How Well Does the Remove Powerlines Feature Work in Luminar Neo?

One of the most time consuming and tedious tasks for landscape and street photographers is removing powerlines that are a distraction in your photographs.  Skylum has introduced multiple AI features in Luminar Neo to make photo post processing faster and easier.  One of those AI features introduced in Luminar Neo is Automatic Powerline Removal.

Before Luminar Neo, I used a combination of Content Aware Fill, Clone Stamp and, Healing Brush in Adobe Photoshop to remove powerlines from my photographs.  This could take an hour or more depending on the amount of powerlines and the detail of the background.

So, how well does the Remove Powerlines feature work in Luminar Neo?  In this blog, I test the Remove Powerlines feature on multiple images from easy to really difficult to remove the powerlines.  I’ll also explain how to use the Remove Powerline feature in Luminar Neo.

How to Use the Remove Powerlines Feature

The Remove Powerlines Feature is located under the Erase Tool in the Tools Menu.  This is convenient since you can quickly clean up any remaining powerlines that the Remove Powerline feature missed using the Erase brush in this tool.

Click the Remove Powerlines Button

To automatically remove the powerlines in your image, just click the Remove Powerlines button in the Erase Tool.  This can take up to 15 – 20 seconds depending on the amount of powerlines in your image.  Once the powerlines are removed, the text on Remove Powerlines buttons changes to Powerlines Removed.

Clean Up with the Erase Tool

If Luminar Neo missed any powerlines, use the Erase Brush to paint over the areas you want to remove.  They will be highlighted in red in your image.  One you’ve painted over everything you want to remove.  Click on the Erase button to remove these highlighted areas.  Besides powerlines, the Erase Tool can also remove telephone poles or other artifacts you want to remove from your photograph.

Restore Areas You Didn’t Want Erased

You can also restore parts of the image that were erased by painting over the area to be restored with the Erase Brush and then clicking the Restore button.  This will restore the area painted with the brush back to the original.

Testing the Remove Powerlines Feature

I tested the Remove Powerlines feature in Luminar Neo on several landscape and street photographs.  Let start out with an easier test.

Rock Mill

This photograph of rock mill has several powerlines going right through the trees that have beautiful fall colors.  Luminar Neo removed all the powerlines with just a single click of the Remove Powerline button.  No additional work was needed with the Erase tool.

Railroad Bridge with Fall Color

This photograph of the railroad bridge had powerlines in multiple areas of the photograph.  Powerlines are located in the trees in the lower right, in the sky on the left side of the image, and in front of the railroad bridge on the left side of the image.

Remove Powerlines missed some of the powerlines near the telephone pole and on the left side of the railroad bridge.  I was able to remove these remaining powerlines and the telephone pole with the Erase Tool.

Jaipur India, Street Photograph

This street photograph taken in Jaipur, India has multiple powerlines across the top of the image. 

Luminar Neo automatically removed all of the powerlines except for a small section of powerline in the upper right of the image.  I was able to quickly remove this section of the powerline with the Erase tool.

Motorcycle Delivery, New Delhi, India

Not all of the powerlines across the world are a straight horizontal line.  I tested Luminar Neo on this curved powerline in New Delhi. 

Remove Powerlines removed all of the powerlines in this photograph but also removed parts of the street lights behind the powerline on both the left and right side of the image.  I used the Erase tool to remove the rest of the street lights and poles from the image.

Street Sign with a lot of Powerlines

This restaurant sign in Maine was a difficult test for Luminar Neo.  There are multiple powerlines in the image.  There is also a shadow from the powerlines on the sign and a nautical rope used to hold the timber where the sign is attached.

Remove Powerlines worked better than I thought it would on this complex photo.  It removed most of the powerlines in the photo, except for the ones in the upper right.  It did not remove the powerline shadows on the sign.

Remove Powerlines also removed part of the nautical rope that is holding up the sign.  I corrected this by painting over the rope with the Erase Brush and then clicking the Restore button.

Dubai Powerline Towers

I tested this image for fun.  The powerlines are a significant part of this photograph and I wouldn’t want to remove them.  I did want to see if Luminar Neo was up to the task.

Remove Powerlines worked OK on the Dubai Powerline Towers photo.  It removed most of the powerlines but there is still a good amount of clean up left for the Erase tool. 

How Well Does Remove Powerlines Work?

Overall, the Remove Powerlines feature in Luminar Neo is pretty amazing.  It removed the powerlines in most of the images with just a little clean up with the Erase Tool.  For me, the Erase Powerlines feature alone is worth the price of the upgrade to Luminar Neo.  It will save me a lot of time that I would have spent cloning out powerlines in Photoshop.

Written by Martin Belan

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