▷DREAMY Portrait Retouch | Intelligent AI-Powered Image Editor!

In this video, I’m going to show you how to edit a portrait to create a dreamy look in Luminar Neo. We’ll be using many of the AI creative tools available in the program, such as converting the image to black and white, adding a vignette, and softening skin tones.

Download practice photo: https://www.signatureedits.com/free-raw-photos/

Download overlay(PNG file): Dreamy Sun Pack

What is a dreamy look in a portrait?

The idea behind crating a dreamy look portrait is to have a subject placed in a position that the light, usually the sun, is behind the subject that is also affected by the bokeh(blur) of the background.

It is somewhat difficult, but not impossible, to get this effect straight out of the camera, but there are certain things that need to be in place for it to happen. The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to create the effect using a photo editing software like Luminar neo.

The sun flare behind the subject should slightly create an overall color cast with a special accent in the areas in where the subject is lit or highlighted by the sun. These areas are most of the time the back of the head, hair, and shoulders.

Below I share the workflow I used and, in the video, above you can see the process in detail.

Editing workflow in Luminar Neo

One thing I like about Luminar Neo, is that it makes it easy to accomplish certain tasks that usually will take several steps in other photo editing software. The workflow I used to edit this portrait is the following:

Develop: Selected camera profile(only for RAW images)
Enhance AI: Used AI based photo enhancer to correct the entire portrait overall lighting.
Erase AI: Correct blemishes and eliminate hair strays over the face of the model.
Skin AI: Used AI based skin softening and blemishes removal.
Face AI: This tool has a lot features, but for this portrait I used face light and eye tools to brighten the face and make the eyes pop out a bit.
Dodge and burn: Used this tool to relight and enhance the face features of the model.
Flare overlay: Created a layer on top of the portrait with a canvas texture and centered focus painted vignette.

My Luminar Neo favorite tools

The main reason I am using Luminar Neo more an more in my edits is because of the AI based tools.

Even though some of the adjustments might look exaggerated, I did it like that because I knew that the overlay layer will darken and soften the light due to the “soft light” layer blending mode.

Below you could see the before and after: