The Truth About Luminar Neo's GenErase: Mind-Blown or Disappointing Flop?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

BIG NEWS! Skylum has just launched a summer sale where you can save a massive 81% off Luminar Neo here bit.ly/NeoSale But the cool thing is in addition to that they've given me a coupon code to share with you so you get to save ANOTHER 20% (use code AFF-T5C1C0 ) I really hope that helps you out! It should work for both the perpetual licence and the subscription too. Enjoy😄 Best wishes, Anthony

[@tubehenry]

I fell for Luminar's "trick" and purchased Neo Lifetime. One price they said. Since then they have bombarded me to purchase tiny little extras, and now I have to pay extra for this new functionality. Everything is an "extension" - I can extend my program bleeding money. It is so annoying; I could I have just stayed on the payment plan with photoshop and get all the updates as they come. I am seriously considering going back.

[@bgovan64]

Give ON1 a go. I switched last year. Easy transition and in my opinion far better overall. Will not go back to Sklyum. To many broken promises.

[@rogerhampton2844]

Yes, I fell for it too. I got AI and HDR then moved to Neo. Everything with Luminar now is simply a way to make more money. I use Fuji so LR isn't great for that as it doesn't handle the files from the Xtrans files well and I didn't want a subscription. I think I'm going over to Capture One. A steeper learning curve but I can just buy outright. Not being scammed by Luminar anymore.

[@The831Z]

​@rogerhampton2844 capture one is doing the same thing. Been long time capture one fan but they upgraded and they are now making me get a payment plan or buy the lifetime plan to get the new tools they just added. I was about to get neo but i got so many luminar programs that are now not getting updated any more...I went with affinity photo v2 from v1 and it seems that's all I really need.

[@NN-wc7dl]

To be honest I've become pretty tired of Luminar's money-milking mindset. They make Adobe look like a charity company.

[@FFVoyager]

Yep. I'm a minute or so in and not watching the rest. I really am not interested or going to rent some pointless toss to edit photos.

[@michaelhall859]

Agree, the reason I bought it outright (and left Adobe) was the one off payment, all these extras should be included as enhancements , not another reason to squeeze more money out of us

[@NN-wc7dl]

@@michaelhall859 Exactly. It wasn't that cheap to begin with. I regret I ever bought the stuff and it hasn't found its way into my workflow because of sheer reluctance toward their gargantuanism.

[@bgovan64]

I was a Sklyum user from the beginning. Last year I switched to ON1. No turning back. Sklyum was good but to many broken promises time and time again. Layers, Catalogs, Keywords etc etc etc. I watch this and yes cool but not consistent.

[@rogerhampton2844]

I totally agree with this. I bought Luminar because A) I didn’t want to be forced into a LR subscription. B) I wanted something simple. C) I could purchase packs as and when they suited. Now, whichever way you go you have to purchase some sort of Luminar subscription. It’s all about gimmicks now and recently I’ve had 2 or 3 absolute disasters due to the software. I’ll look at other options like Capture One and LR if I really have to, but I’m done with Luminar.

[@Sven-R]

Looks good already. Not sure if it is already good enough to compete with Adobe though. But it's very promising start.

[@virtualmetherephotography]

Looking forward to this being released.

[@MrJohnnyMel]

Welcome back, that is exciting. Looking forward to having a play with it. Would love to see the photo of the tree you took at 5.00 am 😊 thanks so much, I really like that you show the fails too

[@ianslingsby3415]

Thanks for updating us on this great tool exciting. I can't wait to give it a spin going to save a lot of time.

[@dave4jazz]

Thanks again Anthony for the video. Really looking forward to using GenErase.

[@joeandjan]

Thanks for your very well-presented and informative blog Anthony. Love watching your videos as they are very informative and educational. Cheers.

[@brianb6603]

Excellent as usual!!!

[@cjk1943]

Looks great I can not wait to try it❤

[@timrosenburgh8597]

Enjoyed the video as usual Anthony. Like you said it fixed quite a few image's well and some not, but it is in the early stages and hopefully it will get get better results in the future.

[@johncameron6853]

Hope you enjoyed your holiday Anthony. Really looking forward to using this tool once they get the bugs out of it, it will be a great time saver. 👍😎

[@kevinw7044]

This looks really useful.

[@tapping.powertochange7129]

Hi Anthony, I just discovered you and have been binge watching your videos as I have never done photo editing before but need to now. I'll be restoring vintage black & white photos and vintage posters. Your Black & White restoration video was the best one I watched on that subject. I'm really looking forward to using Luminar Neo, you are a great mentor and coach! I really appreciate your time and effort. Thanks!

