Retouching for everyone?

[Summary]

When you think of photo retouching, you obviously think of Photoshop first, there are probably a lot of other possibilities but Photoshop is the best in this field. A few weeks ago, I read an article about another solution called Photolemur that based its retouching on artificial intelligence. We've been talking about artificial intelligence everywhere lately and often wrongly, but I let myself be tempted to see what it would look like. What is this curiosity called Photolemur worth?

Official website: Photolemur

Release date: September 14, 2018

Starting the program

When Photolemur is launched, only a small window appears where you can drag your photos (or open them with the file explorer). As soon as you drag a photo, Photolemur starts working and a few seconds later, you get a version of your photo with a before/after preview. You can slide freely between the before and after to get an idea of the final result.

Photo test n°1

I started my test with a RAW photo that is slightly overexposed at sky level and underexposed at ground level. This kind of problem often occurs and to solve it, I take neutral pictures where I try to avoid losing information due to over/under exposure. Retouching such a photo is not a big challenge. So what does it look like? Well, the first good news is that we see a difference between the two pictures. The sky is indeed bluer, we can see the clouds better and the exposure of the trees is better. Here are the two photos used:

Here is the result obtained with Photolemur without any form of adjustment. We see that Photolemur has indeed improved the photo and if we do not compare it with anything else, we could say that it is a success. The treatment only takes a few seconds, it's very easy so on this side, nothing to say. On the other hand I save my photo on my hard disk and there it is the crash, Photolemur crashes at the backup.

photolemur 3 test photo retouche photolemur

What is the retouching worth compared to the master of the genre, Photoshop? So I upload the photo into Photoshop, apply a basic treatment and that's it. The result is much better than what I can get with Photolemur. The sky is really blue and I didn't even force the treatment, you can see the clouds better, the sharpness of the picture is much better at such a point that it looks like Photolemur's picture is blurry.

photolemur test photo retouche photoshop

Photo test n°2

With the next picture, I will increase the difficulty a little bit by choosing a very under-exposed picture, the weather was really grey with big clouds. Here is the original photo to give you an idea.

When you visit a place (here Ottawa) and stay there for a very short time, you have to get used to the conditions, you don't have the time to come back later. When the weather is so grey, I under-expose the photos so as not to lose anything from the sky while keeping a minimum of brightness for the ground. How will Photolemur tackle this problem? As with the previous test, we see a difference, it is even quite clear compared to the original. The whole picture is clearer, the clouds are much more vislbe and slightly bluish. The buildings remain very dark overall. The whole thing has a certain style and that's not unpleasant.

photolemur test photo retouche photolemur

What does the master Photoshop say about this picture? As for the previous photo, the result is irrevocable. The photo is generally better exposed, the pique is much better, the colors are more neutral. I would say that at the cloud level, the result may be a little too neutral but this is a choice to make in Photoshop. However, Photolemur cannot compensate for the large brightness deficit at the bottom of the image.

Photo test n°3

Let's move on, I took a night shot of Montreal that is basically of sufficient quality to be published. The aim is to see how Photolemur manages with an almost completely black sky and the very important contrast with the city's lights. Here is the original photo.

Photolemur correctly detected the sky and buildings below the skyline, increased the lighting on the buildings and applied a warm color filter because the whole is more orange than in the original photo. The sky has also taken on a purer hue. If we look closely the photo is quite granular but at the scale of this page it does not show. A priori if we do not compare with another retouching, the result is not too bad.

With Photoshop, we find the same elements as in the previous photos. The overall exposure is better, the quilting is better and the colours are more neutral (but it's a choice). The retouching obtained with Photoshop is probably more realistic than Photolemur's, the whole is also clearer.

Features

Photolemur advocates simplicity and this can be seen in all the elements of its interface. Apart from the before/after viewing, you have the possibility to apply filters to your photo, it looks quite similar to what Instagram offers. We have hot, cold or more creative filters. I don't really see the usefulness of this kind of filter without if you want to give a particular style to your image. It is possible to add filters but they are not free and even rather expensive (15€ for a filter is really crazy!).

Besides the filters, you also have the possibility to alter the changes made by Photolemur but don't expect miracles, you can influence the intensity of the retouching but you won't have the possibility to do anything else. Simplicity is good, but here it is pushed to the extreme. The so-called artificial intelligence does not always do a good job and Photolemur's features do not allow errors to be recovered.

Artificial intelligence?

Photolemur's selling point is artificial intelligence. As I wrote above, there is a tendency to use artificial intelligence in all kinds of ways today, but we often talk wrong. Artificial intelligence is a process that makes decisions without pre-established choices and gradually learns to improve. In the case of Photolemur, we have to see with time what it will give but a priori I do not see any trace of intelligence. Above all, I believe that the designers have supplied the software with many pre-established scenarios and that the software is based on these choices to make the adjustments. On all the photos submitted, they all have the same defect, namely a lack of sharpness, a lack of brightness and sometimes too warm colours. A real artificial intelligence would not make its basic mistakes, we feel that these are choices made by the designers and unfortunately these choices are not the right ones.

Conclusion

If you are already using Photoshop and you are familiar with the tool, Photolemur is not for you. However, if you do not yet use photo software and do not want to spend time or money on it, Photolemur may be of interest to you. The software is very simple and it really improves your photos. For a simple use you will obtain a quality gain quite quickly and without having to enter into complicated settings. The software is not without defects and the most important thing is that the retouching is not done in full screen, so you don't see the image in its original size and it is difficult to get an idea of the final result.

Strengths:
[+] Ultra easy to use
[+] Speed of processing
[+] Price vs Photoshop
Weaknesses:
[-] Before/after vision is not done in full screen
[-] Retouching less effective than Photoshop
[-] No possibility to influence the result