How to Use Photomator’s AI Features for Faster Photo Editing on Mac

Before the invention of AI-powered tools and features, photo editing was slow, painstaking work.

It required meticulously negotiating sliders for exposure, contrast, brightness, shadows, and highlights, just to perform the most basic adjustments to an image.

Photomator started out life as Pixelmator Photo, utilizing traditional photo editing tools. Using those tools required editors to have good technical knowledge and control to edit images well and produce the desired results.

Fortunately, those days are gone, and we can now utilize powerful algorithms to help us with many editing tasks – the upshot of which means we can work much faster with greater accuracy.

The tools available now can automate complex and time-consuming tasks, often achieving professional results with a single mouse click.

Let’s look at how to utilize Photomator’s AI features for faster photo editing on a Mac.

1. ML Enhance

ML (Machine Learning) Enhance is the one-click automatic adjustment that instantly improves your photographs.

It’s been trained on millions of professionally edited images, so it can analyze and make the best adjustments to the exposure, brightness, white balance, color, and more.

Essentially, this is a powerful tool to help you establish a good base of color correction and exposure on any image that looks underexposed or just a bit dull.

Because it’s as simple as clicking a button, it’s great for anyone who lacks technical knowledge, and it’s sometimes all you need.

The changes you make are non-destructive, meaning you can always undo what you’ve done and revert to the original image at any point.

I like to use ML Enhance as a starting point from which I then fine-tune individual elements manually until I get the exact result I’m looking for.

To use this function, you simply click on the magic wand, and within a few seconds, you’ll have an image that’s brighter and more vibrant, with better contrast and saturation.

2. AI Masking

Next, we have AI Masking. This is a very powerful tool that’s a game-changer when it comes to selecting elements of your photograph (such as the one I selected) and isolating them into new layers for individual editing.

Previously, I would have used a lasso tool to manually create precise selections, but thanks to the AI engine, I can now simply choose to layer the sky or main subject of the image with a single click of a button in a drop-down menu.

Using the Masking Tool

1. Navigate to the levels button (three horizontal lines).
2. Click the “+” to open up a new layer.
3. Next, choose the element from the dropdown menu, such as “Select Sky.”

Once selected, the chosen element can be sent to a new layer. From there, it can be filtered or the levels can be adjusted – all in isolation from the rest of the photo. You can even delete the sky and replace it completely.

This is arguably one of the biggest time-saving AI tools of them all, and when I use it over manual masking, I frequently save myself a lot of time and effort.

3. Denoise

The Denoise function is a machine-learning-powered tool that does a great job of removing digital camera noise associated with JPEG compression. It removes the graininess often produced by digital cameras in low-light conditions and at high ISO settings.

The algorithm in Photomator not only removes noise from an image, but it can also recover details such as color depth and contrast that are inherently lost in noisy photos, especially low-resolution JPEG images.

It can handle multiple noise types, from fine to analog grain, and can even remove synthetic artifacts left behind by other editing and processing software.

Using the Denoise function is simple: navigate to the “more” button (the circle with three dots) and choose “Denoise” from the drop-down list.

Once the algorithm has completed its cycle, you’ll see a split down the center of the screen. This is a “before and after” and allows you to fine-tune the amount of denoising using the on-screen slider.

I like to reduce the “Denoise Intensity” slider to around the 70% mark since subtlety is key, and I’m looking for a balance of human input to AI adjustment.

4. Super Resolution

Super Resolution is a great tool, and can improve images in several situations. It increases the resolution (or upscales) your photos using Machine Learning.

Unlike other conventional scaling algorithms (such as Bicubic Interpolation) that essentially estimate the value of new pixels and add them to the original photo, Super Resolution has been trained on thousands of pieces of data from real images, and it can analyze and compare patterns and textures very effectively.

It adds detail based on the probability it has inferred from its learning, resulting in a highly accurate upscaled image, which is not only larger than the original but also sharper and significantly more detailed.

The SR function is particularly useful if you’re working on heavily cropped images that have lost a lot of their resolution. Likewise, it’s a great tool for rescuing old photographs, allowing you to increase their detail and reprint them much larger.

I have used this tool to preserve old family photos that my grandfather took many years ago, and I’ve been able to give old prints a new lease of life, preserving them digitally at the same time.

• More: Best AI Tools for Enhancing Resolution

5. Smart Deband

Smart Deband is another AI tool that addresses issues arising from JPEG compression.

More specifically, it deals with something called color banding, which is the appearance of distinct bands or strips of color, rather than smooth transitions between colors.

The issue is particularly prevalent in photos with large areas of subtle gradient, such as a clear sky or a smooth, flat background, where the transition across the gradient of a single color, when compressed to the JPEG format, results in strips or bands appearing.