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Thanks! I appreciate your kind words! 😀

[@amaurysimon5994]

Thanks Anthony for both the video and your reactivity! Great tool, very useful (not like the shiny useless neon stuff...😊). Always a pleasure to hear from you!

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Thanks! 😀

[@bluejay3945]

If nothing else, after numerous confusing emails regarding $ and options and similar messaging regarding memberships, I feel I’m fully prepared to deal with a call girl in the future. Thank u Skylum

[@AnthonyTurnham]

🤣

[@UKcynic]

Thanks for the great demo/review. Seems to work quite well on a lot of your examples. Re the exceptions: DxO PL's repair tool has the same problem in that it needs to use the pixels surrounding the targeted area to generate the replacements, eg. 08:15 and 13:19. In my view we need the ability to identify edges of the target area that should not be used for regen and the algorithm should use other relevant target edge data. Hopefully GenErase being cloud based will mean it improves relatively quickly to other apps.

[@mikesrandomchannel]

Great video. As an amateur snapper I'm very pleased with gen expand for correcting slightly misframed shots and gen erase for removing stuff I had overseen in the shot. Huge timesaver and way, way, better than old-school cloning or even the (now) interim inpainting tools. And even adding in little decorative elements to a photo for fun is really nice, although the results here vary wildly. But just as one example: rather than having your subjects mess around with liquids for shots involving beverages, for example, you can add in things like cappucino foam or cola really easily. I'm sure pros might smirk at things like this but for me: saved time is more time to spend on the things I love doing.

[@geophizz]

I can't wait! although I wasn't surprised to see it had trouble with hiding objects at the edges. Luminar's regular erase tool struggles with items at a photo's edges too.

[@middletonduff]

You’re Looking well Anthony. Interesting new tool. Add ons and add ons though

[@NeilMcAliece]

I've been using this for some real work and I mostly love the time saving. Occasionally though I think I'm being pranked by the robot overlords. Eg removing an old satellite dish on the roof of a building. Plain uncomplicated scene. It replaced the satellite dish with a floating pushbike seat and a toy hedgehog peering over the edge of the building!

[@AnthonyTurnham]

🤣

[@ajstelfox3881]

I've had quite a bit of success removing reflections in photos taken through glass.

[@normameyers4904]

I’m really looking forward to Gen erase. I did a homecoming photo shoot the other day and one of the girls forgot to take 2 big ponytail holders off her wrist and I didn’t catch it .

[@stevencarletti2111]

Pretty cool tool. I agree it's not exactly perfect, but as you say it sure beats cloning. Thanks for the walk through!

[@CarolinePicking]

It’s already better than I honestly expected it to be. Be nice to do a bit less cloning!

[@Centauri27]

This looks very impressive indeed! I thought it did a great job with the complex scenes. This will really lessen the need to clone. Also, it will be perfect for removing the power lines that the Power Line Removal Tool fails at (for example, power lines that are out of focus are completely missed by that tool, which annoys me to no end).

[@ArminHirmer]

interesting times for sure

[@alwilson6471]

I have a lifetime license for Neo and, as you say, I had to purchase a creative option in order to make sure that I have access to the generative tools. However, even though I paid for a 12-month period, the generative license will only last until August 2024, so I don't even get these new options for a full 12 months. The time I have them depends when they all come out. I understand that Generase will be released on 26th, but I have no idea when the other Gen tools will be available so I will have them for far less than the paid for 12 month period. I queried this with Skylum and was basically told that this was the way it was. I'm not happy about this, considering the amount I have paid thus far for Skylum software and Neo add-ons.

[@michaelhall859]

I asked the same question on the skylum community forum.... No reply 🙄

[@AnthonyTurnham]

If you're not getting the results you hoped for then this follow up vid may provide the solution.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJvIp2B8qdVkr7c It dives into the pixel limit of the tool and how to work around it.

[@chrisstark8136]

Interesting to see how it did with the train/people one you did last time, would be good to compare

[@NeilMcAliece]

I'm pretty excited about this for various applications. In particular the ugly green and magenta lens flare that the DJI Air 2S camera produces. I often reposition to remove or reduce it, but sometimes it's not possible with the composition I really want.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

The current best deal for Luminar Neo can be found here bit.ly/Luminar-NEO. You can try code ATNEO10 for an additional discount.

