In this Luminar Neo Upscale AI review, we’re hands-on with Skylum Software‘s first AI-Powered photo enlargement tool. And in its first iteration, Upscale AI works well enough, though falling short in some areas.
For instance, Upscale AI lacks the myriad of adjustments its competitors offer, and upscaling is limited to creating photos no longer than 32000px. Nevertheless, Upscale AI produces attractive results, is supremely easy to use, and is well integrated into the Luminar Neo workflow. So, is Upscale AI for you? Let’s find out. Jump to Conclusion
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Upscale AI Review – Contents
- What is Upscale AI
- What does Luminar Upscale AI do?
- How much does Luminar Neo Upscale AI cost
- Upscale AI Release Date
- Upscale AI Tutorial
- Upscale AI Test
- Upscale AI Performance
- Upscale AI Compared
- Conclusion – Is Upscale AI any Good?
What is Upscale AI
Luminar Upscale is an AI-powered digital photo enlargement tool for PC and Mac and part of the Luminar Neo Extension Pack. This means you must have Luminar Neo to use Upscale AI. Read Luminar Neo Review
What does Luminar Upscale AI do?
Luminar Neo Upscale AI is an application for enlarging your digital photos. But unlike traditional photo enlargement, which blindly turns one pixel into many, Upscale AI uses artificial intelligence to anticipate and insert new detail into your image. As a result, you end up with a photo that’s not only larger but also more detailed.
You can use Upscale AI to increase your photo’s size by 200%, 400%, and 600%, depending on the size of your original image. After the upscaling process, Upscale AI creates an enlarged copy of your image – leaving your original image file intact. You’ll see some samples of this later in this Luminar Neo Upscale AI review.
How much does Luminar Neo Upscale AI cost
Upscale AI costs $49. Alternatively, you can buy the Luminar Neo Extension pack, which includes Upscale AI and six other extensions. Check Today’s Price.
These extensions include Upscale AI, HDR Merge, Noiseless AI, SuperSharp AI, Background Removal, Focus Stacking, and another extension yet to be announced.
For more information,
- Luminar Neo Extension Pack Review
- Luminar Neo SuperSharp AI Review
- Luminar Neo Noiseless AI Review
- Luminar Neo HDR Merge Review
- Focus Stacking
- Background Removal AI
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Upscale AI Release Date
November 2022
Upscale AI Tutorial
Upscale AI is insanely straightforward to use. You begin by selecting your image from the Catalog view and dragging it to the Upscale AI window on the righthand side of the screen. Next, you choose between a 2x, 4x, and 6x enlargement before clicking Upscale. After a few moments, you’ll have an enlarged copy of your original photo.
You should note that Upscale AI is limited by image size and cannot create images with an edge exceeding 32000 pixels. In practical terms, I could enlarge my 24-megapixel raw files by ‘only’ 400%.
Upscale AI Test
In this part of this Upscale AI review, we’ll find out how good Upscale AI is. The following three images were enlarged using Upscale AI. Move the slider left-to-right to compare the upscaled image with another image upscaled using traditional means (non-AI).
Upscale AI test 1
The slide below presents two images. One enlarged to 600% with Upscale AI, and another enlarged using traditional means. Overall, Upscale AI is marginally better.
Upscale AI Test 2
Because of the size of the source image, I was limited to upscaling this 24-megapixel photo to 400%. Overall, Upscale AI is comparable with traditional photo enlargement.
Upscale AI Test 3
Upscale AI had no trouble upscaling this old 3-megapixel image to 400% (600% was pushing it). Overall, Upscale AI’s output is comparable with traditional, non-AI based resizing.
Upscale AI Performance
Upscale AI’s speed is relative to the size of the image you’re enlarging. For instance, it took less than 10 seconds for Upscale AI to enlarge a good quality 6-megapixel raw file. In contrast, Upscale AI took around 30 seconds to process my 24-megapixel raw files.
Fortunately, you don’t have to sit and wait. Instead, you can edit another image while the upscale takes place in the background.
Overall, I liked the natural-looking images Upscale AI produced, and there’s nothing to stop you from running your enlarged photos image through Luminar Neo or its extensions after that.
Unfortunately, Upscale AI is limited by the image sizes it can handle. For instance, it cannot process an image with an edge exceeding 16,000 px, which is no big deal. However, it cannot scale an image beyond 32,000 px. In practical terms, this meant I could not enlarge my 24-megapixel image beyond 400% as Upscale AI’s 600% option was greyed out. Upscale AI’s competitors do not have this limitation.
Upscale AI Compared
Upcale AI vs Gigapixel AI
Gigapixel AI is the best AI upscaling application I have used. Compared to Upscale AI, Gigapixel AI is faster, offers more adjustment, and produces better results. Furthermore, Gigapixel AI can upscale every image I’ve thrown at it to 600%, while Upscale AI s enlarged photos cannot exceed 32000px.
The only issue with using Gigapixel AI is that it’s a separate application and, therefore, a separate step. In contrast, Upscale AI is built into Luminar Neo, enabling you to manage your photo editing workflow within a single application.
Therefore, if you are already a Luminar Neo user – you may prefer to trade the outright performance of Gigapixel AI for the downright convenience of Upscale AI. But if you’re yet to commit to Luminar Neo and want the best image upscaling – get Gigapixel AI. Read Topaz GigaPixel AI Review
Upscale AI vs ON1 Resize AI
ON1 Resize AI is a more complex offering and features many supplementary tools for preparing your photo for printing. In terms of quality, I have found Resize AI to be better than Upscale AI and much faster.
Therefore, as a Luminar Neo user, you’d be better off containing your workflow within Luminar Neo and going with Upscale AI. But if you’re looking for the best image upscaling, I recommend Gigapixel AI over Upscale AI and ON1 Resize AI.
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Conclusion – Is Upscale AI any Good?
This first iteration of Upscale AI is easy to use and produces good natural-looking results similar to traditional image resizing methods. Therefore, Upscale AI is an acceptable option for upscaling.
However, Upscale AI falls short of its competition. For instance, Topaz Gigapixel AI is faster, offers more adjustments, and produces better-looking, more enhanced images. Furthermore, Gigapixel AI can enlarge my 24-megapixel pictures by 600%, while Upscale AI cannot enlarge a photo beyond 32,000 pixels long.
But unlike Gigapixel AI, Upscale AI is built into Luminar Neo, enabling you to contain your photo editing workflow within a single system while leveraging other tools such as SuperSharp AI and NoNoNoise AI. For many, this added convenience is worth giving up some performance. But if you’re looking for the best image upscale outright, Gigapixel AI is still the way to go.
Upscale AI is a competent photo enlargement application and another useful brick in the Luminar Neo wall. If you’re a Luminar Neo owner with a pile of small or heavily cropped images begging for enlargement, Upscale AI will do just that.
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BUY LUMINAR NEO UPSCALE AI
SECRET SALE UNTIL JANUARY 30TH
PLUS! SAVE 10% with Promo Code SP10NEO | SAVE $10 with SILENTPEAKNEO10
BUY UPSCALE AI
- Get Upscale AI
- One-off Fee
- One Year of updates
CHECK PRICE
BUY EXTENSION PACK
- Get Upscale AI
- Plus 6 additional extensions
- One-off Fee
CHECK PRICE
SUBSCRIBE
- Get Upscale AI
- Plus Luminar Neo
- Plus 6 additional extensions
$119 $99py
Existing Luminar or Aurora Customer? Click here for Special Prices.
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