining the editing process and facilitating further customization. Users can adjust the settings to suit their preferences.

• Amount. Controls the overall strength of the preset, adjusting each setting proportionally.

• Exposure. Adjusts the overall brightness of the photograph, making it darker or lighter;

Sky Adjustments

Users can fine-tune the appearance of the sky using sliders for temperature, tint, exposure, and horizon blend. This allows for the creation of the Blue Hour effect while retaining the original sky elements.

• Temperature. Adjust the warmth or coolness of the sky, with higher values adding warmth and lower values adding coolness.

• Tint. Fine-tunes the green or magenta tint of the sky, with higher values adding magenta and lower values adding green.

Dawn Adjustments

This section simulates the subtle, warm gradient of light seen during dawn. Users have control over the scale, intensity, and hue of this gradient, enabling precise adjustments as the image transitions from night to day.

• Amount: Controls the overall quantity of the dawn effect applied to the image. Adjusting the amount affects how dominant or subtle the dawn light is across the image, enabling users to simulate everything from the faintest hint of dawn to a full, bright morning light.

• Size: Similar to scale, the size feature lets users determine the spatial extent of the dawn light effect within the image. It can be adjusted to affect a small area, giving the impression of a distant or just-beginning dawn, or expanded to cover the entire image, simulating a wide, open sky at dawn.

• Temperature: Adjusts the color temperature of the dawn light, shifting it from cooler to warmer tones. Higher temperature settings will produce a warmer, more orange or pink light, typical of sunrise. In contrast, lower temperatures result in cooler, bluish tones, which can be used to depict the very early moments of dawn or dawn under specific weather conditions.

• Tint: Allow for the fine-tuning of the dawn light's color bias, adding green or magenta hues to the gradient. This can be used to simulate the effects of atmospheric conditions on dawn light, such as the presence of particles or moisture in the air, which can influence the perceived color of the light.

• Exposure: Controls the brightness level of the dawn light, independent of its color or temperature. Adjusting the exposure amount can simulate the light's intensity at various points during the dawn, from the dim early light barely illuminating the landscape to the full brightness of a sun nearing the horizon.

Scene Enhancements

With this feature, users can adjust the overall ambiance of the scene to evoke the desired time period. By making nuanced changes to lighting and color, the entire image is transformed, resulting in a more immersive visual experience.

• Shade. Manipulates the shadows within an image to control the level of darkness or lightness, enhancing the overall contrast and depth.

• Saturation. Intensify or reduce the vibrancy of colors within an image, allowing for adjustments that impact the overall richness and vividness of the scene.

• Relight human - recognizes the person in the image and adjusts the lighting on the person, making them brighter or darker. This helps improve the visual quality of the image by correcting lighting issues focused on the person.

• Feathering. Soften the edges of a selection or mask, seamlessly blending it with the surrounding area to create a more natural and visually appealing transition.

Water Reflection

This feature is designed to refine the reflection of the sky on water surfaces in images. It enhances the visual interaction between the sky and water, making the reflection appear more vivid and accurate. This is useful for improving the aesthetic appeal and realism of photos involving water bodies.

• Amount. Controls the overall presence or intensity of the water effect in the image. By adjusting the amount, users can either increase or decrease how pronounced the water appears. This adjustment can significantly impact the mood and realism of scenes involving water, allowing for a customized portrayal of water in various environments and lighting conditions.

• Blur. The blur feature adjusts the clarity and sharpness of the water elements, simulating the effect of motion or stillness in the water. Increasing the blur can give the impression of moving water, such as flowing rivers or waves, creating a sense of motion and dynamism. Decreasing the blur results in clearer, more tranquil water, ideal for depicting still ponds, lakes, or clear water where details beneath the surface might be visible. This control is crucial for conveying the texture and movement of water, adding depth and realism to the water elements in an image.

Mask Refinement

Precision masking tools enable users to selectively apply Twilight Enhancer AI effect to specific areas of the image, such as the sky or landscape, ensuring optimal customization and control over the final outcome.

• Sky Horizon. Adjusts the separation line between the sky and the horizon in an image, allowing users to precisely control the boundary between these two areas for enhanced editing and composition.

• Sky Global. Modifies the overall mask of the sky in an image, offering users the ability to make broad adjustments to elements such as color, brightness, or contrast across the entire sky area with a single control.

• Fix Gaps. 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.

• Blur. Used to soften or blur the edges of a mask or selection, creating a smoother transition between the masked and unmasked areas. The value determines the extent of the blur applied, with higher values resulting in a greater degree of blurring. Adjusting the blur allows users to control the amount of feathering or blending between the masked and unmasked regions.

Add a whole new light source to your photo — the sun! You can control its position, warmth, and the amount of glow for a subtle or even dramatic change in lighting. Combine the Sunrays tool with blending modes for even more control of your lighting.

Standard Settings

• Place Sun Center. Click this button to position the sun. You can also drag the position off of the photo canvas.

• Amount. This slider controls the overall intensity of the sun’s rays.

• Overall Look. This slider changes the overall brightness of the scene.

• Sunrays Length. This slider controls the distance the sun rays travel.

• Penetration. This slider impacts how much the sun passes through an area. It can be helpful when trying to composite the sunrays into a photo naturally.

Sun Settings

• Sun Radius. This slider affects the size of the sun (the origin point of the sun’s rays).

• Sun Glow Radius. This slider changes the size of the glow around the sun.

• Sun Glow Amount. This slider changes the intensity of the sun’s glow.

Rays Settings

• Number of Sunrays. Use this slider to select the number of sun rays.

• Randomize. This slider will generate an entirely new variation based on your current settings.

Warmth

• Sun Warmth. This slider can change the sun from a bright white to a warm glow.

• Sunrays Warmth. Use this slider to adjust the color temperature of the rays.

If the sky in your photo isn’t compelling, you can easily replace it with the SkyAI tool. This tool is designed to work with flat or blown-out skies but can be refined to work with most skies using sliders. Using the power of artificial intelligence, SkyAI automatically analyzes an image identifies where the sky begins and ends, recognizes if water is featured in the image, and then seamlessly replaces the sky and adds reflections to any body of water to create a realistic look.

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.

To add a single sky, click the + icon at the end of the sky list and browse your computer for a sky to add.

Select Show Custom Skies… from the Sky Selection dropdown list to add a group of skies. Then drag and drop your custom skies to the folder that opens. We recommend keeping fewer than 50 skies loaded at a time for better performance.

Sky Orientation

• Horizon 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.

• 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.

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.