[@chk3811]

Thanks Anthony. I can't wait to free my vacation photos from the many disturbing people. :)

[@ChrisDurrant-pj7ln]

Thanks Anthony, interesting tool but still not enough to entice me to pay a subscription! I remember your original cloning video well, learnt a lot from that.

[@alangauld6079]

A nice review. I don't have the extension package although I have a few of the individual extensions. This one is tricky, I do clone out a lot of stuff and can see this being a time saver but I'm not sure it's worth the cash just yet....

[@Mrthezanax]

Perhaps we should give luminar neo developers more time and everything will be better, besides they do excellent job so far!!!! Thanks for great video!!!!

[@DigitalPhotoMentor]

How do you have a filmstrip?? Are you Mac or Windows? I still do not have that in my version.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Hi Darlene. I'm on PC. Can't quite recall when the filmstrip showed up. 🤔

[@bramelsheretan]

I enjoy your videos, what I dislike is Skylum using this software to force some people into buying into the Ai options. What we need is a full catalogue as Lightroom offers. Glad you had a good holiday, photo processing to look forward to

[@Centauri27]

You mention Lightroom--you do know Adobe forces you into a subscription to use LR? I get that people don't want to pay a subscription, but I imagine running these AI cloud servers aren't cheap.

[@matthewisaacs4537]

I'm actually impressed. Usually, the 1.0 version of Luminar tools leave me a bit underwhelmed, but this looks phenomenal. This one tool might be worth the subscription cost for me. Interesting how it completely failed with the cloud scenes, though. I wonder if it does better when it can sample pixels on all sides of the section you're trying to remove. In the cloud scenes you were working on, you were trying to erase the bottom part of the image, so the AI only had the pixels above the town section to sample. If the town section had clouds on the sides and beneath it, the AI probably would have better "understood" what you were trying to accomplish. But the rest of the work the AI did was honestly fantastic. It kind of sucks that you have to wait so long sometimes to see if the AI guessed correctly about what you're trying to do. Waiting for several minutes for the AI to come back with the results, only to see that it completely botched it, can be very frustrating and could kill a workflow. It's like NASA sending updates to the Voyager probes. "Let's send these instructions out and then wait for a couple days to see if the antennas on the probe orient themselves correctly..." I have a question, though. Is there a limit to the number of AI "transactions" you can perform each day/week/month? Will Luminar cut you off if you use too much? Or is there some higher tier pricing for heavy users?

[@Centauri27]

In Jim Nix's video about this tool, he mentioned that there is "no transaction limit" or something like that. I think that means unlimited for now, but who knows about the future. As an amateur, I don't want to be impacted and have to wait 5 minutes just because a bunch of heavy users are submitting thousands of images, clogging up the system....

[@GavinBollard]

Now it comes out... just a couple of weeks after I spent ages removing a couple of busloads of tourists off a castle. :-) Looks very good but I expect we'll have to do some micro-erasures on our erasures to move it closer to perfection.

[@Kit2Canada]

Superb’

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Thanks 🤗

[@muserbellamy1140]

Hi good video hope the tree doesn’t get cut down like our one in Northumberland the sycamore gap tree

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Yeah that was sad 😔. A few years back someone did take a saw to a branch on this one. Thankfully it's still standing.

[@MrFastforwardcoach]

Do you know the resolution of the generated image? Adobe is limited to 1024 pixels in the largest direction and sometimes although the result initially looks great, once you examine at 100% you can really see the difference in the resolution.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

This is something I'll be diving into deeper when I get a bit more info from Skylum. But on the full zoom on the rocks in the waterfall which was a 45mp file I did notice a slight difference with the generated areas..

[@hughellins1422]

Very interesting and good to see you refreshed from a holiday. World Cup NZ to beat Argentina and sadly SA to beat England

[@AnthonyTurnham]

I'm hoping for NZ vs England final (then I win either way 🤣) just watching 👀 Nz Argentina as I type this!

[@skycreationsllc8368]

Great as usual Anthony! I've been wondering about the clone tool. Is it possible to lock the source point instead of having it move with your edit? If I'm correcting a background there's times I'd like to use the same source point throughout instead of it cloning everything in the path.

[@PistouandPastis]

Thanks for sharing. Too bad the results are low resolution and blurry. I was hoping it would be better than Adobe's tool. Can you select smaller areas like you can in Adobe to get sharper results? What about a regenerate button for more options?

