An open letter from Elia Locardi and Team Radiant Photo to the photography community.
Presets are Designed to Fail - We Deserve Better
Presets—love them or hate them—have long been a staple in every photographer's toolkit. However, let's be honest: they often don't work as advertised. They can be static and inflexible, failing to account for the uniqueness and style of your photos. As a photographer, I can't count the number of hours I've spent adjusting sliders after applying a preset that just didn't fit. It's frustrating, time-consuming, and often feels like a compromise. That's why my team and I, all professional photographers, set out to address this issue with Radiant Photo 2.
A Photographer's Frustration With Presets
Presets are often marketed as a convenient way to achieve stunning photos, but the reality can be quite different. These presets are designed for someone else's photos—not yours. They don’t adjust to your specific lighting, tones, or artistic vision. When you apply them, you may find yourself caught in a cycle of adjustments to fix what was meant to save you time. We understand this frustration, which inspired us to create a better solution.
As photographers, my partners and I recognized the need for improvement—not just for ourselves but for the entire photography community.
The Birth of Radiant Photo 2
That's why we developed Radiant Photo 2 and Develop Settings, powered by our Assistive AI technology. This isn't just another AI tool. Unlike traditional presets, Radiant Photo 2 doesn’t simply apply a filter or LUT to your photo and hope for the best. Instead, it intelligently analyzes the image, understands its unique characteristics, and delivers edits tailored to your preferences. It's fast, effective, and, most importantly, designed to honor your creative intent.
The best part? Everything runs locally. There are no cloud uploads and no data mining. Your photos, metadata, and intellectual property stay exactly where they belong—with you.
Why We're Different From Other Companies
We're not just another software company; we are photographers first. After years spent behind the camera, we have experienced the same frustrations and challenges you face. We understand the disappointment of using tools that overpromise and underdeliver. This personal connection is what sets us apart and motivates us to create tools that genuinely benefit the photography community.
That’s why Radiant Photo 2 was developed with one goal in mind: to provide tools that make life easier for photographers without compromising their creative control or data. Unlike many large companies in this space, we’re not interested in mining your images for data or selling you unnecessary features. Our mission is simple: to help your photos shine.
The Risks of Generative AI (And Why We Took a Different Path)
There’s no denying the excitement surrounding generative AI. It has the ability to create stunning effects and even generate entirely new pixels. However, as photographers, we must consider the ethical questions it raises. When software begins to generate pixels that never existed, can we still call it photography?
We also need to discuss privacy. Many generative AI tools require users to upload their images to the cloud, which can expose their work to potential misuse. As creators ourselves, we cannot accept this risk. Radiant Photo 2 keeps everything local because protecting your intellectual property is not just a feature for us; it’s a promise we take very seriously.
Assistive AI: A Tool for Photographers, By Photographers
Assistive AI is designed not to replace your creativity but to enhance it. Our goal in developing Radiant Photo 2 was to create tools that assist you in doing your best work more efficiently and with less frustration. This isn’t about taking shortcuts; instead, it's about honoring the art of photography while providing you with the means to bring your vision to life.
Photographers Deserve Better - Let's Start a Conversation
What do you think? Are traditional presets becoming obsolete? Is generative AI redefining the essence of photography? Or are tools like Assistive AI the future of editing, finding the ideal balance between technology and artistry?
Regardless of your opinion, we all agree on one key point: photography is an art form that deserves tools created with care by those who truly understand it. All of us at Team Radiant would love to hear your thoughts—please join the conversation in the comments below or on our community page at community.radiantimaginglabs.com.
I use Radiant Images every now and again, and it’s definitely more impressive than presets, in fact most times it’s one click and done with very good results. But I think this article could better explain how the tech works - what is it looking for and doing, how does it know how far to go, what is on the roadmap, how do I batch process etc. Instead this article is like a brochure and doesn’t help me understand the how and why of what seems to be a very clever tool. Thanks.
Not to be cynical... I agree with you that this is certainly a well produced sales pitch but what would we expect... it's written by the company's principal.
What if I'm also an AI?
I'm glad you asked! We expanded the user manual to include tutorials and a greater explanation of how the AI and Live Editing works.
I can certainly appreciate lots of smart words and mentions of AI. Yet, the result looks no different from just clicking "Auto" in Lr.
That's why having a free trial is nice. Everyone is more than welcome to compare the results. It's something I strongly encourage.
Do you have samples of you actually testing it and comparing the results? I'd like to see it.
No. If the difference between A and B is imperceptible without a direct comparison, then such a comparison has no practical value.
In real-world use, one won’t experience images side by side.
If A is free and B offered for $130, with no trial period or demo version, and I can’t tell a meaningful difference without scrutinizing them together, why should I be bothered with B?
... actually, curiosity got the better of me. My highly scientific test involved grabbing a JPEG from an A/B comparison above, hitting 'Auto' in Lr, and setting vibrance and saturation to taste.
Well, I tried my best to keep an open mind. But let’s just say my opinion hasn’t changed much.
Cool. Now, change the exposure slider in Radiant Photo and compare it to changing the exposure slider in LrC. Every edit engages the AI NOT to destroy the underlying photo while keeping color fidelity.
I use Radiant on basically all of my images. Sometimes as a starting point. Sometime as a finishing touch. And a lot of times for both. I think it's a great product Elia. To compare it to "just clicking auto in LR" as someone else has said is just laughable to me.
It's tricky to quickly describe the difference between balancing the histogram globally in LrC and balancing tone and color pixel by pixel in Radiant Photo. Now, with version 2, you can select the default develop settings per scene category. Or, you can create your own, and it'll continue to adapt to every image. So where LrC can work sometimes, Radiant Photo works every time.
And of course, increasing the exposure slider and maintaining the white and black points while also retaining the underlying color and contrast is a big win, IMO.
Agreed, the way the exposure slider works in Radiant is amazing honestly!