Sky replacement in Luminar 4: As those of us who have Luminar 4 know, there are only a few skies provided. Matt Suess has put together a collection of 400 skies that can be used in...

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

As those of us who have Luminar 4 know, there are only a few skies provided.

Matt Suess has put together a collection of 400 skies that can be used in Luminar 4. He also has made a couple of videos (more coming he claims) that explain his technique of making sky replacements believable. The first video is Sky Replacement 101 that provides a clear explanation of how to use the controls in Luminar 4. The second video is Sky Replacement Color Casts in Luminar 4. I found both quite helpful. He calls his product Ultimate Cloud & Sky Backgrounds Kit for Sky Replacement.

He also provides a video on how to organize the clouds so that you can do so in a manner that pleases you.

Matt provides a number of example images that really show the "improvement" obtained by putting clouds into the sky rather than just a boring solid blue sky.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Doc Barry wrote:

As those of us who have Luminar 4 know, there are ... (show quote)

Great tip.Never heard of Matt

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

PixelStan77 wrote:

Great tip.Never heard of Matt

Google Matt Suess Photography. I don’t recall the web address.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Doc Barry wrote:

As those of us who have Luminar 4 know, there are ... (show quote)

So at the end of the day, if you use one of his sky replacements and the sky is more than 50% of the image's area, is the final picture yours or his? It seems to me if you use your own replacement sky images you can at least claim that the entire picture is yours. Using someone else's replacement skies is a bit more problematic, IMHO.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

mwsilvers wrote:

So at the end of the day, if you use one of his sky replacements and the sky is more than 50% of the image's area, is the final picture yours or his? It seems to me if you use your own replacement sky images you can at least claim that the entire picture is yours. Using someone else's replacement skies is a bit more problematic, IMHO.

Hi mvsilvers,

You make a good point, but Matt has address this matter. If you use his skies in your photos and you purchased his kit, then he grants you free use of them and you retain the copyright of the enhanced image. His only restriction is that you not sell his sky images as your own package of sky images. Hope this answered your question. I read the "fine print" before I purchased the Kit for just the reason you raised.

tjw47 Loc: Michigan

Just to point out that in Sky Replacement in Luminar 4, you can change the look of any given sky just by moving the Horizon Slider. So basically one sky image could look lime many different skies just by changing the Horizon slider.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Doc Barry wrote:

Hi mvsilvers,

You make a good point, but Matt has address this matter. If you use his skies in your photos and you purchased his kit, then he grants you free use of them and you retain the copyright of the enhanced image. His only restriction is that you not sell his sky images as your own package of sky images. Hope this answered your question. I read the "fine print" before I purchased the Kit for just the reason you raised.

I wasn't referring to legal copyright issues. Can you, me or anyone claim a picture is their's if half of it was taken by someone else? This is not about post processing or removing, adding, or modifying small objects here and there. This is about a significant alteration to your image using an image captured by someone else. Since you essentially end up with a composite photo with someone else's sky can you really take credit for the end results if it's good?

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

mwsilvers wrote:

I wasn't referring to legal copyright issues. Can you, me or anyone claim a picture is their's if half of it was taken by someone else? This is not about post processing or removing, adding, or modifying small objects here and there. This is about a significant alteration to your image using an image captured by someone else. Since you essentially end up with a composite photo with someone else's sky can you really take credit for the end results if it's good?

I see no issue as long as permission has been given to claim the final composite image as your own. And this is what Suess has given.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

mwsilvers wrote:

I wasn't referring to legal copyright issues. Can you, me or anyone claim a picture is their's if half of it was taken by someone else? This is not about post processing or removing, adding, or modifying small objects here and there. This is about a significant alteration to your image using an image captured by someone else. Since you essentially end up with a composite photo with someone else's sky can you really take credit for the end results if it's good?

Semantics! Gotta love 'em. This is like snapping a pic and then changing the whole look/feel of the image in Photoshop or some other PP software. Do you tell folks "I took that image"? Is the point to create "art" or to stroke your own ego? Remember, with Luminar 4 we can "snap" skies whenever we like and use those skies instead of Luminar's or Suess' or anyone else's if this is really a stumbling point for you.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

cameraf4 wrote:

Semantics! Gotta love 'em. This is like snapping a pic and then changing the whole look/feel of the image in Photoshop or some other PP software. Do you tell folks "I took that image"? Is the point to create "art" or to stroke your own ego? Remember, with Luminar 4 we can "snap" skies whenever we like and use those skies instead of Luminar's or Suess' or anyone else's if this is really a stumbling point for you.

I know you can use your own skies, which is what I suggested in my earlier post. However, based on what you're saying here, at the extreme end of this logic you could replace the sky, with somebody else's sky, then you can replace the foreground with somebody else's foreground, then you can put somebody else's people in the foreground and finally replace the heads of those people with your family members which was taken by a fourth person. What you end up with may look pleasing to you, it may even look natural, but would that composite really be your photograph if you never used your camera to capture any of it?

gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

I'm not going to tell anyone else how they should create their art, but I personally have mixed feelings about this amazing software that can so easily replace a sky with a sky photo taken by another photographer. Where do we draw the line? I recently took a night photo in Utah. The wrong end of the Milky Way was over my foreground element. I turned 180 degrees and shot the galactic core and composited it into the perfect place in the foreground photo. The photo looks amazing, but I haven't shared it anywhere because I wouldn't know what to say if asked questions about the photo. I just feel "squeamish " about it.

Low Budget Dave

Will the software allow me to put my head on Rocky Balboa's body?

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

mwsilvers wrote:

So at the end of the day, if you use one of his sky replacements and the sky is more than 50% of the image's area, is the final picture yours or his? It seems to me if you use your own replacement sky images you can at least claim that the entire picture is yours. Using someone else's replacement skies is a bit more problematic, IMHO.

Wouldn’t the same question also apply by simply using the Luminar skies. (I’m not making any assumptions on the issue itself).

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Low Budget Dave wrote:

Will the software allow me to put my head on Rocky Balboa's body?

Plenty of software can.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

gorgehiker wrote:

I'm not going to tell anyone else how they should ... (show quote)

That kind of thing wouldn't bother me, manipulating part of an image I shot myself. I would gladly tell others how I had done it. But I wouldn't feel right integrating photos shot by someone else into my photos. It's a personal decision, and I don't have a problem with others doing it if they are comfortable with it.