Open the travel photo in Luminar Neo, select the Sky AI tool, choose a replacement sky from its library or your own photo, and adjust the blend so lighting matches the rest of the scene.
What you need
- A travel photo with a dull, overexposed or washed-out sky
- Luminar Neo installed (available as a trial before purchase)
- 10 to 20 minutes
What sky replacement changes
Sky replacement changes the photo more significantly than most other fixes — it is worth being comfortable that you are creating an edited version, not a truthful record of what the sky actually looked like that day, especially if the photo has sentimental or documentary value.
How to replace the sky
- Open your travel photo in Luminar Neo and find the Sky AI tool in the Creative or Edit panel.
- Luminar Neo will detect the sky area automatically. Check the detected edge around buildings, trees or mountains — this is where sky replacement most often goes wrong if the detection is not accurate.
- Choose a replacement sky from Luminar’s built-in library, or upload your own if you have a suitable one.
- Adjust the relighting and horizon blend sliders Luminar provides — these attempt to match the colour and brightness of the new sky to the rest of the photo, so it does not look pasted on.
- Zoom in around tricky edges — hair, thin branches, distant rooftops — and use any refinement brush the tool offers to fix rough spots in the sky detection.
- Export the result under a new file name once you are happy with the blend.
Check the new sky looks believable
Look closely at the edges between sky and everything else — a good replacement should not have a visible outline or colour halo. Check that the lighting on the ground, buildings or people still makes sense next to the new sky — for example, shadows should not point the wrong way for the new sky’s apparent sun position.
If the result looks obviously fake
If the sky detection misses part of the actual sky (common with complex edges like tree branches), most versions of Luminar Neo include a manual brush to add or remove areas from the mask — use it to clean up the edge by hand. If the blend still looks unnatural, try a replacement sky with similar overall brightness and colour temperature to the original, rather than a dramatic sunset on an otherwise flat, overcast photo.
Next step
Fix an overexposed sky in a holiday photo covers a less drastic option, brightening or recovering the existing sky rather than replacing it entirely.
Sources and date checked
Skylum’s own Luminar Neo documentation and help articles for the Sky AI feature. Checked 22 September 2026. Researched from published documentation, not a hands-on test performed on a specific photo for this article.