Luminar Neo has added Supersharp AI as part of its Extension Pack. We kick the tires on Supersharp AI, seeing how it works on a couple of photos.
What is Luminar Neo Supersharp AI?
Luminar Neo SuperSharp AI is for sharpening your photos. Thankfully, it does so with a minimum of artifacts and halos by utilizing machine learning. It is part of the Extension Pack, with various extensions that you may add on to Luminar Neo.
Skylum, the parent company, describes Supersharp AI like this: “Supersharp AI refines the blur on an object’s outlines caused by movement, missed focus, or a shaky camera and logically stabilizes the whole photo. The neural network at its core analyses depth, perspective, and the environment of the photo and works out with a compression algorithm. The result is a crisp and naturally sharp photo, just as it was meant to be.”
How can Supersharp AI help me?
Supersharp AI can address photos that are not very sharp in three ways: motion blur, universal, and missed focus (defocus). Because we here at Photofocus are writing about this product as it’s being released, Supersharp AI only has motion blur right now as of Luminar Neo Update 1.5.0. It will be added later. We all have photos where for whatever reason, the subject was moving, we moved the camera, the camera did not catch focus appropriately, the shutter was too slow, or other reasons. Supersharp AI intends to address all of that.
How well does Supersharp AI work?
I used Supersharp AI to attempt to sharpen two photos. Because it only had motion blur, I used it on one image where someone was moving. However, I was curious to see how it would address another photo that I’ve always wanted to sharpen. Let’s have a look!
First photo: Sharpening an iPhone SE 2020 lowlight photo of a rock show with someone moving
My first test was to see how Supersharp AI would work with guitarist Victor Gutierrez of Sodaboxx, who were performing at El Cid in Los Angeles. The photo was done in very low light while the band was moving. It’s consequently a little blurry. I’ll show a couple of screenshots of the process.
Unlike Upscale AI, another one of the Extensions in Luminar Neo, Supersharpen AI appears in the Edit Menu in the Extensions section. I had difficulty finding it at first since Upscale AI appears to the right of the photo in the Catalog.
Clicking on Supersharp AI opens a dialogue box. Inside, you can make adjustments, including choosing what kind of blur you are addressing (when the other two modes become available) and masking. Within the mask window, you may select from several different methods of masking, including using a brush. But also, there is a Mask AI section, shown above. Here, I’ve selected “Human” since Sodaboxx had human on stage that evening.
Above: The left photo is the original photo before sharpening. The right photo was after sharpening, only using Supersharp AI.
As you can probably see, the photo has been sharpened. I wouldn’t say it’s a startling, miraculous, magical amount. It would have been interesting to see what the universal or defocus modes would have done. However, this is largely about motion blur since he is moving, so this was likely the correct mode.
I used this on “High” Mode. I was surprised that it didn’t “ugly” and full of artifacts. In fact, I’m surprised that it didn’t sharpen more.
Photo two: Milky Way photo of Mobius Arch in Alabama Hills, Owens Valley, CA
For the second photo I wanted to sharpen, I tested a photo of Mobius Arch. I felt like I missed focus slightly on the arch of this single-exposure image because I had to place the tripod a little too close to the arch. At night, it looked like the arch was in focus. On a larger screen, not so much. This has always bothered me, as I felt this was otherwise an appealing photo. Could Supersharp AI address this?
I used Mask AI this time, using “Natural Ground.” I was curious if this would work since ordinarily, natural grounds aren’t in the shape of an arch. No problem. It masked most of the arch. I brushed in a little more for good measure.
Above: Before (left) and after (right) applying Supersharp AI to the arch.
Ordinarily, one would probably select “defocus” to try to address the missed focus on the arch. I only had motion blur to select.
An interesting surprise when sharpening the rocky arch
To my surprise, Supersharp AI fixed the blur quite well. There is a caveat, though. The pattern of the rocks in part of the photo had changed! This is likely due to it using AI to fill in the sharpening rather than aggressively trying to sharpen the “soft” (out of focus) areas.
Because I don’t really care whether the patterns of the rock are accurate, this doesn’t matter to me. However, if it were another subject, such as a specific dress or article of clothing, product, building, person or something else, I don’t think I would want this. But I am hoping that with different modes, the machine learning would address the various subjects more specifically. Regardless, I was rather pleased that my slightly out-of-focus arch looked noticeably better.
Here, too, I used “High” Mode. And once again, I thought I might get artifacts and get this a little ugly. In retrospect, I probably should have used “Medium” since this the arch is teetering on the precipice of being over-sharpened. But when testing these, I do like to max out the controls to see what happens.
How to obtain Upscale AI or the entire Extension Pack
For more information, go to Skylum’s “2022 Extensions Pack” webpage. You can get this as an add-on to Luminar Neo. There are several plans, including a lifetime license.
