Luminar 4.2: Opens Up The Doors To Creativity

The latest version of Luminar, 4.2, has been announced. With this update comes brand-new ways to add realism to your photographs or take it to the next level and create an entirely new world. New tools turn Luminar 4.2: Open the door to your creativity, discover now.

Luminar Photo Editing

Luminar continues to focus on the core of photo editing. They have added some new creative features, helping you to create amazing works of art. Luminar 4.2 new features and enhanced tools will help you to create one-of-a-kind photography composites, allowing you to express yourself in ways previously not possible.

Luminar 4.2: What’s new?

NEW AI Augmented Sky

Inside the Creative tab of Luminar 4.2, you’ll find a new tool called AI Augmented Sky. This tool lets artists choose objects from the curated Luminar collection or upload their own, and blend them seamlessly with the photograph’s sky. Here’s how it works. AI Augmented Sky detects your photo’s sky automatically and then places the chosen element directly into the sky area.

Using content-aware technologies, foreground objects are recognized and taken into account, making the object blend naturally with your existing scene. You can drag the new element around the sky for ultimate control, yet retain those realistic qualities.

Check out this walkthrough to get started with AI Augmented Sky. The tool lets you make realistic images — perfect for adding a moon to your scene, as shown above. Or you can take it to the next level, creating a photographic composite that looks like something out of a fairy tale.

“We’re really excited to see how photographers and artists use AI Augmented Sky. Whether you’re creating a realistic composite or creating an out-of-this-world experience, AI Augmented Sky opens up a creative powerhouse of opportunities,” said Dima Sytnyk, Co-Founder and CPO of Skylum.

To celebrate the new AI Augmented Sky tool, Skylum is excited to announce the Luminar Featured Artist contest. Artists who make creative photos with Luminar, using the new AI Augmented Sky tool, are eligible for the contest. To enter, just post your photo on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #madewithLuminar and #creativeLuminar. In April, they’ll choose the most creative photo and place it on the welcome screen of a future Luminar update.

Breakthrough Improvements to Portrait Tools

When Luminar 4 launched, they announced some new, groundbreaking tools to help you optimize your portraits. And so far, photographers have loved the enhanced controls and adjustments they can make to their portraits.

They’re introducing a new Face Features Detection Network, which enables us to give you even more accurate and realistic automation when it comes to enhancing portraits. This technology is trained to detect different faces no matter what position, angle, or tilt they might be in. It even recognizes those badly lit or partially hidden faces, as well as those with heavy makeup. No matter the person’s skin color or age, Luminar 4.2 will recognize faces — even if it’s a group photograph. Check out the example to see the power of the new Face Features Detection Network.

In the AI Skin Enhancement tool, you’ll find a new Shine Removal Technology. It lets you reduce shine on a person’s forehead or cheeks, making for a more evenly lit portrait. In the example below, you’ll see that this technology restores the skin on the patches of the face where it was hit by excessive light, and automatically generates realistic-looking skin that blends in perfectly.

AI Portrait Enhancer has also received improved slimming capabilities through its Slim Face 2.0 Technology. Prior to today’s update, Slim Face only worked with the lower portion of a person’s face, sometimes making for unrealistic results. As you can see below, with Slim Face 2.0, the tool now recognizes the entire face and makes changes proportionally.

Improved Relight Scene in AI Sky Replacement

In addition to AI Augmented Sky and the enhancements to our portrait tools, you’ll also see a few other updates in Luminar 4.2. We’re constantly improving one of our Luminar artists’ most-loved features — AI Sky Replacement.

Relight Scene technology improvement lets you retain colors as you originally captured them in-camera. In previous versions, you might have seen a yellow and unrealistic glow on white objects. Improvement of the Relight Scene technology lets you avoid this problem.

How to Update?

Luminar 4.2 is a free update to current Luminar 4 users. On a Mac, click on the Top Menu Bar and choose Luminar 4. Check for updates. On Windows, in the Top Menu Bar choose Help. Check for updates. If you are running Luminar as a plugin with Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, or Photoshop Elements, it’s also recommended you rerun the plugin installer. You’ll also see increased efficiency and speed of interaction with your machine’s processor, due to improvements they’ve made to the ML Cache system.