How to Edit MOODY Street Photography with the INCREDIBLE Luminar Neo

Mark McGee Photos
11 Oct 202313:47

TLDRIn this tutorial, the presenter demonstrates how to edit moody street photography scenes using Luminar Neo, a powerful photo editing software. They start by addressing motion blur with Luminar Neo's AI-powered SuperSharp feature and then proceed to adjust the brightness of the foreground and background using the 'Relight' tool. The presenter also highlights the ability to make multiple adjustments on separate layers, similar to Photoshop's layers, which is a significant advantage of Luminar Neo. Further adjustments include reducing overall exposure, adding drama with the Dramatic tool, and manipulating light effects with the Magic Light tool. The video also covers subject selection using AI, color adjustments, adding a vignette, and using the Details tool to enhance specific facial features. The presenter also discusses advanced features like sky replacement, the dramatic effect, super contrast, and applying cinematic LUTs with the Mood tool. They touch on color adjustments to achieve a harmonious warm tone and introduce the Neon Glow feature for artistic effects. The video concludes with a demonstration of the software's ability to handle focus stacking and the use of presets. The presenter praises Luminar Neo as an adaptable and comprehensive tool suitable for various types of photography.

Takeaways

  • 📷 Luminar Neo offers new features for editing moody street photography scenes with AI-powered tools.
  • 🔍 The SuperSharp feature corrects motion blur using AI, enhancing image sharpness.
  • 🌟 The Relight tool allows for selective brightening or darkening of the foreground and background.
  • 🎨 Multiple adjustments can be layered in the Edits tab, similar to Photoshop layers, for a clean workflow.
  • 📈 The Dramatic tool enhances contrast and vibrance without over-saturating colors.
  • ✨ Magic Light introduces starburst effects and glow to light sources in the image.
  • 🖌️ AI-based masking helps to selectively apply adjustments to specific subjects or areas in the photo.
  • 🌈 HSL sliders enable color adjustments, allowing for fine-tuning of hues like reducing blues and enhancing warm tones.
  • 📷 A vignette can be added to draw focus to the center of the image.
  • 🔧 The Details tool can be used with masking to selectively enhance texture in specific areas, such as facial features.
  • ⚙️ Luminar Neo provides advanced features like HDR Merge, focus stacking, and Studio Lighting for professional editing.

Q & A

  • What is the main topic of the video?

    -The main topic of the video is how to edit moody street photography scenes using Luminar Neo and its new features.

  • What is the first feature of Luminar Neo mentioned in the video?

    -The first feature mentioned is SuperSharp, which uses AI to analyze and fix motion blur in images.

  • How does the 'Relight' feature in Luminar Neo work?

    -The 'Relight' feature allows users to brighten or darken the foreground and background based on what the AI thinks, helping to adjust the overall exposure and focus on the main subject.

  • What is unique about Luminar Neo's adjustment layers compared to Photoshop?

    -Unlike Photoshop, Luminar Neo allows users to add multiples of the same adjustments, each appearing in its own layer in the edits tab, which can be hidden or deleted individually.

  • How does the 'Dramatic' tool in Luminar Neo enhance images?

    -The 'Dramatic' tool enhances the contrast of an image without over saturating or crushing the colors, pulling out vibrance for a more impactful look.

  • What is the 'Magic Light' tool in Luminar Neo used for?

    -The 'Magic Light' tool is used for manipulating the light sources in an image, allowing users to add starburst effects, change the number of beams, and rotate the starbursts for creative lighting effects.

  • How does the 'Sky AI' feature in Luminar Neo assist with sky replacement?

    -The 'Sky AI' feature allows users to choose from various inbuilt skies or additional ones from the marketplace, and then relight the rest of the scene according to the chosen sky for a natural look.

  • What is the 'Neon Glow' effect in Luminar Neo?

    -The 'Neon Glow' effect is a new feature that allows users to create inventive art pieces with various neon and relighting options, offering endless creative possibilities.

