What are Luminar Extensions (+ Do You Want them?)
In July 2022, Skylum launched the primary in a collection of ‘Extension’ for Luminar Neo – HDR Merge.
Since then, Skylum launched 6 thrilling different extensions which add enhanced performance to Luminar Neo.
This potential to boost the software program modularly by way of extensions is the important thing benefit of Neo over its predecessor Luminar AI.
I’ve used Luminar extensions to sharpen and refine portraits, improve the vibrancy of panorama images, and carry out time-consuming duties in a matter of seconds.
These extensions remodel an already highly effective photograph modifying software program into a very skilled device for processing all kinds of photographs, delivering distinctive outcomes.
On this information, I’ll clarify what extensions can be found in 2023, what they do, how they will profit you and how one can get them.
What Are Luminar Extensions?
Luminar Neo extensions provide an extended record of options that can be utilized to hurry up your post-processing pipeline and make lovely changes to your images.
They will also be utilized in mixture to enhance each other, bringing collectively varied picture modifying methods with highly effective AI processing in order that Luminar Neo does the heavy lifting for you.
As you’ve seen in our complete evaluation of Luminar Neo, it’s already an impressively succesful photograph modifying software program.
Nevertheless, with the addition of extensions, much more advantages will be delivered to customers of Luminar Neo.
Utilizing extensions brings Luminar even nearer to Photoshop when it comes to performance, in addition to giving it some methods that not even Ps at the moment gives.
- Are Luminar Neo extensions free?
The value of Luminar Neo extensions is dependent upon the subscription package deal you go for, with all present and upcoming extensions solely included within the PRO subscription plan.
Skylum additionally gives the entire set of extensions as a part of an ‘Extensions Pack’, or alternatively, customers can decide and select which extensions they require and pay for these individually (at roughly $25 every).
This vary of cost choices means there’s a pricing answer for all wants, with the PROsubscription plan providing the perfect worth for cash along with lifetime entry to all future extensions.
- Are Luminar extensions value it?
In case you’ve invested in Luminar Neo and need to benefit from the full person expertise the platform gives, the assorted extensions at the moment out there provide highly effective methods that may radically remodel your workflow and obtain spectacular outcomes.
Every of those extensions has its personal distinctive software, with some greatest suited to portrait work and others oriented in the direction of landscapes and wildlife, permitting customers to combine and match these which greatest swimsuit their fashion of images.
- Does Luminar Neo have every thing Luminar AI has?
Luminar Neo is the most recent model of Skylum’s spectacular photograph modifying software program, incorporating all of the core options present in Luminar AI whereas bringing many extra thrilling new processing instruments to the desk.
All the good options present in Luminar AI, corresponding to the power to create your individual presets and apply a variety of customisable masks, are current in Neo, together with the power to put in extensions that I’ve outlined on this final information.
In case you’re new to Skylum’s software program and are in search of a powerful collection of post-processing instruments, or an present person of Luminar AI, Luminar Neo represents a big improve over the earlier iteration providing many extra artistic choices for photographers.
Methods to Set up Luminar Extensions
Click on on the Extras jigsaw icon to convey up the record of extensions
NB. In case you personal Luminar Neo outright as a part of the LIFETIME plan, you need to have both bought the extension individually or as a part of an Extension Pack to have the ability to set up it.
In case you subscribe to the PRO plan, you should have entry to all present and future extensions freed from cost.
Test the most recent pricing for every plan (together with choices to improve to a unique plan) right here >>
Putting in Luminar Neo extensions couldn’t be easier, and the record of accessible extensions will be considered by clicking on the Extras jigsaw icon within the top-right nook of the display screen.
Click on this button and also you’ll be introduced with the present record of extensions:
HDR Merge, Noiseless AI, Upscale AI, Background Remover AI, Focus Stacking, Supersharp AI, and Magic Mild AI.
To put in any of those extensions, merely click on on the set up button when you’ve bought the extension, and Luminar Neo will add it to your set of instruments.
(See this text on the best way to set up Luminar Neo should you haven’t accomplished so already.)
