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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you a review and a look behind
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the scenes at Luminar's mobile photo
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editing app. The uh Luminar mobile is
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available for both iOS, which I've used
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here, and then also for Android. I
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haven't spent a lot of time in the past
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with uh either mobile photography or
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mobile photo editing because neither one
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of those things has been necessarily my
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cup of tea. I'm still of the opinion
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that the best kinds of photography are
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done with dedicated photo making gear.
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At the same time, however, I recognize
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that uh the vast majority of the world
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doesn't have the same opinion as I do.
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And of course, mobile photography is
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very much a part of our culture today.
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This past summer, I was on an extended
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road trip and I had determined because I
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had bought the year before I bought an
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iPhone 15 Pro because I wanted just a
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little bit better um photo making
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potential and the ability to get native
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raw images and to see how those would be
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for manipulating as B-roll, which I
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sometimes use my phone for, or you know,
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just having something to at least get
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photos on the fly. But I had an
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opportunity because I was taking some
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photos along this road trip and then
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also having some long hours spent in the
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passenger seat where I began to see what
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was available as far as photo
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manipulation and editing on the fly.
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Now, in years past, I reviewed a number
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of Skylum's Luminar products and uh
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various iterations of their desktop
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software, but I'd never spent any time
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with their mobile software before. And
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so, I found that I actually quite liked
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what I could do there. and was surprised
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by how much you can accomplish in an app
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these days. Things that just a few years
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ago would require you definitely to have
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a desktop-based app. Things like
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Photoshop and the ability to even do
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some things that we couldn't hardly do
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very good in Photoshop even a few years
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ago. For a long time, Luminar has been
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leaning into AI and obviously that has
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served them well as I believe that they
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are ahead of the curve in some ways when
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it comes to the amount of things that
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you can do and the AI assistance to help
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to edit and to manipulate your photos.
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So today we're going to dive into some
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of the various aspects of the things
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that you can do and I'll give you some
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screen recording looking behind the
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scenes of what I'm doing and so you can
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see it for yourself and we'll explore
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whether or not this app is something
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that you should consider for your mobile
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photography. Let's dive in. Let's take a
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look. So the first area that we will
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explore is just the idea of what you can
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do in terms of the basics. And so, first
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of all, I was interested in seeing I'll
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open up a photo that I took recently in
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uh in Florida. And you can see this shot
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of the morning ocean that I was
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interested in seeing what the very first
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slider you get to, which is just
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basically an AI assist. What you can do,
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very simple. It's just a a wheel that
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you rotate back and forth with your
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finger. And so, you can adjust the
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amount of kind of just AI manipulation
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or AI editing that comes in doing that.
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And you can accomplish a fair bit of
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improving the look of your photo with
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just that alone. But if you want to dive
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in deeper, you have a full range of
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various possibilities of things that you
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can cover. You have more advanced
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controls that give you control over the
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levels, the curves, contrast, exposure,
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your color details, the ability to edit,
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um, you know, the depth of the photo, to
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manip manipulate the details itself, to
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go into the color balance, all of those
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various things. a broad range of of
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control and all of it is designed to
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where you can simply do it with a
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fingertip. And so as far as the
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implementation, it works well. And best
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of all, with all of these manipulations
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all throughout, you have a real time
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feedback on what you're doing and the
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ability to have a history there to go
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back if you don't like the way that
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things are turning out. And so a pretty
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good depth of control there that
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definitely goes beyond what the
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included, you know, iOS type controls
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would have in my iPhone. Now, another
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area that Luminar has been famous for in
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the past is their use of presets and the
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ability to go through a broad range of
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presets that give a predefined look. And
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as I went through that, I found that
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there are a total of 34 different
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filters as of the date of this review.
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And each one of them is completely
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scalable. you can go through and
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determine whether or not you want to
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have a strong amount of the effect or a
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weaker amount of the effect. And then of
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course you have the ability to go in
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beyond that and to tweak the look of the
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photo more individually beyond that. And
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so a broad range of different presets
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all bearing a unique name and so you can
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remember what they are. And certainly
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that is an aspect that works quite well
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and you may find something that really
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suits your own sense of personality or
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maybe a look that suits a you know
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particular set of images and it's easy
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to apply those and to control with
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finite control the amount of intensity
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that you're going to apply from those
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presets. So this is something that works
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easily and works well. going years back,
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one of the pieces of a kind of techn
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technological advancement that was
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unique to Luminar in its first iteration
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was the idea of AI sky replacement. And
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this was something that was
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controversial at the time. Of course,
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these days AI has gone much deeper down
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the rabbit hole of what you can
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manipulate. And you know, there's some
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debate as to whether or not it's doing
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this is is ethical or real photography.
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I will say this, when it comes to mobile
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photography, uh there is so much uh
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digital manipulation that's already
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going on in the process of taking
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images. I'm a little less vexed over it
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on this front. But what you do have the
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ability is the ability to easily go
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through their own presets and to apply
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different skies. And I what I found in
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this process is that the AI edge
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detection is just getting better and
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better. And it happens really really
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quickly. first times that we did the sky
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removal. It would be a slower process,
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but now it's basically instantaneous.
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The edge detection is very good, but you
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do have the ability to manipulate those
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edges. You have the ability to tweak the
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lighting to make sure it all works with
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the image. And what's more, you have the
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ability even to upload your own sky
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textures. And that can be a really
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interesting application because if
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you're intentionally looking for
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opportunities to uh maybe capture a
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really unique sky, you take pictures of
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those, you add them to your own
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collection and it just gives you more
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unique options that will give you your
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own look to images and so it doesn't
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look necessarily like everyone else
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that's using those same Luminar presets.