  • How does Luminar Neo's 'HDR Merge' feature work?

    -The 'HDR Merge' feature enables users to combine multiple exposures into a dedicated HDR merge facility, where they can auto align, correct chromatic aberration, and reduce ghosts to produce a new TIFF file with enhanced dynamic range.

  • What is focus stacking and how does Luminar Neo handle it?

    -Focus stacking is a technique that combines multiple images with varying focus points to ensure every part of the scene is in focus. Luminar Neo can accept up to 100 images and use its AI engine to stack them together for a fully focused result.

  • What additional resources are available in Skylum's marketplace for Luminar Neo users?

    -Skylum's marketplace offers a variety of assets for Luminar Neo users, including overlays, textures, LUTs, sky replacements, backgrounds, presets, and tutorial courses to enhance their photo editing skills and creativity.

  • Why is the presenter so impressed with Luminar Neo?

    -The presenter is impressed with Luminar Neo because of its adaptive and well-rounded features, continuous updates, and the introduction of new features that keep it at the forefront of AI in photo editing, making it useful for various types of photography.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to Luminar Neo's Photo Editing Capabilities

The video begins with an introduction to editing moody street photography scenes using Luminar Neo's new features. The host shares their positive experience with Luminar Neo compared to other editing platforms like Lightroom and Photoshop. The first image, taken during a trip to Paris, is slightly blurred but is improved using the SuperSharp feature, which employs AI to enhance sharpness. The video then proceeds to demonstrate various tools available in Luminar Neo, such as 'Relight' for adjusting the brightness of the foreground and background, and the ability to layer multiple adjustments for a clean workflow. The host also discusses reducing overall exposure, adding drama with the Dramatic tool, and manipulating light effects with Magic Light, emphasizing the software's powerful and creative capabilities.

05:02

🖼️ Enhancing the Subject and Adjusting Colors with Luminar Neo

The host focuses on adding emphasis to the main subject, a smoking man, by using AI to select and adjust the subject within the image. They also delve into color adjustments, using the HSL sliders to modify the tones of the subject's skin, light sources, and foliage to complement the warm tones of the scene. A vignette is added to draw focus to the center, and the Details tool is utilized to refine the facial features of the man. The video then revisits the Magic Light adjustments for further fine-tuning. The host also experiments with different glow effects and introduces the concept of a sky replacement, showcasing how Luminar Neo can adjust the lighting of the scene to match a newly selected sky. Additional tools like the Drama feature and the Mood tool are explored to enhance the image further, and the host concludes this section by adjusting the color balance to achieve a predominantly warm tone in the image.

10:04

🌟 Advanced Features and Final Touches in Luminar Neo

The video concludes with a demonstration of Luminar Neo's advanced features, such as the Neon Glow effect for creating artistic light effects, the Erase feature for cleaning up unwanted details, and the Studio Lighting feature for simulating different lighting conditions. The host also discusses the HDR Merge tool, which allows for the combination of multiple exposures into a single, high-dynamic-range image. They touch on the focus stacking capability, which can combine up to 100 images with varying focus points into a single, sharply focused image. The host highlights the variety of presets available in Skylum's marketplace for further customization and creative possibilities. The video ends with a showcase of the final edited image and a recommendation of Luminar Neo as a versatile and powerful tool for photographers of various genres. The host encourages viewers to like and subscribe for more photography content.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo is a photo editing software that harnesses artificial intelligence to enhance and modify images with various creative tools. In the video, it is the central platform used to edit moody street photography scenes, demonstrating its advanced features like SuperSharp, Relight, and Magic Light to achieve professional and artistic results.

💡Moody Street Photography

Moody street photography refers to a style of photography that captures the atmosphere and emotion of a street scene, often with a darker, more dramatic tone. The video focuses on editing techniques to enhance this mood, using features of Luminar Neo to create a more atmospheric and emotionally charged final image.

