Luminar AI update 4 brings artificial bokeh and more editing control

Skylum has released the latest update for Luminar AI, its AI-based editing software. The biggest change you’ll see is a whole new feature – Portrait Bokeh AI. As the name suggests, it adds artificial bokeh to your portrait shots in a couple of clicks. But other than that, Skylum has added a few more improvements to the software in an attempt to make it a bit less automated and give you more control over your edits.

Portrait Bokeh AI

Okay, so let’s start with the latest addition to Luminar AI’s family of automated editing tools. Portrait Bokeh AI isolates the subject of a portrait from the background. Skylum claims that it even recognizes people in groups or in unusual positions or poses. Once it isolates the subject from the background, this tool emulates the background bokeh we get with a wide-open aperture. Sounds like a useful tool for smartphone shots, especially if your phone’s portrait mode sucks.

Here’s what’s included in this tool:

• Intelligent mask creation: as I mentioned, the tool recognizes people and creates a mask to separate them from the background. The mask is generated automatically, but you can still refine and customize the mask to add or subtract focus to a photo.
• Creative control. While the bokeh is automatically generated, once again, you can control its strength with a slider.
• Refined backgrounds. In addition to adjustable bokeh, you can further refine the background. Using sliders, you can adjust the background exposure, add glow to highlights, set a specific depth of field, and refine edges.

Other improvements

Audition Textures with a visual preview

Textures have already been a part of Luminar AI, but Skylum has pimped up this feature a bit. To understand how a Texture might fit your work in progress, you can now visually browse Textures just as you do with Sky AI and Augmented Sky AI tools. Custom Textures are now also accessible right within the dropdown grid, and you can load your own textures for reuse to build up a library of your favorites.

Visual Horizon Control in Sky AI

The horizon in Sky AI has been improved as well. The Vertical Position, Horizontal Position, and Horizon Blending sliders have been replaced with the Shifting Horizon Control, found in the Sky Orientation section.

This single control allows the artist to better position a replacement sky in the frame to align it with the horizon and create a much more seamless and naturalistic final image.

Even though Luminar AI is all about automation and speeding up the process, it looks like most photographers still prefer having more control over their edits. And I get it, as I’m one of them. So, Skylum expanded some features and gave photographers more control starting from the previous update.

While the editing process remains largely automated and simple, you can still play with the settings further and adjust them until they look perfect to you. With the latest update, it looks like Luminar AI is still going towards achieving the balance between automated and manual editing processes.

Luminar AI Update 4 is available as a free update for all current LuminarAI users. To update:

• macOS: Open LuminarAI. In the Top Menu Bar, choose LuminarAI > Check for updates. If you purchased via the Mac App Store, open the App Store and go to the Updates tab.
• Windows: Open LuminarAI. In the Top Menu Bar, choose LuminarAI > Help > Check for Updates.

If you don’t have Luminar Ai and want to buy it, you can do it here. The license is €79 for one computer and €99 for two computers. If you are running LuminarAI as a plugin with Photoshop, Lightroom Classic or Photoshop Elements, it’s also recommended you rerun the plugin installer. Click here for more information, and check out Luminar AI’s expanded user manual here.