The Professional Tools are designed to offer precise controls to advanced and discerning users. Explore them for some of the most useful tools in Luminar to control color and tone.
- Select an image in your library or open a single image
- Scroll to the Professional Tools section in the Edit sidebar
- Choose the desired tool from the list
Supercontrast Tool
Color Harmony Tool
Dodge & Burn Tool
Clone Tool
Supercontrast Tool
- Highlights, Midtones, Shadows. These sliders refine the amount of contrast in the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows, respectively. Dragging them to the right increases contrast.
- Highlights Balance, Midtones Balance, Shadows Balance. These three Balance sliders define the midpoint for each respective zone. They allow you to define which areas of your image are treated as Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows.
Color Harmony Tool
The Color Harmony tool offers several advanced options for precise color control. While you likely won’t need all the sliders for each image, it’s helpful to be familiar with them.
- Brilliance. This slider is helpful in creating rich colors in a photo.
- Warmth. This slider controls the color temperature in the image and can be used to stylize an image. Positive values warm the image, while negative values tone it down.
Color Contrast
This tool lets you choose a color range to which you will apply contrast. Objects of the selected color will become lighter, while objects with opposite colors on the color wheel will become darker. This effect can help make flat images pop based on the colors in the image.
- Amount. This slider controls the contrast between color differences (as opposed to luminance). The stronger the Amount, the more contrast between primary and secondary colors.
- Hue. Slide to choose the target hue for emphasis.
Split Color Warmth
This tool can enhance the cool and warm tones in your image selectively. It allows you to increase color contrast and vibrancy or create creative toning effects. You can separately adjust the Warm colors and Cool colors.
- Warm. Drag this slider to the left to neutralize warm tones such as yellows and reds and to the right to enhance them.
- Cool. Drag this slider to the left to cool down blues, aqua, and cyan and to the right to neutralize and warm them up.
Сolor Balance
The Color Balance tool is helpful for changing an image’s overall mix of colors for general color correction. It can also be used for creative control within different tonal regions of an image.
- Range Selectors. Target the Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights in an image.
- Color Balance Sliders. Adjust the balance of Cyan–Red, Magenta–Green, and Yellow–Blue to emphasize specific colors in each tonal region.
Dodge & Burn Tool
Dodge & Burn tools are known as toning tools. They allow for fine control when lightening or darkening an image. The Dodge & Burn tool in Luminar Neo simulates traditional techniques photographers use in a darkroom to regulate the amount of light on a particular print area.
- To Dodge and Burn, open the Dodge & Burn tool in the Professional tools section of the Edit panel.
- Choose the Lighten or Darken tool in the top toolbar to select the desired brush.
- Use the Brush Size slider to adjust your brush size to paint the desired area accurately. You can press the right and left bracket keys ([]) to adjust the brush size.
- Use the Softness slider to blend your strokes gradually. This creates a transition between the effect and the original image. You can press the Shift + right/left bracket keys (Shift+[ and Shift+]) to adjust the brush’s hardness.
- Use the Strength slider to control the impact of the brush stroke.
- Click and paint on the canvas to dodge and burn.
- If you make an accidental stroke, use the Erase tool to remove it.
- Click the curved arrow next to the tool name to reset it if you need to start over.
- Use the Overall Amount slider to refine the global intensity of the tool further and blend its effect with the original image.
- Exit the Dodge & Burn tool to apply the adjustments.
Clone Tool
The Clone tool works by replacing unwanted or damaged pixels with pixels of your choosing. This tool is easy to use, allowing you to select a source (from which pixels are taken) and then paint those pixels on other areas of your image to cover up damage or blemishes. Luminar Neo offers feathering to make it easier to blend strokes.
- Open an image that needs cloning.
- Switch to the Clone tool by scrolling to the Professional tools section in the Edit panel or pressing Cmd+J (macOS) or Ctrl+J (Windows).
- Click to set the source.
- When you open the Clone tool and hover your cursor over your open image, you will see a bull’s-eye and the text.
- Click to set the source by clicking on any point in your image from which you would like to clone pixels.
- Adjust your brush as needed.
- Radius. This slider adjusts the radius of your brush.
- Softness. This slider adjusts the softness of the clone effect by feathering the edges of the brush.
- Opacity. This slider sets the opacity of the brush.
- Click and brush over the damaged area.
- Use the Zoom buttons and the Hand tool to explore the image’s details.
- Click and paint out the pixels you want to remove. You can also try small dabs and short strokes to get a blended look. The sampled pixels are taken from the sample point and cover the unwanted pixels. Try blending multiple strokes and lowering the opacity of the brush for the best results.
- After each stroke, the screen blends, and updates to show the new pixels. Continue to examine the results and make additional strokes as needed.
- When happy with the pixel removal, switch to another tool to apply the adjustment.