Sunday, June 13, 3019
Sunday, December 23, 2018
FREE SKYLUM LUMINAR PRESETS
Saturday, December 22, 2018
HOW TO USE THE LUMINAR ERASE TOOL
The erase tool in luminar comes in handy when you have just added a filter and decide you don't want that particular effect to be applied to the entire photo, such as some ones face, just as an example. To remove the applied effect to a face or any other area of the photo, at the very top left hand corner of the screen, click on the tools button located between the filters and mask buttons, and select "erase."
It will take the photo a couple of seconds to prepare, when finished preparing your pointer arrow will look like a Luminar brush, with a small circle inside of a larger circle. Place the brush over the face or other area you want to erase an area of the applied filter, left click and move the brush over the area you want to erase - as you move the brush, the area you move the brush over will turn black, once you have covered your target area in black, hit the done button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
 |
| USING LUMINAR ERASE TOOL Fog in trees that needs to be erased |
 |
| LUMINAR ERASE TOOL BEING APPLIED |
 |
| LUMINAR ERASE TOOL APPLIED |
A good example of using the Luminar Erase Tool is when you want to remove someone from a photo, say an old boyfriend or girlfriend, or say your taking a photo and just as you take the photo someone walks into your shot. With the Luminar erase tool and a little black magic, we can make those people vanish before our eyes, as if they were never in the photo to begin with.
Below is a shot I took, just as I took the photo this person suddenly stepped into the shot.
In the photo below I have used the Luminar Erase Tool and applied a bit of black magic over the subject who stepped into my photo. Simply select erase tool, left click over any areas you want to remove, which turns that area black - as seen below.
Now I simple hit the DONE button and the results can be seen in the photo below. Use the Luminar Erase tool on dead branches, people, or garbage on the ground, or anything you want to remove from your photo.
HOW TO STRAIGHTEN A CROOKED PHOTO WITH LUMINAR
HOW TO STRAIGHTEN OUT A CROOKED PHOTO IN LUMINAR
From time to time, if we take enough photos, we are going to get one or two that are crooked, yet we like the photo and don't really want to get rid of it, so what are we to do? Thankfully Luminar has a quick and easy fix for straightening out crooked photos. Below is a crooked photo I took some years ago.
 |
| USING LUMINAR TO STRAIGHTEN A CROOKED PHOTO |
Pretty crooked, but now look at the same photo below, you could never tell the photo was ever crooked, unless you saw it before Luminar fixed it.
 |
| HOW TO STRAIGHTEN A CROOKED PHOTO WITH LUMINAR |
So how did I do it, the answer is easy and the fix is quick. At the top right of Luminar is a TOOLS button, I simply clicked on the Luminar tools button, clicked on CROP and the crop tool popped up around my crooked photo. Than I moved my mouse pointer around the edge of the photo, not on the photo, but around the outside edge, to the upper left hand corner when a curved two ended arrow showed up, this arrow is also called a rotate arrow. I clicked onto the curved arrow and held down the left mouse button as I slowed dragged the corner of the photo downward until the photo appeared straightened out, than clicked on the done button to the right, it was that simple.
 |
| USING LUMINAR TO FIX A CROOKED PHOTO |
The photo above shows what you will see as you grab one corner of the photo and drag it downward, notice the curved arrow in the upper left corner of the photo, in order to straighten a photo, you have to move your pointer until you see the arrow, do a left click and hold as you drag the photo up or down. End by hitting the DONE button.
1. load photo
2. under tools, select crop
3. move cursor around outside of photo until you see arrows
4. hold left click on arrow, drag photo up or down to straighten
5. hit done.
HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK
HOW TO APPLY AND USE A LIMINAR MASK
I have to start this out by saying I watched one video on this and for the life of me could not make it work out, after watching several videos I soon learned that there are a few different ways to apply a mask, and this post will be on the easiest way I have found to apply a Luminar mask. So for this post, I am going to upload a colorful photo onto Luminar, which you see below.
 |
| HOW TO APPLY A LUMINAR MASK |
Now I will go to my filters and select the fog filter. Once I select the filter I want to do a mask with, Now when you hover near your filter title on the right, in this case the fog filter
, three tiny symbols will appear to the right of the filter title, the middle symbol being a paint brush. Click on the paint brush and select "Brush." Each filter has its own brush.
 |
| HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK |
Now as you move your pointer out over your photo, there are two circles, the circle in the center will be the area where the brush will be applied the most, the outer circle is the area where the brush effect will feather out or fade. Now as I apply my mask, I am simply going to move the brush back and forth over the area I want to apply my filter, so it only effects that section of my photo, thus masking out the rest of the photo. One thing to point out here is that both the photo and the brush can be made larger or smaller, making your job that much easier. To change the size of your brush, near the center top section of the screen you will see the SIZE button, click on it and move the slider right to enlarge your brush, left to make your brush smaller. Above and to the left of the size button is a plus + and a minus - sign, use that to make your photo larger or smaller.
Once I have moved my brush over the areas I want to apply the fog effect to, I simply go to the filter I selected, in this case the fog filter, and move the sliders left or right to adjust the amount of fog effect I want, as I move the sliders, the areas I had moved the brush over fill in with fog; had I selected another filter those areas would of filled in with that effect.
 |
| HOW TO USE A LUMINAR MASK |
At this point your brush is still active, so you can now move it over your photo and using your left click button on your mouse you can make minor touch ups directly on the photo. If somewhere along the line you mess up, simply hit the X on that filter to remove it, re-select the filter and begin again.
Once your done with your work, go back to the brush symbol and click on it again to turn the brush off.
Now this may seem confusing at first, and it took me a while to get it right, but like with anything in life, keep practicing at it until you nail it.
1. Upload your photo
2. select your filter
3. hover pointer by filter title, select brush
4. adjust brush size
5. Hold down right click button on mouse and move brush over areas you want to apply effect filter to.
6. now adjust filter sliders to apply effect to areas you brushed
7. brush is still active, make any minor touch ups now
8. Hover pointer back over brush symbol and click to turn brush off.
There are Youtube videos on other ways to use a mask which you may find helpful.
Friday, December 21, 2018
USING LUMINAR PRESETS
When you purchase Luminar it comes with dozens of presets, which should not be confused with filters. Presets are basically a one click and your done editing option, and each preset can give your photo dramatic results. Presets are simply a series of filters that have been combined together to give your photos a certain look, one Luminar preset may add vivid color and depth to your photos while another may add fog, some presets will sharpen a photo while others will soften a photo, and you can purchase packages or sets of Luminar presets that are very creative and give you stunning results.
 |
| LUMINAR SOFT AND AIRY PRESET BROOK IN ACADIA NATIONAL PARK |
Once you have purchased Luminar, I would suggest you go on line and do a search for "free Luminar presets," and you will find a number of sites that offer free downloads of Luminar presets. In fact, a couple of my favorite presets I found on line for free, a couple of sites were photography sites that put together Luminar preset packages for sale, and give away a couple of the presets from the package in hopes you will like them so much you will return to purchase the entire package.
 |
| LUMINAR ENHANCE PRESET LIGHTHOUSE ROAD, BASS HARBOR MAINE |
There are several ways Luminar allows its users to take control over each preset, if you chose to do that and want to venture beyond a simple click. When you open a photo, a preset package will open with the photo, with a row of presets along the bottom of the screen, if you want to use a preset and don't see something you like, simply click on the "categories" button to open up a window with other sets of Luminar Presets, with labels like basic, landscape, dramatic and other titles. Any free or paid sets of presets you obtained will also appear here. Click on the different preset packages to view along the bottom of the screen what is in each set by way of small copies of your photo with each preset applied. In short order you will instantly know what is in each set and which presets are your favorites.
Once you have selected your preset package, simply click on one of the presets across the bottom of the screen to apply it to your photo - don't like the result, click on another preset, the first is replaced with the second preset.
 |
| LUMINAR FOGGY DAY PRESET BASS HARBOR, MAINE |
Now on some photos some of the presets are going to be way to colorful or vivid and you are going to want to adjust the preset, which is easily done by way of a slider which appears in the center of each preset. Slide to the right to increase the effects of the preset, slide to the left to decrease the effect of the preset, it is as simply as that, if you like the results export or save the photo.
