Review: Skylum's AI Sky Enhancer filter

Friday 14 December 2018, 21:12 by Michelle Peeters | 5,775 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Software manufacturer Skylum recently released a free update for existing users of Luminar 2018. Version 1.3.2 now includes AI Sky Enhancer, a striking new filter that lets you quickly improve a dull sky in a photo. I put it to the test.

You can use one licence on up to 5 computers! Luminar 2018 is essentially a standalone programme, but can also be used as a plug-in in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Photos for Mac. This makes it easy to integrate Luminar 2018 into your own workflow.

All in all, the programme offers users all the functionality you would expect from a fully fledged image-editing programme, such as RAW support, layers, filters, presets, an adjustable user interface, masks, non-destructive editing and so on.

AI Sky Enhancer

With the Sky Enhancer preset, you can also improve skies using an Adjustable Gradient and a Polarizing Filter. The disadvantage of this preset is that other parts of the shot are also affected by the gradient filter and the polarising filter.

If you have a photo that also includes water, for example, this preset makes not only the sky but also the water bluer. The AI Sky Enhancer filter does a much better job in that respect.

And it is really easy to use. You open the photo you want to edit, adjust it fully to your liking first if necessary, and then select the AI Sky Enhancer filter under Essential in the Filters Catalog.

The AI Sky Enhancer filter now appears in the Layers window. Using the accompanying Amount slider, you can then set how strongly you want to apply the filter to the open photo. You can immediately see that it really only affects the sky.

If the Amount slider is greyed out and unavailable after applying the filter, the filter has not detected any sky in the image or no improvement is needed.

If you still want to make some adjustments, the Polarizer, Vibrancy, Golden Hour and HSL filters are more suitable. You can compare the final result with the original using the Before/After button at the top of the screen.

There is also a Compare button, which lets you use a slider to show the differences between the original and the edited image. In combination with Clarity and Details Enhancer, for example, you can improve your photos quite significantly in very little time.

Very time-consuming in the past

Most photographers, both professionals and amateurs, use a complicated workflow to edit the sky in their photos.

First, the sky and the objects are separated. The brightness and contrast in different parts of the image are then adjusted, and the details are improved, and so on. This takes time and requires a great deal of effort and skill.

The new AI Sky Enhancer completely changes this approach. Using a deep neural network trained with hundreds of thousands of images showing different types of skies, Luminar analyses a photo, detects the sky and adjusts it.

Just as a professional would approach it, AI Sky Enhancer treats different images in different ways and selectively applies various adjustments to each photo.

You can now get deep, detailed skies simply by moving a single slider. Whether it is sunrises, blue skies or storm clouds.

Conclusion

When using a gradient and polarising filter, dull skies quickly start to look a little better. The disadvantage, however, is that other parts of the image are also affected by the filters used.

AI Sky Enhancer certainly does what it promises: improving skies without affecting the rest of the image. With this new filter, Skylum shows that applying artificial intelligence means filters are now genuinely smarter than they used to be.

Filters such as Dodge & Burn, the classic dodging and burning, and Issue Fixers such as Clarity, Dehaze, Denoise, Remove Color Cast and Sharpening are also very useful. And thanks to the various masking tools, you can also edit parts of an image.

Skylum Luminar 2018 costs 69 euros, or 49 euros if you already use other Macphun software, and for that money you get a powerful image-editing programme packed with useful tools.

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About the author

Michelle Peeters is fotografe en oprichter van DeuxBleus Fotografie. Michelle herkent het bijzondere in het gewone en het gewone in het bijzondere. Ze heeft zich nooit willen specialiseren en is daardoor van alle markten thuis.

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