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Luminar (re)touches the sky with a simple A.I.-powered slider

Hillary K. Grigonis
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The All New Luminar: AI Sky Enhancer

Great photo, but not so great sky? There’s now artificial intelligence for that. On Thursday, October 11, Skylum Luminar unveiled A.I. Sky Enhancer, a tool designed to add detail and drama to the sky while leaving the rest of the image untouched. The tool will roll out in a free update to Luminar 2018 on November 1, followed by a new library tool in December.

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Skylum says that the A.I. Sky Enhancer adds depth, detail, and definition to the sky without introducing artifacts. The company says the tool leaves the remainder of the image untouched, and adds that the tool even works to retouch the sky in gaps inside trees, bridges and other objects.

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While existing tools across different photo editors can use a mix of graduated filters and brush tools to apply changes to only the sky, the A.I. Sky Enhance uses a simple slider, skipping the process of actually selecting the sky. Skylum says the tool can help save time compared to manually selecting and adjusting the sky in an image.

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Before Jim Nix / Skylum
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After Jim Nix / Skylum

The tool joins other A.I.-powered tools like the Accent A.I. and Foliage Enhancer in Luminar 2018. A result of the Skylum A.I. Lab, software engineers created the tool by feeding hundreds of thousands of images to the computer and differentiating between good edits and bad ones.

“We are extremely proud of the tremendous solutions our AI Lab has developed to help photographers quickly correct images,” said Alex Tsepko, CEO of Skylum Software. “Boring skies can minimize the impact of even the most beautiful scenes, but AI Sky Enhancer restores the drama and beauty of the sky using a simple slider as opposed to complex selections and masking processes. This frees up time that can now be spent artistically developing their personal vision using other creative tools available in Luminar.”

The update continues Skylum’s focus on A.I. technology in photo editing, including machine-learning tools inside Aurora HDR and the consumer photo software that edits for users with A.I, Photolemur 3.

The A.I. Sky Enhance update rolls out on November 1 as a free update for current users. Skylum says the previously teased update adding a digital asset management library will arrive in December.

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Hillary K. Grigonis
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