What Luminar Extensions are Out there in 2023?
1. Focus Stacking
To make use of focus stacking merely drag and drop your photographs into the field
As with the HDR Merge extension, Focus Stacking is one other fast and efficient device that permits you to convey information from a number of images collectively to mix all their particulars into a brand new picture.
This device permits for as much as 100 images to be dragged and dropped into its window, with Luminar Neo’s algorithms extracting the knowledge on the depth of subject to supply a crystal clear picture that brings every thing into focus.
Splendid for macro images, the Focus Stacking extension additionally works successfully for panorama photographs, combining the focal size of every photograph inputted into the device to make sure each foreground and background are all in focus.
In addition to choosing the crispest elements of the pictures, the Focus Stacking extension additionally attracts upon information from Uncooked information to appropriate for lens and chromatic aberration, additional bettering the ultimate processed picture.
2. Upscale AI
Merely drag and drop the picture you need to upscale into the device
Wildlife and sports activities photographer can typically discover that the perfect parts of their photographs can require a big crop, shedding element and determination within the means of zooming into the {photograph}.
With the Luminar Neo Upscale AI extension, this course of will be completed with out sacrificing the decision of the picture and retaining the heat, sharpness, and general vibrancy.
This device reduces the quantity of pixelation from the unique zoomed-in picture, opening up new shot potential with the power to upscale by as much as 6X.
Upscale AI works with all file codecs, together with non-Uncooked information, delivering print-worthy high quality by merely dragging and dropping the specified picture into the Upscale AI window.
3. HDR Merge
Drag and drop your bracketed publicity photographs into the HDR Merge device
Taking a number of images utilizing bracket exposures is a wonderful technique for bringing in an unbelievable quantity of further data to utilise in post-processing out of your Uncooked images.
With Luminar Neo, these photographs will be pulled collectively so you may extract the utmost quantity of knowledge through the use of the platform’s HDR Merge device.
It’s straightforward to make use of, and all you must do to merge your photographs with HDR Merge is choose the specified photographs from Luminar Neo’s Catalog and drag these into the device’s window, which you could find within the right-hand column.
When you’ve accomplished this, Luminar Neo will course of all the photographs, then render the ultimate outcome so that you can view and make further edits to within the HDR Merge folder, discovered within the Catalog.
HDR Merge shines when used for static units of images, making it a should for panorama photographers who need to maximise the excessive dynamic vary information their digital camera produces.
4. Noiseless AI
Luminar Neo’s Noiseless AI extension helps clear up your images
Undesirable noise can simply degrade the general high quality of {a photograph}, introducing disagreeable artifacts and grain and detracting from the naturalness of the picture.
With Luminar Neo’s Noiseless AI extension, noise will be diminished to a minimal or eradicated altogether with a number of easy changes to the device’s sliders.
Out there within the Extensions part of Luminar Neo’s Edit instruments, Noiseless AI provides customers three primary adjustment settings to start with, Low, Center, and Excessive.
The software program will advocate the optimum alternative from these settings, in addition to offer you sliders to regulate Luminosity Denoise ranges, in addition to Particulars and Sharpness.
There’s additionally the choice to use a masks and restrict the areas of the picture the place the device is utilized, a useful characteristic that carries throughout the total vary of Luminar Neo extensions.
It’s a fantastic extension that can assist you to get well particulars from the pictures and retain a ravishing and pure look and can be utilized with Uncooked or JPG file sorts.
5. Background Removing AI
The background removing AI extension works in a spread of situations
Eradicating the background from a picture whereas retaining the core topic is usually a time-consuming activity, notably when there’s quite a lot of variable element surrounding the topic in query.
Luminar Neo’s Background Removing AI extension transforms a quite laborious activity into one that may be completed in a brief period of time, with the platform’s neural community rapidly figuring out and isolating the topic for you.
It’s a fantastic extension for portraits, permitting customers to rapidly isolate and take away the background so {that a} new layer will be added to position the topic in a extra fascinating context.
