The folks at Skylum, the creators of Luminar Neo, have promised more expansions later this year, and three more new ones coming soon.
First their Advanced extension, then their background remover AI tool, and AI SuperSharp.
I was offered beta versions of these new extensions to try out, and although there may be some minor changes prior to release, these extensions are mostly locked and ready for distribution. distribute.
Let’s start with Advanced Extensions. You can take any image, load it into Neo, and in the category page you can drag it to the Advanced Window located below the Focus Stacking GUI.
You can choose the zoom size you want, up to 6x and Neo will do the heavy lifting.
All seems to work pretty well, I’ve zoomed in on some landscape photos 4x, and after zooming in they don’t seem to have any loss in quality or sharpness. Where I think it’s lacking is when I compare it to Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI, zooms in but gives you control over noise reduction and sharpness gain. You’ll see a preview before committing to the upgrade.
AI Remove background
Photoshop has something similar to the Neo background eraser, as well as several other commercial applications. This is a first for Neo, but I find it to work well.
To get started, import a photo. In the Neo edit screen, go to “Layer Properties” and expand the available options. From the Create Mask menu, click “Remove Background”.
You will find it works quite well and the editing tools are provided.
Once your Theme Neo is highlighted automatically, click the blue “delete” button and your wallpaper will be gone, ready to be replaced with one of Neo’s built-in wallpapers or a picture. photo you choose.
I think the remover works well, and the AI frequently fails to provide a suitable mask that doesn’t take more work to get it right. But it is very easy to perfect if needed with the provided tool.
AI SuperSharp
Skylum is not the last or the first to offer grinding tools.
To use Supersharp AI, you will find its command right on the main edit menu. You can decide the level of sharpness and then go to town. You can follow the process with the familiar animation of Neo expanding on your screen.
I think the Supersharp AI extension works well, but again, there’s no built-in preview where you can tweak the parameters. You press the button and the Neo algorithm decides. That doesn’t mean they don’t make good decisions. You see all this through the Luminar Neo. AI is designed to ease your editing burden. But sometimes, an editor will want more control, and you don’t get much with some of these tools.
Summary
I think the extensions work impressively well. AI will save you time and bring good results. For many photographers, Neo is becoming a more complete package, with added features to rival Photoshop, Lightroom, and others. In most cases, it’s easier to make these tweaks in Neo than in any other software package. However, with some of these extensions, especially Supersharp AI and Upscale, you have no preview or chance to change the results. I also saw some color changes after using Supersharp AI which I hope will be fixed in the release version. Sharpen should never change the color.
If you are a Neo owner, you will have the ability to purchase these extensions, and if you do not already own Neo, there are many packages and discounts.