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And so it is something that is really
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well executed. It's there. You don't
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have to use it if you don't want to, but
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it's certainly in the right setting can
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add some pizzazz to images. You've
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probably all seen ads at some point for,
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you know, one one phone or another that
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shows the ability to just magically
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remove objects from it. And of course,
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those ads would lead you to believe that
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all things are possible when it comes to
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quick and painless uh object removal. In
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reality, none of them quite work to that
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same level as you might expect. Now,
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Luminar does have an object removal
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option in here. It's, you know, works
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very simply. You basically just go in,
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you paint over that, uh, object with
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your fingertip and you can remove it.
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And so, uh, it works to varying degrees.
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So, for example, in this shot where I I
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was shooting along a the boardwalk this
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summer in Quebec City, it's a really
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gorgeous setting, but there is one lady
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here on the right that's just a little
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bit too prominent in my photo. I don't
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mind the people a little bit further
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back. And so, I wanted to see how it
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would work in removing her. And you can
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see that it removed her no problem, but
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it's a little bit, you know, kind of
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messy in the bench that was behind her.
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Go back for a second layer and it cleans
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up a bit. It's not going to be flawless,
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but probably good enough that most
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people aren't going to notice. Now, if I
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went to a even simpler setting and in
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this particular shot, let's say I wanted
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to remove the reflection of the lights
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out of the window, I can go and I can
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paint that area and, you know, it's
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pretty much instant and flawless. No
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problems with that. However, if I try to
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manipulate something more prominent and
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more complicated in the scene, like the
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A on the table itself, you'll see that
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that doesn't work nearly as well. And if
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I go back and try to clean it up in
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subsequent passes, I can get it better,
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but it's never really going to be
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flawless. And so, object removal does
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work, but within limits and within
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reason. So, just know realistically that
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you may not be able to perfectly remove
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all of those ex-boyfriends and
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ex-girlfriends out of your old photos.
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One other area where you can really
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tweak things is when it comes to
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portraits. Now, obviously, you have all
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of those same basic degrees of editing
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that we have already examined
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previously. But when it comes to
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portraits, you have a few different
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options there. First of all, you can go
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through and you can manipulate the basic
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things with the lighting and the
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background and things like that. But you
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can also go in and you can deal with
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things like skin blemishes. You can do a
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little bit of manipulating to the the
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shine or the amount of detail that's on
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the face. And you even have some degree
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of some body shaping that is a part of
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the app. Now, obviously, you need to
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exercise some caution when it comes to
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that, and you're not going to have quite
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the degree of control you would have in
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something like Photoshop, but you do
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have the ability to go in, do a little
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bit of body morphing to, you know, make
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yourself look a little bit more
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Instagram worthy. But at the end of the
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day, what matters more to me is that I
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was able to do just kind of basic
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portrait edits and end up with an end
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result that I liked better. I didn't
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love the lighting of this portrait shot
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to begin with and I like it much better
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after going through the editing uh
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process with Luminar. So, finally, what
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about the price for this app? It is not
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a free app and so it's available either
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on a subscription or through a one-time
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purchase. You can get it in subscription
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for $4.99 a month or a little bit
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cheaper at $19.99 for 6 months or $29.99
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for the year. There is a lifetime
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And with all of those things, you can
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get them cheaper. Uh it being Skylum,
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they run frequent promotions and sales.
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You can always get those cheaper if you
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watch out for deals. In fact, there is a
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discount code available right now in the
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description down below. So, it is, I
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would say, reasonably priced. It's
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certainly not a deal breakaker. And I
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will also note that if you're interested
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in their products more broadly, if you
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get one of the perpetual licenses to
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their desktop software, it often will
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come with the mobile app included in
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that one-time purchase. And so if you're
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interested in working on a couple of
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tiers, and by the way, you can go back
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and forth with images, you could start
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editing something on mobile and you can
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uh then, you know, go to the desktop and
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complete the work there. And so they do
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work, you know, pretty seamlessly
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through the cloud in that regard. But
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just be aware that you can get them at a
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get this app at a reasonable price if
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you kind of pay attention on how to do
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it. So the question is then should you
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buy the app? And obviously that's going
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to be a personal decision. I will say
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this, I think that it's a really
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welldesigned interface that's the
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learning curve is pretty easy. I also
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found that the fact that everything is
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real time and you have a history where
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you can go back if you don't like the
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most recent change that you've made.
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It's very well designed to be just done
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with a fingertip and you can do a
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surprising amount of things there within
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the software. And so I do think that
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it's a very well-executed app that goes
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far beyond what your basic iOS or
11:45
Android controls are going to allow you
11:46
to do. So you'll have to determine
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whether or not you would use such an app
11:50
enough to, you know, to pay for it. But
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I do think that you're getting good
11:53
value within the app itself. It's
11:55
welldesigned, well supported, and they
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do uh, you know, updates, firmware
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updates that give you, you know, in or I
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should say software updates that are
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giving you, you know, more capability
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and more features that are added over
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time. So, at the end of the day, I
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actually have found this to be quite a
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bit of fun. And it's uh for me it gives
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me one more thing to do on a road trip
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to to edit and manipulate photos to
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allow them to get that little extra bit
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of sparkle that makes them more
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If you want more information, you can
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check out the link in the description
12:27
down below. As always, thanks for
12:29
watching. Have a great day and let the
