Luminar AI Update 2 Available Now
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Your editing experience is our top priority. In this update, we’ve added more power to existing tools and added many other improvements to make editing even more comfortable. Here’s what you can discover in the new update.
Welcome powerful SkyAI with reflections and MORE
Skylum created the world’s first automatic sky replacement technology. Now, building on this legacy, we’ve listened to feedback from creatives in the Luminar community and delivered a faster, more robust experience in the next generation of our SkyAI tool. Under the hood, our enhanced AI engine ingeniously creates new possibilities.
Sky reflections in water: This much-anticipated update means there’s no more worrying about sky replacement in photos featuring water! Ocean, river, lake, pool, it does not matter, LuminarAI will automatically reflect the new sky in the body of water in the most realistic way.
The new sky automatically conforms to the angle and depth of the scene to produce incredible results down to the smallest details. Once the new sky is in place, use the Reflection Amount slider to adjust the intensity of the reflection to your liking.
Scene relighting: SkyAI now provides realistic scene relighting by eliminating strong color casts from the sky on foreground objects. To control the scene relighting, use the following sliders in Scene Relighting:
- Relight Amount adjusts how the exposure of the scene matches the new sky.
- Relight Saturation adjusts the saturation of the relighting effect to add the color from the new sky to the scene realistically.
- Relight Human controls relighting for any people in the scene, matching people to the new sky for a more realistic effect.
Seamless sky orientation: One of the toughest challenges in traditional editors is cleanly aligning a new sky to the original horizon. Use new Orientation controls to align the sky until it is positioned for a perfect fit. This is a great tool for getting the most out taken from untraditional angles, such as lifestyle photos.
- Flip your sky to change the direction of the sun.
- Rotate the new sky on the Z-axis for perfect alignment.
- You can also freely position the sky with the Vertical Sky Offset and Horizontal Sky Offset sliders. Place the sky exactly where you want it in the scene and it perfectly scales to fit.
- Horizon Blending creates the perfect blend where the sky touches the ground.
Working with Skies has never been easier: Visually select the sky you want from the dropdown list and instantly have an idea of what your final result will look like.
We've added six new free skies with this release and made it easier to add your own skies or add new sky packs. Upload your own Custom skies and select them visually. Copy multiple skies directly to the custom folder and instantly scroll through them in the preview window.
- Take care of the small imperfections around the edges of your new sky with the new Fix Details Slider.
- Match new skies to the original photo with the new Grain slider for a seamless, realistic effect.
- Need a broader selection of skies to create more variety in your images? Easily build your collection of skies by pressing Get More Skies, which takes you directly to the Marketplace where you can get gorgeous new Skies captured by professional photographers all around the globe.
Release your imagination with Texture Overlays
With Update 2, Local Masking adds amazing new creative abilities. The Texture tool now offers advanced controls to transform texture and image overlays. You’ll be amazed at how easily you can deliver a special message with your photos. There are no limits to your imagination!
- PNG Overlays: PNG files with transparency can now be uploaded as textures in LuminarAI. These files can be used to add special effects to photos, including watermarks, text, emoticons, and other decorative elements.
- Easy placement: New overlay elements can be easily moved, flipped, rotated, resized, and placed anywhere you want. There are even blending modes and masks to precisely control how the object interacts with the original image.
- Overlays in Templates: Once applied, an overlay can be synced across multiple images or saved in a custom template for future re-use.
Discover an improved Templates experience
There are tons of exciting improvements in the Templates tab to discover! Since Templates are an essential part of the innovative LuminarAI workflow, we’re constantly working to improve your Templates experience. In LuminarAI Update 2, finding the perfect Template for your photo is even and faster.
- Easy Access: To make them easier to find and use, all Templates, including Favorites, My Templates Purchased, and Legacy Templates, are now available within the main Templates tab, just beneath For This Photo.
- Easier Browsing: Template Group previews are now uniform in size to make them more visually accessible and comfortable to work with.
- Marketplace Integration: Templates purchased in the Luminar Marketplace are now automatically added to For This Photo and may be presented by LuminarAI when suggesting enhancements for your photos.
- Add External Templates with Ease: On Windows, add external Templates by simply double-clicking in File Explorer. No need to use the plus button inside LuminarAI.
Improved camera support
Update 2 brings support for new cameras and file formats to LuminarAI.
- New Cameras: Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, EOS 850D, EOS-1D X Mark III (lossy compressed files), Fujifilm X-S10, Leica M10-R, S3, SL2-S, Nikon Z 5, Z 6 II, Z 7 II, Olympus E-M10 Mark IV, Panasonic DC-G100 / G110, DC-S5, Sony ILCE-7C (A7C), ILCE-7SM3 (A7S III) and Zeiss ZX1.
