Luminar Neo Tutorial | How to use Layers to fulfill your creative vision!

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In this Luminar Neo tutorial, you’ll discover how to use layers in Luminar Neo creatively. And if you are ready, let’s do it.

How To Add Layers

In Luminar Neo, we can add layers to our image to create something new and different based on our creative vision.

We also have an option under layer properties to instantly remove the background, and I’ll show you how to do that in just a second.

First, let’s take a look at the layers, which are accessible on the left side here of Luminar Neo.

All right, so we have a thumbnail preview of our original file here.

And in essence, this thumbnail preview of this image is the first layer.

What Is a Layer?

So a layer consists of data, information, or pixels, in this case, a photo image.

So that’s our first layer. We can then create new files and add them as a new layer in Luminar Neo or use the included layers to place on top of our original image.

So we have our base image and then our new layer above it.

Now the settings you apply to this new layer will blend with the layer below to create a new image.

So let me show you how this works.

So we’re gonna click right here, and that will list all the layers you can add to your image.

Some of them have seen all, which will list additional layers that can be applied to your image.

You can also add your own layer or image file by clicking on load image.

So if you’ve downloaded something online, like a sun flare or some textures, you can load them into Luminar Neo to use those.

And once you have the ones you want to use, click on them, and they will automatically be added as a new layer.

Now we can see that this thumbnail preview represents that new layer stacked above the original.

And based on the settings for this layer, we can then see how they blend together.

So the default setting for this layer is 100 for the opacity, and you can lower the opacity to show less of that overlay and more of the layer below it.

Blending Modes

Underneath that, we have our blending modes.

If you’ve used Photoshop before, you may be familiar with blending modes.

And in Luminar, Neo, we have quite a few, fewer than in Photoshop. Still, we can use these different blending modes to blend that layer in with the layer below.

Now, this particular blending mode screen works well for this specific layer and some of the others.

Multiple Layers

Let’s go ahead and add another one because you can stack multiple layers on top of each other. I’m going to add some stardust to my image here.

And now we have two layers blending in with the layer below.

I picked out this one in particular because there’s a lot of black in it, and many of these layers have that black in it, which is why the screen is set to default.

If I change this to normal, you’ll see that black in that file and screen are used to blend or remove that black from that layer so it blends in nicely with the image and the other layer below it.

Resize Layers

Now there are a few different ways that you can alter the size of this layer and do other things with it, like flip it on the horizontal axis or the vertical.

And then, in image mapping, we have three different options.

By default, stretch is selected, so if I click on that, it’s not doing anything.

But if I click on fit, it will change that layer’s size or aspect ratio to its original size.

So right now, it needs to fill in the top and the bottom.

I will get rid of this layer here by right-clicking on it and clicking hide layer or remove a layer.

Or, if you wanted to, you could duplicate it as well.

I wanna go ahead and remove it for now.

We can see these sparkles a little better and that they’re not being applied up here.

Still, you can click and drag this up to the top so it doesn’t have that hard edge as it does down here, but we can remove these sparkles down here, and I’ll show you how to do that in a second.

So that’s why we have these different image mapping options, so we can adjust this layer according to our needs.

And the reason why you may not want to use stretch is because it’s gonna take the elements inside of that layer, and it’s going to stretch them out to fill in the aspect ratio of your image.

So it’s gonna take on a different shape. It might be a bit hard to see, but if I click on “stretch” here, the “shape” of these circles is more oval now versus round.

Now if you don’t want to change the shape of those elements, you can click on fill, which will enlarge that layer to cover the entire image.

The only problem is it’s now being cut off on the left and right sides of the ends.

But you can click and drag it around to include the elements you want as part of your layer.

You can also click on a corner and resize it this way or click on a side and pull it in or out.

But what that’s doing is it’s stretching out that layer.

When you select a side, it’s stretching more so than fitting in with the corners.

Mask Layers

All right, so let’s say you have everything positioned precisely where you want it, but like in this image, we have a stardust on our eye and want to remove it.

Well, you can do that with your masking tools.

So we’re gonna select the brush in this case, and we can either paint on, paint off, or erase.

So I wanna get rid of that stardust. So I’m going to erase it.

I’m gonna adjust my brush size here, and I’m gonna go ahead and paint in this area to erase the overlay from that area.

We may want to get rid of it down here as well.

So you just paint over that area to remove it and then paint back on if you want to add it back.

I’m going to remove that layer so I can show you how to remove the background, which you can do via the masking tab.

Background Removal

So we have two options, portrait background and background removal, ai.

So this one, of course, will use AI technology to recognize where that background is and instantly remove it.

Now sometimes it does a really good job, sometimes not so much, so you may need to use one or the other depending on the image.

For this image, I’m going to click on the portrait background. It will analyze the image, and then once you click on remove, it will automatically remove that background for you. But as you can see, it could be better.

Now, if you use the removal background AI tool, it may also be flawed.

In either case, you can use the refinement brush to fine-tune the masking of your subject so you can remove the background altogether.

So transition will adjust the transition from the subject to the background the “object” will target the “subject.”

And then the background, you will target the “background” or remove the “background.”

So I’m gonna select Object, and then I can use my brush and resize it here, of course.

And then, I can paint in the area that should be included as the foreground.

So once I have that done, I will go ahead and release Luminar Neo, will then analyze that area and include it in the foreground.

And when I click on portrait Background again, we can see that it’s updated, the subject to be included, and the background is still removed.

So I still need to go in and do some tweaks to the foreground and background masks to remove the background altogether.

All right, once you’ve done editing your image to perfection, it’s time to share that image with the world.

And you can do that by watching this video tutorial and learning how to export your images to share them with the world.

Parker
Parker
A 30-year photography pro with a desire to help you achieve your creative vision! Facebook | Youtube

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