The Luminar Neo Background Removing AI extension additionally works for different parts apart from people, with buttons to pick out Sky, Flora, Structure, Water, Mountains, Transport, and Pure Floor.
These completely different ingredient sorts will also be utilized in tandem, with the extra choice of mixing these with tailored masks making this a very highly effective device for rapidly eradicating backgrounds in order that new ones will be inserted into a picture.
6. Supersharp AI
The Supersharp AI extension can be utilized to enhance blurry photographs
Movement blur and failing to get deal with level is a surefire means for images to finish up within the recycle bin, with little or no photographers can do with post-processing instruments to sharpen the picture and rectify blurring.
This perennial drawback all photographers have skilled in some unspecified time in the future, whether or not they’re enthusiastic hobbyists or working professionals, will be rapidly addressed utilizing the Luminar Neo Supersharp AI extension.
Out-of-focus topics can occur for varied causes, from by chance shifting the digital camera earlier than taking the shot to utilizing a slower shutter velocity when a topic is in movement, and Supersharp AI makes use of highly effective algorithms to compensate for these flaws.
The device permits customers so as to add sharpness at a Low, Center, or Excessive threshold, which will be set to have an effect on the picture Universally or together with masks to pick out key areas you want to convey again into focus.
There’s additionally a Face Enhancer AI checkbox that can be utilized to hurry up the method when sharpening portraits, which will be utilized by merely choosing the designated test field for this characteristic.
Movement blur points will also be addressed with the identical diploma of finesse, once more with the Low, Center, and Excessive threshold choices to fine-tune the diploma to which the device is utilized to a picture.
It’s one other nice extension for Luminar Neo that can be utilized to salvage photographs and save time with in any other case prolonged post-processing methods and works nicely together with Noiseless AI to create sharp and vibrant images.
7. Magic Mild AI
Mild sources will be simply modified with the Magic Mild AI extension
The ultimate extension for Luminar Neo I’ll be is the Magic Mild AI, which, because the identify suggests, is all about enhancing any mild sources featured in a given {photograph}.
Avenue lights, daylight, and different mild sources are recognized by the device’s synthetic intelligence, with a raft of sliders that can be utilized to boost or diminish their affect on the picture.
This contains sliders to extend or lower the luminosity and dimension of the sunshine supply, in addition to adjusting the beam width, degree of glow, and clearness and brightness.
Extra sliders can be utilized to extend the variety of beams from every mild supply and regulate the rotation of the sunshine beams to realize the specified orientation and impact.
As with the opposite Luminar Neo extensions, there’s the choice to use a masks to restrict the appliance of the Magic Mild AI device to particular sources of sunshine, permitting for various mild sources to be manipulated independently.
It’s one other highly effective extension for Luminar Neo that can be utilized to rapidly improve images to create a extra dynamic and expressive use of luminosity.
Ultimate Suggestion: Ought to You Get Luminar Extensions?
Luminar Neo is already a robust modifying device, and our primary various to Lightroom.
With these extensions, it’s like including the icing on prime of a cake – the cake was already scrumptious, however the icing simply provides it that further edge!
Luminar extensions aren’t crucial for everybody, and certainly, I received’t be utilizing all 7 of them day by day in my workflow.
Nevertheless, a few them are actually helpful for my weekly workflow, and the others I’ll positively use from, time to time.
In the end, it’s as much as you and what you need to do together with your photographs.
The extensions let you carry out duties that different modifying software program merely can’t deal with.
Positive, there are different apps like Topaz Gigapixel that may upscale photographs, for instance, but it surely prices extra than the Luminar Upscale AI extension, and may solely carry out the one activity.
In case you subscribe to the Luminar PRO plan, you’ll acquire instantaneous entry to all present extensions (and any new ones launched sooner or later).
That is nice worth for cash, and you’ll cancel the subscription at any time should you really feel it’s not best for you.
I like to recommend you will have a take into consideration which extension may very well be enjoyable/helpful toyou, then calculate whether or not shopping for them individually makes extra sense than getting all of them included within the PRO plan.
Faucet the button under to see the pricing in your foreign money, and comfortable modifying!
