1
Openanimage
Luminarletsyouaccessyourimagesintwoways.It can
watcha folder,chosenatsetup,anddisplayeveryimageinit and
itssubfolders.Youthenchoosewhichtoeditfroma seaof
thumbnails.Alternatively,youcanopena singleimage,whichis
whatwe’redoinghere,usingthe‘+’buttonatthetopleftorFile>
EditSingleImage.
2
AIFaceEnhancer
InthePortraitsectionofLuminarLooks– accessedwiththe
Looksbuttonatthetopoftheinterface– you’llfindtoolstohelp
improve(oratleastalter)a portrait.Firstis theAIFaceEnhancer.
It pullsinthecheeksofourmodel,narrowingherfacewhile
smoothingandslightlylighteningherskin.Toseebeforeand
afterviewsofa Look’seffect,presstheEyebutton,topmiddle.3 Femaleportrait
TheFemalePortraitLookgoesfora similarface-slimming
effectasthepreviousone,butaddsa littlesoftnesstoo(above).
Better,certainlymoredramatic,is theB&WPortraitLook,which
increasescontrastandsharpnesswithoutnarrowingtheface.This
hastheeffect,however,ofincreasedvisibilityofimperfections,no
matterhowminor,onthemodel’schinandshoulder.
4 AI Skin Enhancer
Open Edit mode from the top right, and choose the smiley
face icon that opens portrait-specific edits. The AI Skin Enhancer,
with its AI Skin Defects Removal tickbox, is at the top. Tick the box
and ramp up the slider to the right to get a strong effect – we get
a softening of the face and a lightening of the shadow, but every
portrait will be enhanced differently.Smooth skin in Luminar
́0DNLQJD SRUWUDLWÁDWWHULQJEXWVWLOONHHSLQJLWQDWXUDOLVRQHRIWKHJUHDW
FKDOOHQJHVRI LPDJH HGLWLQJ+HUH ZH XVH /XPLQDU·V$, WRROV WR PDNH LW HDVLHUμe’re aware of the adage about not
throwing stones if you live in a
glass house, but sometimes,
especiallyif preparing an image that’s
goingtoget scrutinised, you need to
improve a portrait’s skin tone.
Manyimageeditingappswillaidyouin
this, from the context-aware healing tools
in Photoshop to the old-school sample-
based cloning brushes that simply paint
over imperfections from an area of skin
you’ve chosen. Recently, though, Luminar
included some new smart tools that tackle
the issue of skin smoothing without anyfaffing around making manual selections
or choosing sample points.
A free trial of Luminar can be found at
http://skylum.com/luminar (drop down
the Luminar menu at the top) where you’ll
also find a full beginner’s guide. Original
image by Kayla Lyons.Step-by-step (GLW\RXUSRUWUDLW
<ʝʦɠʔʦLȫɏ,ʋɚ(ɃʑQȫʑɚVʋ\ɡ/HʋʢɚKʝɦWɛ
W
Explore
Improve portraits in Luminar
April 2020 | |^27