Now lets say you applied a preset you really like, but want to play around with it and get a little creative, this is easily done by way of your options at the far right side of the screen. Every one of the filters that were used to built a preset show up on the right, and you can select any of those filters and play around with their sliders, watching in real time as changes are made to your photo. But Luminar allows you to go even further, you can click on the "ADD FILTER" button and dozens and dozens of filters will appear allowing the user to get real creative and add one or more filters to the preset they are using, and there are a ton of options available to play around with.
 |
| LUMINAR MISTY LAND PRESET CHASM BRIDGE, ACADIA NATIONAL PARK |
But Luminar takes this process one step further and allows its more creative users to build their own presets and its as simple as stacking two or more filters, adjusting their sliders to your liking, and hitting the "SAVE AS A PRESET button, where you will be asked to give your new preset a name. Once saved it appears along with all your other presets, in a folder marked CUSTOM.
 |
| LUMINAR WARM TONES PRESET BAR HARBOR INN PIER |
So you may be wondering, it seems like there is money to be made here, and you would be right. Luminar Preset Packages are for sale across the web.
As you can see, I have posted a number of before and after photos to show what some of the presets look like, no filters were added to the preset used, I simply used the preset as it was designed to show you what you can do with a single click.
FREE LUMINAR PRESETS FROM LUMINAR
PRESETPRO FREE LUMINAR PRESETS
JIM NIX THE MAGIC HOUR FREE LUMINAR PRESET
FREE Luminar presets – Signature collection
Thursday, December 20, 2018
USING THE LUMINAR A1 FILTER
If you were to purchase the Liminar 2018 photo editor software and used only the A1 filter alone, the program would great benefit to any photo editor, and I have heard from people who don't want to get too deep into photo editing and the A1 filter is the only editing they do to most of their photos. A1 stands for artificial intelligent, and as you will see from the examples below, it does a pretty good job at what it does, which is improving the quality of your photos.
Below is a side by side comparison of the same photo, the one on the left has no editing at all, the one on the right I applied the Luminar A1 filter at 25%.
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT;
 |
| LUMINAR A1 FILTER AT 25 PERCENT |
 |
| LUMINAR A1 FILTER AT 50 PERCENT |
Below is the same photo, the left is with no editing, the right I applied the luminar A1 filter at 75%.
 |
| LUMINAR A1 FILTER AT 75 PERCENT |
And now the same photo, the left side has no editing, the right side I have applied the Luminar A1 filter at 100%;
 |
| LUMINAR A1 FILTER AT 100 PERCENT |
So to give you a better feel for how much of an effect the Luminar A1 filter has on a photo, I will give a couple more example photos, beginning with the one below, which is a photo taken of Duck Brook in Acadia National Park. Here, the photo on the left is with no editing, the photo on the right I have applied the Luminar A1 filter at 50%.
And below is the same photo, left side with no editing, right side with the Luminar A1 filter applied at 75%;
The next photo has no editing on the left and I have applied the Luminar A1 filter at 100%;
I will finish this post out with one more photo, a photo of Duck Brook Bridge in Acadia National Park, the photo below has no editing on the left, I have applied the Luminar A1 filter at 50%.
Below is the same photo, left with no editing, right with Luminar A1 filter set at 75%;
And finally, below is the same photo, left with no editing, right with the Luminar A1 filter applied at 100 percent;
So I thought it would be a good idea to apply another filter, the Luminar Sky Enhancer filter, in this photo below the photo on the left has no editing, while the photo on the right I applied the Luminar A1 filter at 100% and added the Luminar Golden Hour filter applied at 12%;
and I will finish with the photo below, the photo on the left has no editing, the photo on the right has the Luminar A1 filter applied at 100% and the Luminar Golden Hour filter applied at 12%, but this time I have added the Luminar Sky Enhancer filter applied at 30%;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)