Smart Deband uses machine learning to analyze the image and identify the compression artifacts, transforming the bands into smooth, continuous gradients.

The tool also increases the color depth of the photo to 16 bits per channel, which returns the compressed photo to the equivalent color depth of a RAW image.

Although this in itself doesn’t correct banding, it helps the debanding to work even better by providing a significantly wider range of color information, resulting in even smoother color gradients.

As with the other tools, Smart Deband is performed by a simple click of the mouse, and you can find the option in the same drop-down menu, below the Denoise button.

6. ML Crop

Instead of relying on my own judgment and manually cropping images, I can utilize ML Crop to do it for me.

The algorithm has been trained on all the classic compositional rules (like the Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio), and makes light work of finding the main subject and related focal points without my input.

As with most of the other available tools, the crop function offers that one-click solution for a striking composition as a great starting point that can then be manually fine-tuned to achieve the desired look.

It works seamlessly to create and maintain whatever aspect ratio you’re looking for, too. It really is your intelligent assistant when compared to outdated tools that use fixed overlays.

You will also find the “Auto Straighten” option under the crop button. There’s a one-click option and a slider to manually set the desired angle, should you wish to control this yourself.

7. Match Colors

This is a great tool that enables you to use a reference image to adjust the colors and white balance of your target image. It can automatically match your image to a source you find elsewhere in your own library or on the internet.

It’s a great option for when you have a set of common images (maybe all taken in one location), where one or two don’t have quite the same exposure as the others.

With the Match Colors tool, you can use the best image as your reference and apply its coloring and balance to the others, creating a set of coherent photographs that truly work together.

When you select “Match Colors” from the drop-down, a new “Finder” window opens, allowing you to select the reference image you would like to use. Simply navigate to the image, select it, and then click the “Match Colors” button.

As always, I like to refine after automatic matching, and I tend to manually adjust and tweak some of the individual levels that the AI engine changed as a whole.

8. Repair Tool

The Repair Tool is another great feature that can eliminate tiny flaws like scratches and blemishes from your photographs. Not only that, but it can also be used to remove whole objects from images.

How to Use the Repair Tool to Remove Objects

Removing objects by painting around them with the brush tool is simple.

1. Select the Repair Tool (it’s to the right of the Magic Wand and looks like an adhesive bandage).
2. Use the slider to choose your brush size.
3. Paint around the objects you want to remove.

The algorithm works in real time as you paint. Each time you lift the brush, you create another undo point, so it’s worth painting in small strokes, letting go of the mouse and re-clicking again to continue.

As with all of the tools, they’re non-destructive, which means you have the option to reset your changes at any time.

Pro Tips and Tricks

Now you’ve learned some of the best ways to utilize the AI features in Photomator, let’s look at some pro tips and tricks to enhance your editing skills further.

1. Auto Buttons as Starting Points

The various Auto buttons are great, but don’t leave it all to the AI – make sure you have the final say.

Use these as solid starting points for your editing, and after the auto changes are applied, manually adjust the levels, curves, color balance, etc.

It’s also worth checking each element for its own “auto” button option. Rather than simply hitting the “ML Enhance” button that adjusts multiple levels as a group, try looking for separate buttons that enhance only the white balance, hue, or saturation in isolation.

2. AI Selections

When using the AI selection tool to isolate areas or objects, such as the sky or background, remember that although the ML engine is very good, it’s not always perfect.

After auto-selection, it’s worth using the brush tool or gradient masks to clean up the edges, include or exclude objects, and generally fix anything the AI may have missed.

3. Repair and Clone Tools

If you need to repair an image, it’s best to zoom into the area you’re working on for greater precision. This will ensure that not only are you selecting the precise edges of objects, but the AI understands exactly what to remove and, in turn, what to reference and replace the objects with.

Remember that multiple small strokes are better than one large sweep with the mouse. This not only gives you multiple save and undo points but also gives the AI smaller areas to work on at a time, often resulting in a more seamless edit.

4. Advanced Features

Use Smart Deband to smooth out color gradients on images with large areas of color, such as blue skies. This function is particularly useful with photos that are heavily edited or that have been compressed to JPEG format.

Compression removes a lot of the color gradient information, but with Smart Deband, you can improve the tonal transitions and even return a JPEG to near RAW quality.

ML Super Resolution is great for upscaling small photos for printing. It’s also perfect for enhancing older images. It intelligently increases the resolution without diminishing the detail or sharpness.

• More: What is the Best AI Photo Editing Software?

Final Thoughts

I welcome the introduction and advancement of AI tools to my editing workflow, but I’m also keen to maintain ultimate control and not lose the skills I’ve built up over the years.

AI should be used as an assistant to speed up work and serve as a good starting point for your editing. It should never replace manual skills entirely.