💡SuperSharp

SuperSharp is an AI-driven feature within Luminar Neo that analyzes a scene to fix motion blur and sharpen details. In the context of the video, it is used to improve the clarity of raindrops on a subject's hood, showcasing how it can rectify minor imperfections in an image.

💡Relight

Relight is a creative tool in Luminar Neo that allows users to adjust the brightness of the foreground and background independently. It uses AI to understand the scene and make intelligent lighting adjustments. The video demonstrates how to use Relight to balance the light in a street scene, making the main subject stand out more.

💡Dramatic Tool

The Dramatic tool in Luminar Neo is used to enhance the contrast of an image without oversaturating or crushing the colors. It helps to bring out the vibrance and add depth to the scene. In the video, it is applied to increase the visual impact of the edited street photography.

💡Magic Light

Magic Light is a powerful feature in Luminar Neo that enables users to manipulate the light sources in an image creatively. It can add starburst effects, adjust the number of beams, and rotate the starbursts. The video shows how to use Magic Light to create a glow effect, enhancing the mood of the street scene.

💡Masking

Masking in photo editing refers to the process of selecting specific areas of an image to apply adjustments to. In Luminar Neo, Mask AI is used to select subjects, such as the smoking man in the video, and apply targeted adjustments to make them stand out. It's a critical technique for precision editing.

💡HSL Slider

HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, which are attributes of an image's colors. The HSL Slider in Luminar Neo allows for fine-tuning of these aspects to adjust colors specifically. In the video, it's used to reduce the intensity of blues and enhance other colors to match the desired warm tone of the scene.

💡Vignette

A vignette is a gradual transition from the selected area to the edges of the photo, often used to draw attention to the center of the image. In the context of the video, a vignette is added to the moody street scene to focus the viewer's attention on the main subject.

💡Neon Glow

Neon Glow is a new feature in Luminar Neo that allows for the creation of glowing effects in an image, similar to neon lights. It can be used artistically to add a unique touch to certain elements within a scene, as demonstrated in the video by adding a glow to the headlamp of a bike.

💡HDR Merge

HDR Merge is a feature that combines multiple exposures of the same scene into a single image with a greater dynamic range. This allows for more detail in both the highlights and shadows. In the video, it's mentioned as one of the advanced capabilities of Luminar Neo for creating high-impact images.

Highlights

Luminar Neo's SuperSharp feature uses AI to fix motion blur in images.

The 'Relight' tool allows users to adjust the brightness of the foreground and background independently.

Multiple adjustments can be added and managed in separate layers, similar to Photoshop's layer system.

The Dramatic tool enhances contrast without over-saturating or crushing colors.

Magic Light is a powerful tool for manipulating light sources and adding effects like starbursts.

AI-powered subject selection allows for precise masking and adjustment of specific objects in an image.

The HSL slider section enables color adjustments to fine-tune hues like reducing blues and enhancing warm tones.

Vignetting can be added to pull focus into the center of the image.

Details tool with masking allows for selective enhancement of specific areas like skin texture.

Sky AI feature in Luminar Neo simplifies the process of sky replacement with various options and orientations.

Relight strength can be adjusted to match the lighting of the chosen sky with the scene.

Mystical effects and linear gradient masks can be applied to specific areas of the image for a professional look.

Super Contrast feature enhances the sky and brings life to highlights and shadows.

Mood tool allows for the application of cinematic LUTs to the image for a unique color grading.

Neon Glow effect creates inventive art pieces with customizable neon and relighting options.

Studio Lighting feature enables the overlay and manipulation of light to match a scene's depth and angle.

HDR Merge tool combines multiple exposures for high dynamic range images with a wow factor.

Focus Stacking feature stacks up to 100 images with varying focus points for a fully in-focus result.

Luminar Neo offers a wide range of presets, overlays, textures, LUTs, and sky replacements for creative editing.

The software is adaptive and well-rounded, suitable for various photography genres including product, landscape, portrait, architecture, and street photography.