- New File Formats: Lossy compressed CR3 files and Lossy compressed RAF files.
Even more product improvements...
You’ll also notice these small but helpful updates throughout the software.
- Working with images in your Catalog is now easier. Click Catalog in the top menu bar to return to the Grid View from the Single Image View and select another image for editing.
- The Film Grain tool now shows the effect on your photo directly in high resolution. No need to wait for the effect to load!
- LuminarAI will now remember the metadata window (Info panel) state and the Histogram state whenever you quit the application, making it more convenient to resume editing upon the next launch.
...To top it all off, we caught some bugs!
In total, we’ve caught and fixed 70+ bugs! Here are the fixes that will definitely improve your LuminarAI experience.
On macOS:
- Maintain sharpness in your image during aberration corrections with fit to screen and 100% zoom
- Apply CompositionAI with zero artifacts or offsets on image edges
- Change the Ratio in your image without experiencing crashes
- Use Erase and Sunrays together and don’t fear artifacts
- Get instant previews of photos in the filmstrip after applying default Templates
- Don’t worry about the application of the Radial/Gradient mask in Templates, since it’s is saved even if the tool is minimized
- Smoothly export to SmugMug after exporting to Mail
- Enjoy a proportionately thin scroll bar in the Favorites, Purchased, Legacy, and My Templates instead of the default wide scroll bar
On Windows:
- Maintain sharpness in your image during any aberration corrections with fit to screen and 100% zoom
- Smoothly install all purchased Template collections in LuminarAI
- Successfully save and apply the DCP profile in your custom Template
- Use Erase and Sunrays together and don’t fear artifacts
- The File > Share > Mail menu is visible in the Catalog Grid View
- The CompositionAI tool works when using LuminarAI as a Lightroom plugin
- Sign in easily, even after signing out from the onboarding window
...And much more! We hope you enjoy the steadier and smoother experience.
Updating LuminarAI
LuminarAI Update 2 is a free update for current LuminarAI users. To update:
MacOS: Open LuminarAI. In the Top Menu Bar, choose LuminarAI > Check for updates. If you purchased via the Mac App Store, open the App Store and go to the Updates tab.
Windows: Open LuminarAI. In the Top Menu Bar, choose LuminarAI > Help > Check for Updates.
If you are running LuminarAI as a plugin with Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, or Photoshop Elements, it’s also recommended you rerun the plugin installer.
The LuminarAI user manual has also been expanded to make it easier than ever for users to search and find answers to questions they might have about LuminarAI.
We can’t wait to see what you create
With the LuminarAI Update 2, we’ve worked hard to improve even the smallest details to make your photo editing experience faster, more convenient, and more enjoyable. With significant enhancements to SkyAI, Local Masking, and Templates, you have powerful new ways to simplify your workflow and create beautiful digital art that realizes your unique vision.
Enjoy creating photos you’re proud of in LuminarAI and share them with the world!
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When I click 'Check for Updates' in Luminar 1.0.1, absolutely nothing happens. At least nothing that I can perceive. I left Luminar running for fifteen minutes, and observed no changes of any kind. I tried several times, quitting and restarting Luminar in between. I'm using MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave with all updates.
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Hace unas doce horas escribí a soporte. Cuando abro el panel de los cielos, empieza a cargarlos pero termina bloqueando el ordenador, no dejando opción de forzar la salida de la aplicación. He desinstalado y vuelto a instalar L Ai y el problema persiste.Tengo 8gb de ram y noto también la poca fluidez de la nueva versión.
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I'm looking forward to trying the changes made in this second update to LAI. I hope my experience with the new features is better than my attempts to install the upgrade.
Last night, I opened the v1 standalone and selected update from there. The download stalled with the message "We've run into an issue while installing the app."
Next I went to a photo editor which will run the Luminar AI plugin and tried to install. Same stall.
For the third attempt, I went directly to the website and tried to download from there. No luck. Frustrated, I gave up for the day.
This morning, I tried the update install through the plugin again. This time I got a message indicating Luminar AI could not be found on my iMac. Apparently the attempted full install directly through the website had screwed up the Luminar AI configuration on my machine. So, I resorted to the full download again.
At 20% download the stall and "issue" message happened. But I noticed a "Try Again" option. (It may have been there last night, and I perhaps overlooked it because it was late.) Using "Try Again" six times finally completed the download, and the install then went smoothly.
