Luminar AI Update 4 - now with Portrait Bokeh AI!

Well friends, we finally get the long-awaited bokeh AI tool in Luminar AI, which was first promised when the product was originally launched, late last year. Was it worth the wait? See sample screenshots below, and check out my full demo video as well!

My opinion? It’s quite good, and it will be really useful too!

Now, when it was first announced last year, it was just called Bokeh AI. But now it is Portrait Bokeh AI. So keep that in mind. In other words, it is designed for portraits, and not just any photo. It uses AI to recognize humans in an image - even groups of them - and automatically creates a mask over them. Then you can adjust the bokeh for the background, as well as quite a few other things: brightness, temperature and more!

I love when new products or new features come out, and even though this isn’t exactly something I need all the time (if you follow my work, you know that taking portraits is not my thing). But I do feel that with this update, they have done the impossible - they’ve made me interested in portraits! LOL

Honestly though, I am having a lot of fun with it and think you will too.

Check out my full First Look video here:

Here are some sample screenshots, showing how the mask looks over this photo. Keep in mind, this mask was AUTOMATIC and was done in a couple of seconds. It’s amazingly fast and accurate too. Of course, if you need to adjust the mask, you can do so with the brush in the Portrait Bokeh AI tool. You can paint over parts of the photo to either add focus to them, or blur them. It’s quite ingenious and of course all you portrait photographers out there are going to love it.

Unedited photo on the left. Photo showing mask in the middle. Final edit (with new sky, too!) on the right.

Click any image to enlarge.

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Now here is the other thing I want to point out about this tool. This is the FIRST TIME that Skylum has actually shown us the mask with their AI tools. Take Sky AI (automatic sky replacement) for example. Sure, the sky goes in automatically and looks great, but you never actually see the mask. It’s not hard to figure out, of course, but I think this is a big deal because in the past these things have been obscured. So I think this is a positive development.

And as I said, it will also handle group portraits with ease. Here is a sample group shot. You can see the mask, which is 95%+ accurate. I think that is pretty amazing all around.

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If you want to see more of this tool in action, I recommend watching my YouTube video about it. I will also be back soon with even more videos about this tool.

And just to make sure that Portrait Bokeh AI doesn’t overshadow the other big updates, I wanted to share them here. The Sky AI tool has been improved and simplified. A new on-screen tool makes it even easier to get a new sky in the right position. They replace 3 separate sliders with a new Horizon Position tool, which operates a little like an adjustable gradient. It’s quick and easy, and I cover that in the video too.

And lastly, the Texture tool was updated to include visual previews of textures. This is great because many times the name of the texture might not be very clear, so this visual preview helps a lot! There are two new sets of textures included, and you can even load your own folders of textures and get a visual preview of them, too. It’s awesome!

There are also a lot of bug fixes and performance updates to round out Luminar AI Update 4. Keep in mind this is a FREE UPDATE for current customers, so it’s no cost to you my friends. Get it and have fun editing!

Aurora HDR - Still a Good Option in 2021?

I have used Aurora HDR since the first version came out years ago. But it hasn’t been upgraded in a couple of years. In this video, I dive back into it and see if it still holds up to today’s standards. Enjoy!

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Here’s the image from the video. Fully edited in Aurora HDR, and I have to admit I really like the result, even though I have gotten away from processing HDR photos. Interiors like this always look good in HDR, in my opinion.

Back in the “old days” of just a few short years ago, I basically shot brackets every time I went out with the camera, and I edited nearly every single image as an HDR. It was what I loved to do, and I did it. A lot.

But in the last few years, I have drifted away from both shooting brackets and processing images as HDRs. I now mostly shoot single exposures, and am quite happy doing so. But on my recent trip to New England, I ended up shooting a few brackets and thought it would be fun to dive back into Aurora HDR and try my hand at processing some images as HDRs. Now, the image in this video wasn’t actually shot on my trip - it’s an older image from a trip to Dublin, Ireland years ago. It was just the recent trip to New England that inspired me to try HDR again.

And mostly I was curious as to how well Aurora HDR would hold up compared to the sort of things you can do with apps these days. You see, Aurora HDR has long been my favorite HDR processing software, but it has not been upgraded with new features in a couple of years. So I asked Skylum about it, and they said they felt it could still hold its own against other HDR editors.

And while this video is not a feature comparison between Aurora HDR and other HDR editing apps, I do fully edit the image in Aurora HDR here, and check out the various features (many of which I had forgotten about) and see how well I can manage an image here, vs having to start here and finish elsewhere (like in Luminar AI, for instance).

Spoiler Alert: The end result is that I am still impressed with Aurora HDR, and having rediscovered it, I may begin to use it again with other photos. I had forgotten that it support LUTs (something I am really into these days), has Lens Correction and Transform tools (which work great), and although I did not forget that it has a Layers function, it was good to be reminded of that. They can come in really handy!

Hope you enjoy the workflow video and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

If you are interested in a getting a copy of Aurora HDR, you can get it here: https://bit.ly/2N3av7b

Use coupon code JIMNIX to save $10 while you are at it!

Topaz Denoise AI - Getting Better and Better!

Topaz Denoise AI - update 3.1 brings even more power and control to this excellent app!

