I covered the announcement of the latest release of Radiant Photo last month. It looked promising, but reviewers didn't have it in hand to take a deep dive into the software. Now I've had it for a few days and want to share my thoughts and experiences.
First, I'm looking at the Radiant Photo 2 software from the perspective of a landscape photographer.
What Is Radiant Photo 2 Trying to Achieve?
We have lots of photo editors to use, with new ones coming out all the time. With the use of AI, photographers are beginning to feel like a special effects crew on a movie. There's nothing we can imagine that we can't create, either on film or our own still photo canvas.
In that regard, Radiant Photo 2 is coming from a different place. Rather than create pixels, which is one of the primary goals of AI, it aims to enhance your images, giving you credit for taking a good image without inventing new content on it.
No sky replacement here, no trees added, but, in my view, solid controls to take your images to the next level.
Using Radiant Photo 2
All my testing has been on a 2023 MacBook Pro with an M3 Max chip.
You start by opening an image through the usual file manager (File/Open) or dragging an image to a target Radiant Photo provides when you open the program. Radiant Photo 2 can also work as a Photoshop or Lightroom Classic plugin.
Once your photo is open, things happen quickly. Using what the software calls "intelligent scene selection," the software recognizes the type of image you are working on—landscape, portrait, pets, etc. Radiant Photo takes an immediate stab at adjusting your photo and presents an appropriate toolset to work with your photo. I've noticed it's excellent at getting basic adjustments down the first time, leaving you room to make further adjustments.
One interesting tool is the exposure adjustment tool. As the folks behind Radiant Photo 2 point out, most exposure sliders can send your photo highlights to blowout land. Not in Radiant Photo, though. Because the software analyzes photos pixel by pixel and understands the scene, it can adjust every area of the image as needed.
There's also a Light Diffusion tool. It makes small changes to your image tone and color that can go a long way toward enhancing your photo.
Another great tool is Color Fidelity. You've probably noticed that adjusting contrast and exposure in other tools can greatly or subtly change color tone. Using Color Fidelity is quite unique. Dial it in, and it will bring out the natural colors of the image. Color Fidelity will also bring back more depth from the original scene.
Split Color Warmth will be a tool familiar to photographers. It's also in Radiant Photo 2 and can separately adjust coolness and warmth, nice for cityscapes or night photography. I use it for fine-tuning at the golden hour.
There are also color grading tools, which most advanced amateurs and pros are familiar with. To go along with this tool are a series of included "looks" to quickly apply a variety of color grades with a click. Once you have selected one, it is tunable to taste. Many photo editing tools include these presets, and Radiant Photo is no exception. Generally, I avoid presets and go my own way, but some photographers love them, and you'll find them here.
There is one preset I found very useful, and that is the sunset look. Generally, applying something like this will destroy an image, rendering it immediately phony to viewers. I think the sunset look in Radiant Photo 2 does a really nice job. Here I've used it before golden hour and still got a nice image. When the colors shift naturally to warm tones, the sunset look still makes natural enhancements.
There are also individual color controls for hue, saturation, and luminance. We find similar tools in Photoshop, Lightroom, Luminar Neo, ON1, and others. They are good to have in Radiant Photo 2, and you will use them.
I used selective color to slightly tune the sky color and also enhance the vegetation without changing any other colors.
Radial filters and gradients are nothing new, but Radiant Photo 2 takes these edit controls up another level. Users can blend, shape, and place center as they wish. For each gradient, you can define two sets of corrections: inside and outside for radial gradients and top and bottom for linear gradients. You don't just control exposure with gradients but also aspects like contrast, saturation, shadows, highlights, etc.
Summing Up
As you could have guessed, I like Radiant Photo 2. You can make similar adjustments with any solid photo editor, but using AI, Radiant Photo 2 recognizes your subject matter and quickly offers you the proper tools you'll want for making adjustments. There's no photo I edited with Radiant Photo 2 that did not get improved, and the process was faster than with any other editor. If you're looking for flashy AI and movie-type special effects, this is NOT that tool. It IS the tool for photographers who want serious editing tools that will give you a great image and simplify your workflow.
What I Liked
- It was reliable, quick, and had a wide variety of useful tools.
- It is quick and responsive except for some sliders (see below).
- Batch editing is a good feature, and you can create and save "looks."
- Editing is non-destructive, making it easy to revisit settings at any time. This allows users to reopen their photos in Radiant Photo 2 at any time and continue editing where they left off.
What Could Be Better
- In the case of some adjustment sliders, there is sometimes a half-second or one-second delay before you see the effect. Hopefully, this will improve in later releases.
- There is not an "open recent" option on the File Menu. That would be very useful.
- I could not open Fuji .RAF files. Radiant Photo 2 simply didn't recognize them.
How to Buy Radiant Photo 2
Radiant Toolkit is an optional membership for $50 per year, which includes free updates, upgrades, and a $15 monthly voucher for the purchase of workflows, Develop Styles, and LOOKs. First-time subscribers receive the first year of Toolkit for free.
Pricing for New Customers
- Radiant Photo 2 standalone application and plug-in: $159 / €169 / £159
- Introductory price: $129 / €139 / £129 until early January 2025
- Add-on Workflows:
- One workflow: $79 / €89 / £79 (Intro price: $69 / €79 / £69)
- All workflows: $349 / €369 / £349 (Intro price: $299 / €329 / £299)
Pricing for Toolkit Members
Radiant Toolkit is an optional membership for $50 per year, which includes free updates, upgrades, and a $15 monthly voucher for the purchase of workflows, Develop Styles, and LOOKs. First-time subscribers receive the first year of Toolkit for free.
- Radiant Photo 2 application and plug-in: free for active Toolkit members
- Add-on Workflows:
- One workflow: $79 / €89 / £79 (Intro price: $69 / €79 / £69)
- All workflows: $190 / €209 / £190 (Intro price: $170 / €189 / £170)
Existing Customers (No Toolkit)
- Upgrade to Radiant Photo 2: $99 / €109 / £99 (Intro price: $89 / €99 / £89)
- Upgrade with all workflows: $329 / €349 / £329 (Intro price: $259 / €279 / £259)
For details and help in navigating the options, you'll want to go to the Radiant Photo website.
Radiant Photo 2 is available with a 30-day free trial, offering access to all features without limitations. Additionally, Radiant Photo provides six months of Buyer Protection, guaranteeing free updates for half a year after purchase. Customers can try Radiant Photo 2 risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
I've tested RP1 but couldn't see any improvements over LR or DxO Elite. Maybe RP2 will do better for me but I can't find a test release. And then the prices. As gready as Capture One if not more.