So, I arrived before sunrise at this beautiful old farmstead out in the country. I’m using multiple lenses, multiple ND filters and as I shoot the photographs, I’m continuously checking my images. But the light is changing quickly during the sunrise and so I miss something and I get an incorrectly exposed photograph, in this case, an underexposed image. However, I really like the framing and want to see what I can do to recover it.
This would typically be a job where I would use Photoshop with masks and blending to process it, but I have been exploring Luminar 4 and wonder how it might do. I want to see how this new version handles this kind of problem using its upgraded AI tools. I also want to try the new AI Sky Replacement filter because the sky wasn’t very exciting that morning.
Please note that in some cases as I processed this photograph for the article, I increased some of the contrast, color and other settings so that you can more easily see the changes.
Here’s the before and after.
In this video, I show you the tools that I used to edit and grade this underexposed landscape using Luminar 4. While I’m showing you this in a linear fashion, it wasn’t. For me, it never is with color correcting and grading. I’m always changing one place and then fine-tuning in another. Also, I used the term tool and filter to mean the same thing in the video.
Watch the video
Conclusion
So with Luminar 4, I was able to quickly and easily recover the original underexposed landscape photograph. In addition, I added an entirely new sky and enhanced the sunrise. Here is a list of the tools I used:
- Â AI Accent
- AI Sky Enhancer
- AI Structure
- Landscape Enhancer
- AI Sky Replacement
- Sunrays
- Smart contrast