I have been a Topaz user for many years, starting with Topaz Adjust way back in 2010 or so. Since that time, Topaz has developed quite a few products, and lately there has been a huge emphasis on their AI based products: Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI. They are all great products and do a fantastic job at their specific tasks.

Denoise AI is of particular interest to me, primarily because I do not like noise or grain in my images. There is nothing wrong with it, of course, and many people like the look. It just so happens that I do not. So I am usually looking for a way to remove noise and smooth out the pixels in noisy areas. Enter Denoise AI.

I have used this product over the last several years, and find it has gotten better and better in that time. Their latest update, to version 3.1 with the new “Severe Noise” model, is working particularly well for me. So much in fact that I have been using it almost exclusively since getting the update.

So of course I have crafted a few videos about it as well, showing how I am using it, and explaining why, and all that. I have included them down below. In short, it has a really powerful and versatile denoise engine that is working wonders on my images. Check out the videos below for details, and thanks!

If you want a copy of Denoise AI for yourself, you can use this link (affiliate link) and my coupon code JIMNIX to save an extra 15% off! Enjoy the video demonstrations!

Yes, You Can Use Your Own Skies in Luminar 4

I have gotten the same question so many times, people wondering if they can use their own skies for the AI Sky Replacement feature in Luminar 4. Yes you can, and it’s easy to do. Follow along as I demonstrate how this works, and hope it helps!

5 Tips to Help You Prepare for Luminar 4

In this video, I share 5 tips that will help you get ready for Luminar 4, which is coming really soon! Check it out and I hope that it helps you prepare.

Foreground Replacement in Luminar

I have done several videos about how to replace a sky in Luminar, but did you know you can also replace a foreground? You can, and it can be quite simple to do. Follow along as I show this trick!

AI, New Sky: A Quick Demo of Luminar 4 AI Sky Replacement

Oh boy, you are going to love this feature in Luminar 4! Follow along as I show off the power and fun of the AI Sky Replacement filter in the upcoming release of Luminar 4!

Simple Landscape Workflow in Luminar

I love to photograph landscapes - who doesn’t? - but I rarely get the chance. So in Wales I made sure to consume as many as possible. In this video, I share some tips for getting exactly the look I want by making quite a few adjustments across several filters. Hope it helps and enjoy!

Get your copy of Luminar here: http://bit.ly/2hWBNZ5 Use coupon code JIMNIX to save $10! Like my free training? Buy me a taco! : https://www.paypal.me/jimnix ********************************************************************** I love to shoot landscapes, although I rarely get the chance to do so. But in Wales I captured quite a few.

Minor Tweaks, Major impact

Here’s a little video I did showing how a few minor tweaks can make a huge impact on the outcome. Hope it helps and thanks for watching!

Day to Night Fantasy Workflow in Luminar

If you have seen any of my videos, you know I like to try creative things and experiment a lot on my images. In this video, I walk through how I took a photo from mid day in bright light and turned it into a fantasy-inspired evening shot with a lot of mood. It was actually pretty quick and easy, and of course it was fun. Follow along!

5 Things to Love about Street Photography

In this vlog, I share 5 things that I find interesting and enjoyable about street photography. It’s not a genre that everyone enjoys, but I think it offers some really great opportunities for us as photographers.

I really enjoy street/urban photography, and wanted to share some thoughts on why I think it's such a powerful and enjoyable genre of photography. Thanks for watching! Like my free training? Buy me a taco!

Skylum Announces AI-Powered Portrait Tools for Luminar 4!

My friends over at Skylum have just announced two new filters that are coming in Luminar 4 this Fall: AI Skin Enhancer and Portrait Enhancer. They both seem to work really well (note: I do not have the product yet) and are certainly an interesting development for the product. They sent me some sample images to look at it, so of course I put a little video together wherein I take a close look at the results and share my thoughts on it. Take a look and hope it helps.

If you are interested in pre-ordering Luminar 4, you can get it here: https://bit.ly/32JKBJP

Preorder Luminar 4 here: https://bit.ly/32JKBJP Learn more about Luminar 4 here: https://bit.ly/2JLiwtW ********************************************************************** Well, Skylum is at it again with a bunch of awesome looking portrait enhancement tools coming this Fall in Luminar 4. Check it out!

Basic Luminosity Masking in On1 Photo Raw 2019

Luminosity Masking in On1 is easy and powerful, which is a great combo. I like to use it on my images to get a subtle application of a particular effect, as well as to control specifically where the effect is applied. Follow along as I show how to do that with On1. Hope it helps!

60 Seconds in London

While I was in London recently, I kept my DJI Osmo Pocket handy and captured quite a lot of video footage as I wandered around the city. It was great fun. But truthfully, I didn’t know what to do with the clips I captured. I had intended to make a vlog, but since I was running around here and there with my daughter, I just never got around to it. So instead, I ruthlessly whittled the footage down to this little 60 second mini-travelogue, which highlights a few of the places we visited while there. It was fun to make, and I think I will do more of these on future trips. Thanks for watching!

Getting Experimental in Topaz Studio 2

One of the great things about Topaz Studio 2 is that there are so many filters, which makes me want to grab them and experiment, just to see what I can come up with. So follow along as I do just that, and end up with a result I was not expecting, but find rather interesting!