My system:
macOS Big Sur version 11.2.3
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Just updated to V1.2.0 on MacBook Pro M1 16GB and it ran slower than usual. I like the more intuitive UI update and the sky reflection. But it overheated the M1 to the point that the fan was running on max (I've never hear the fan run on the M1 until now!). Looking forward to a version native to the M1 silicone that takes advantage of the built-in AI capabilities.
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I have had time to test V2 following the install SNAFU. All of the new features are more than satisfactory except the most important, long-promoted one -- water reflections.
To me, water reflections -- at least on a Mac -- is extremely disappointing, because it looks very unnatural. And just watch what happens to cloud reflections in the water when the newly-inserted sky is shifted. More work is needed on the AI here.
This suggests to me that Marketing trumped Engineering in the premature release of V2.
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Hi guys,
If you experience issues with Luminar AI, please reach out to us at http://skylum.com/support
and we'll get that sorted out for you ASAP. -
why there is a community board when the answer always is "contact http://skylum.com/support ?
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Dear Skylum,
It's been a while since a launch of the Luminar AI Update 2. The key feature was a "powerful SkyAI with reflections and MORE". IMHO something must have gone wrong since it does not work properly.
First, Luminar AI PS plugin - stopped working and both Templates and Edit were blank:
Support resolved the problem with a manual change to the CommonSettingsPlugin.xml (please see the thread: https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360010600340-Luminar-AI-PS-plugin-stopped-working?page=1#community_comment_360002942359 ).
Second, once the problem with blank Templates and Edit was solved I tested Templates / Toscana. It produced a sky replacement with a weird halo around the plane:
I reported the problem to the Skylum support last week but had not got any solution yet. Also, to doublecheck whether the problem was with the source file or with Luminar, I compared it with the Photoshop sky replacement feature, which produced the following result:
As you may easily notice Ps did not produce any halo around the plane. What really surprised me is that it is a step back for Luminar, since the sky replacement feature worked flawlessly both in Luminar 4 and Luminar AI before Update 2.
Third, I tested sky reflections in water. Unfortunately it did not work either. I tried a couple of images but the results were poor. Just have a look here:
Solely, for the sake of presentation I used "Sunset Clouds 3" and pushed the reflection amount to the extreme (100%). By definition the reflection should mirror skies. It did not. Therefore it was not a reflection. Today I got a mail from Skylum Support with a request to provide source files etc. (and a similar request in the thread: Luminar AI Update 2 Sky Reflection https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360010493959-Luminar-AI-Update-2-Sky-Reflection ).
Again, Photoshop does not provide automated reflection but with little endeavour one may produce it with layers:
To make long story short, I must admit I am frustrated. I planned to focus on a creative side of the photography, and perhaps use discounts offered during a Deep Dive to purchase Luminar X membership, an additional seat or some goodies. Regretfully, I had been buried in support communication instead.
Kind regards
Marcin -
Please, improve the performance. It is really disappointing to use Luminar AI right now. Slow slow slow slow... My imac i7 with 32 gb of ram looks like one of the 20th century. Functionality is great, no doubt of that but, what's the point to run a Bentley with the wheels of a Cinquecento?
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Hello Jose Gonzalez,
I can assure you that our team works on performance improvement in each update and we hope that next version is going to work much faster. Please, stay tuned. I appreciate your honest feedback on this matter. There is definitely a room for improvement.
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Just downloaded and started playing around with the features. When I select any sky photo to replace a background, I get a message that there is a deleted image and I have to restore the image before using it...every image I choose. That's very odd. I also noticed if you add images to the sky...like the moon...you don't get a reflection of it in water images.
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Hello Joyce.
Could you please specify if this message appears only when using the custom sky images or the preinstalled also?
Please note, that the sky reflections are only available for the sky images.
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Hello Joyce,
We need to be able to reproduce the issue on our end in order to understand at which point it occurs and troubleshoot it. Please send us a screen recording of the issue.
You can use Monosnap to record your screen: https://monosnap.com/welcomeHere's how you can send us the file with the recording:
- Visit https://wetransfer.com/
- If it's your first time visiting this website, it might ask you to purchase a subscription. Simply select to proceed with the free version.
- Click Add your files.
- Select the file(s) on your computer.
- After you see all the files you need to send appear in the list, click the icon to the left of the Transfer button (the icon looks like a circle with three dots in it).
- In Send As select Link.
- Click Transfer.
- After the files have finished uploading, click Copy Link and paste it into your support request at https://skylum.com/support
Looking forward to hearing from you.
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