Sky Replacement Guidelines

Follow these guidelines to achieve the best results with the Sky^AI tool in Luminar Neo. Doing so will give Luminar Neo the most information possible and ensure the best results. While the Sky^AI tool includes sample skies for you, many photographers will want to use sky photos of their own creations.

Image Requirements

In order to use a sky photo with the Sky^AI tool, it must meet these requirements:

• Minimum of 1,200 pixels on the short edge (higher resolutions preferred)
• JPEG format. You can export an image as a JPEG file in Luminar Neo by clicking the Export tab, the Save Photo to Disk button, and the JPEG format. You can use a quality setting of 60–85 to keep file sizes smaller.
• Keep the image size below 10 megabytes for the optimal performance of the tool.
  

!Note: Keep the image size of replacement skies below 10 MB for optimal performance.

How to Capture Skies

The sky replacement technology in Luminar Neo requires skies to be photographed in a specific way to achieve realistic results. You can also pre-process existing sky images to meet these guidelines and export new JPEG files for use by the Sky^AI tool.

Best practices

Use the following guidelines for best results:

• Sky texture should have a specific orientation. Make sure that the bottom edge of the photo is aligned with the horizon. The top part of the image should be oriented toward the zenith.

• Horizon line should be perfectly aligned for a straight edge. Do not use sky textures where the horizon is not aligned to the bottom part of the image. You can crop and pre-preprocess the image to a new file in advance if needed.
• Sky texture should contain ONLY the sky. Be sure to avoid any other objects like trees, mountains, or power lines. This will significantly affect the quality of the sky replacement effect. Even the most miniature non-sky objects on the horizon can lead to unwanted artifacts.

• Shoot wider. A sky texture captured with a wide-angle lens is preferable as it will match many different scenes.

• A photo should have perspective. Ideally, clouds on the horizon should be further away, and any cloud near the top of the image should be closer to the viewer.

Issues to avoid

In order to achieve the most realistic results, please avoid images captured incorrectly. Sky^AI will generate poor results if the following images are used.

• Avoid telephoto lenses. Do not use sky textures captured with a telephoto lens set to a large focal distance. This will generate unrealistic results.
• Irregular angles. Do not use a sky texture with random orientation.
  

• No horizon. Do not use a sky texture without a precise (and level) horizon line.

• No foreground or objects. Avoid using a sky texture that contains mountains, trees, or any other kinds of objects on the horizon.