[@BobSloan2190]

Looks good Anthony. The only "real world" problem is the fact that the system has to go back to Skylum's servers to accomplish the task. I travel to many areas that are far removed from the web (far southwest Australia for one). To not be able to use GenErase, could be for weeks at a time, would be disappointing to say the least. Other than that it looks a great addition to the tool bag. Please keep up the great work Anthony, sorry I missed you while you were here in the land of Oz! If you get to Perth in your travels stand on a chair at the airport and shout "Bob!" and I'll come and buy you a beer. All the best to you and yours, Bob Perth, Australia

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Nice one Rob! I look forward to that beer 😀

[@SundanceBN]

The problem ist that Neo creates a JPG after you have used GenErase. That is a little showstopper. So you have to work on your photo and the very last step would be to use GenErase bevore doing a final export. Hope they will change that.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Good consideration. Yeah so my recommendation would be raw edit > gen erase > final edits > creative looks etc. > export Neo always steps away from raw data after that initial develop raw tool. So to work on the jpeg after gen erase won't impact the quality too differently from the usual work flow. (that's my initial thoughts but I may refine that idea after more tests).

[@RSV9]

I use Stable Diffusion often especially to "delete" objects but also to add or modify images. This is not something for perfectionists, you almost always have to improve the result. On my computer it takes time and if the result is not satisfactory then you have to do it again and again until it turns out well or go step by step, that is, first just delete a part and not everything and thus get closer to the desired result. But it's promising and I hope to use it often. If I do it with my computer, each attempt takes a long time and you have to be patient. Hopefully with LN it will be faster and more effective. Thanks Anthony

[@brettyg76]

I have a lot of GoPro photos that have that flare (caused by water droplets on the lens). I’ve tried using the general erase tool to rid of these droplets, but a lot of the times the erase tool fails by replacing the droplet with some weird colour that doesn’t match the photos. I’m hoping this generase tool will help by removing these lens droplets.

[@rather-reverend]

Wow. I'm VERY impressed. I remember watching your hogwarts express video - it taught me everything I know about erasing stuff, and I've used what I learned many, many times since then. (Maybe not all that well, but hey ... I'm just some guy doctoring vacation pictures of his dogs!) However, as helpful as that knowledge was, the amount of work is staggering. (My wife just rolls her eyes.) Using these tools to get 90% of the way there, then a little judicious cloning will be HUGE for me. I HATE paying for subscriptions, but I'm afraid I'll be paying for this one.

[@noriller]

They should make some plan for those who want just the AI Cloud capabilities and either don't want the extensions (or worse, already have them). Kinda of "why did I buy all of those?" As for the erasing... it would be nice to have it appear as a layer, then I would say to probably try to "erase" more of it and feather the changes (which could come as an integrated option, from the where you want to erase, it could expand a little and feather it)

[@lucienr]

It is like the "Remove tool" in Photoshop. For now I prefer Photoshop.

[@Lo-ResTom]

Where you are trying to create new skies - what if you rotate the image 180 degrees before you do the Gen erase?

[@stulav844]

Will it be like Photoshop Regenerate that you have to pay each time you go to use their cloud

[@lreadlResurrected]

I cannot find/access anything about a "creative pass" on Skylum's site. Link, please?

[@QuicknStraight]

Interesting. Does it make any difference if you break down the more extensive erasures into parts and run a fresh pass for different sections of the photo? And do they plan to keep running from their cloud servers, or will it eventually run from the user's PC?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Yes, chunking the photo into smaller objects yeilds higher resolution results than tackling the erase procedure all at once. I'm not sure what the future plans are for where the computation takes place. Server-side for the foreseeable future....

[@wielpaquay1932]

What about the density of the new generated pixels?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Yeah I might do a follow up video that gets a bit more technical. I missed the technical briefing from Skylum while I was on holiday so I'm currently unsure on the exact technical details. But yes I think like Adobe there's a pixel limit.

[@tonytfuntek3262]

This looks like a great tool.....But just so I understand, if the Neo server goes down for any reason I would lose access to this tool ?

[@jamiermathlin]

£11.95 / month, just for GenErease update, mmm, let me have a think about it...

[@worldfromtheair]

This is no doubt based on technology such as Stable diffusion, as is Adobe firefly. Even in adobe firefly it is limited to image patches with a size of 1024x1024, so if you gen erase an area in your high res pic that is clearly bigger than 1024x1024, what does it look like? An obvious pixelated patch based on an image 1024x1024? or does it gen erase to something of the same resolution? i.e try gen erasing on a huge hirres pano and see if the gen erased part is of the sam resolution

[@australianboy]

Terrific tool explained well with a great video. It actually made me want to purchase the subscription, but the discount code is invalid :(

[@AnthonyTurnham]

The code NEO31OFF bit.ly/GenErase is a Halloween promo Skylum are running which I believe activates on the 28th Oct. Did you try either of these ANTHONY30 or ATNEO10 ? They're codes they gave me. Curious to see if they're working?

