Holiday shopping, like many things in 2020, is more complicated than in the previous years. One major consideration people need to account for before buying a physical gift, for example, is if that gift will arrive at its destination on time as much of the delivery and shipping infrastructure across the country is overwhelmed by heightened demand caused by COVID-19. If meeting a certain shipping date is impossible on your end, then you may want to consider gifting something digital this year. In doing so, you'll have the peace of mind that your gift will arrive in time for the holidays -- and you won't have to pay an exorbitant shipping fee on top of the cost of the gift. So, here's a roundup of nine stellar gifts that don't need shipping and make it possible to deliver some holiday cheer digitally this year.

There is no doubt that camera features are getting better and better at a crazy pace. But the thing I am most excited for is not on a camera, it is in post-processing: artificial intelligence. Photoshop is an incredibly powerful program, no doubt, and it has been moving toward higher levels of automation in recent years, but for the most part, more intricate procedures still require mostly manual control and thus, fair amounts of time investment. I certainly do not mind that sort of investment for passion projects, but on the other hand, for purely work-related projects, I have always been ready to embrace whatever levels of automation that could be found. Such automation has been around for a while, but it has not been until the last few years that it has made major steps forward, and now, I think we are on the cusp of an AI-powered revolution.

Skylum has released the latest version of the Luminar photo editor, and in addition to the expected performance enhancements and minor updates, Luminar 4.2 boasts a new feature called "AI Augmented Sky" that makes creating surreal photo composites the work of a few seconds. As the name suggests, AI Augmented Sky takes advantage of computer vision and machine learning technology to help you composite elements into the sky in your photos. Skylum claims that the feature will work seamlessly, even if your photo has "complex backgrounds" like trees or buildings, and there's "no need to involve masking or layers" to get the job done. Finally, the feature doesn't HAVE to be used to create surreal composites. More subtle edits are also possible, like moving the moon to a more "pleasing" position in the sky, or adding in some clouds without fully replacing the sky.

We are living in an exciting time, where software and machine learning are rapidly changing the way we approach work. For some industries, artificial intelligence will destroy job opportunities, but for other industries, it will revolutionize productivity. How will photography and the retouching world fare as editing software begins using this exciting technology? Here at Fstoppers, we are constantly testing and exploring the latest and greatest photo-editing software for photographers. Last week, Skylum released a new software suite called Luminar 4, which helps photographers automate their post-production workflow.

On November 18, 2019, Skylum will release Luminar 4, the AI photo editing tool for anyone who makes pictures. At PhotoPlus in New York, I talked with Dima Sytnik, chief product officer and co-founder of Skylum about the new artificial intelligence tools in Luminar 4. We're working with engineers to bring you the best technologies possible to make your photo editing workflow flow easier and faster than ever. The new technological advances in Luminar 4 is our new AI engine. We call it Artificial Intelligent Engine Skylum 2.0 and we have 4 AI-powered filters in Luminar 4, which is very unique to the market. So, photographers now can achieve the results much faster and much easier than before, but the quality is very high.

BELLEVUE, WA – September 17, 2019 -- Today, Skylum has announced two major new features coming to Luminar 4, set to be released this fall. AI Skin Enhancer and Portrait Enhancer will enable photographers to further develop and improve their portraits. These tools use machine learning to speed up the process, but contain detailed controls for even the most demanding photo editor. Previously, photographers would have to spend time selectively editing their photographs, manually adjusting various tools through selections and masking. With Luminar 4, these tedious tools are a thing of the past.

After AI Sky Replacement and AI Structure there is more artificial intelligence to be featured in the upcoming Skylum Luminar 4 (learn more): AI-powered portrait and skin enhancements. Portrait Enhancer is a collection of tools that help improve the photo of any person in a natural, yet pleasing way. These tools are brand new to Luminar 4 making it now possible to highlight and improve primary features of a person's face. Thanks to the AI technology, faces and skin are automatically detected throughout a photo. AI Skin Enhancer allows photographers to automatically remove various skin imperfections like acne, freckles and moles, in addition to smoothing the skin.

The upcoming Skylum Luminar 4 seems to become a pretty powerful photo editing software. After unveiling a preview of the AI Sky Replacement feature, Skylum teases another Luminar 4 feature powered by artificial intelligence algorithms, AI Structure. The 1 minute video below introduces the feature. The actual version, Luminar 3, can be purchased with an exclusive $10 discount by using code WATCH at checkout. Boosting details with traditional Clarity and Structure tools often make parts of a photo look horrible.