[@australianboy]

@@AnthonyTurnham just tried and these codes worked 👌 thanks for the heads up!

[@kim0942]

Anthony, one of the things I don’t like about PS AI generative fill is that the replacement area has less resolution which can be quite noticeable on a larger area. (I know there is a way to solve this by creating a 1080x1080 selection). What is Luminar Neo’s maximum resolution?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

1536 x 1536 so approximately 2x as many pixels as PS.

[@Final_Cut_FF]

What did you think about Australia?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Loved it! 😍

[@AdamTV]

I do not think this update will work with older macOS

[@bobdedic3216]

Just updated Luminar Neo with Gen ease and honesty. I'm not impressed. I've tried various pictures from simple to a bit more complicated object removal and each time, it leaves some or part of the object no matter how many times I use it. So, not sure if it's my computer processing power or something else. Is anyone else having similar issues?

[@nchana48]

Hi The GENErase appear to work on simple selections. I am trying to remove a person from a group of people. This does not work. Instead of removing the person it replaced it with a weird image. The examples you and others have shown are very simple. Please explain how to carry out the above successfully. Thanks

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Hi, good question. Without seeing your example it's hard to say the exact solution. Try to select more than you want replaced, IE don't be afraid to bleed the selection beyond the exact pixels you're replacing. Also the techs at Skylum have been working to reduce the likelihood of "weird" things popping up in the replaced areas so hopefully with time we'll experience less of that. Just as an aside, I'm not so sure that the examples of the multiple people over the rocks, or people in front of the lake obscuring foreground and water are "simple" examples.

[@nchana48]

@@AnthonyTurnham Hi Anthony. Appreciate your response. Thank you

[@BlackPete...]

Hold on... That's Wainui Falls. That's in New Zealand - not Australia.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Yes, good spotting! 👍 I didn't even take my big camera with me to Australia. I was definitely in need of a proper holiday 😃 The photos in the vid are just some miscellaneous images I grabbed that had things that needed removing (mostly from NZ 🙂)

[@edit-retouch-photo]

more like the "Remove tool" of Photoshop than the "Generative fill"

[@vincepalmer9518]

Have you tried to remove a reflection on glass yet?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

No not yet. Sounds like a recipe for confusing the heck out of the AI though 😅

[@vincepalmer9518]

when they first announced the new tools, the demo showed the erase tool removing a reflection@@AnthonyTurnham

[@carlosa7261]

I wished Generative Ai was a one time payment but it looks like its not under Luminar. That's what I'm looking for in a photo editing software. I don't mind shelling out $300 for it. As long as its not subscription based.

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Unfortunately it's not going to happen, at least not with how the AI models run at the moment. They all require processing based on the diffusion model away from your local PC and that means recurring costs for the photo editing company. It's unlikely we'll see one off "buy and own" models unless the AI processing model changes.

[@anselcheng6166]

Any idea if photoshop AI is any better?

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Not really! They're both using the diffusion model to create the AI result so they're actually fairly similar.

[@PhillyDownside]

So far im liking GenErase but i hope they update their picture recogniton because i did a baby belly fotoshoot for my sister in law and wanted to erase some cabel balls but it told me the generated subject is inapropiate. Nothing helped besides literally cropping her out, so im thinking Luminar doesnt like sport underwear 😅

[@AnthonyTurnham]

Interesting. Yeah, I'm not sure what their algorithm is for recognising inappropriate content but I can see why AI might get confused in that instance. Like you say, hopefully it'll improve with an update.

[@thegroove2000]

Also this can come in handy to better prepare for a scene, shoot so not to even use such a tool.

[@felixthecat1882]

Hi Anthony! I have mixed feelings regarding the 'GenErase' tool. On one hand it's a brilliant time saver when removing unwanted items from the picture, however, I hope the released version has more tools to enhance the accuracy of this tool. The fact you still have to clone parts of the picture leaves room for improvement. 😼 Regards from Felix the Cat. 😺

[@fostervf16]

Ridiculous. Luminar wants those of us who own it out right to pay exactly what the people who don't own it outright do. And Neo is one of the worst editors I've ever used. I use Ai when I need too.

[@darenaubiephotography8570]

Sit on your hands and try to do a video