--- title: "Luma AI: Ray, Photon and How to Use Them" description: "Luma AI makes both video and image models, and Ray is the one that writes HDR. Get the builds, costs and prompt tips on the FLORA canvas ✓ Try it free" url: "https://flora.ai/academy/luma" --- ## [FLORA Academy](https://flora.ai/academy.md) Master FLORA. Go beyond the fundamentals to the tools, techniques, models, and workflows behind professional creative work. # Luma AI: Ray, Photon and How to Use Them Luma AI builds two things that matter on a canvas: Ray, a video model that generates in true high dynamic range, and Photon, an image model that costs about two cents a run. Fourteen Luma builds run on FLORA, which is more than any video family except Recraft on the image side. **Want to try it?** Both halves of Luma run on the FLORA canvas, so you can generate a still on Photon for two cents and set it moving on Ray without leaving the board. [Start free on FLORA](https://app.flora.ai/sign-up). ## What is Luma AI? Luma AI is a research company that started in 3D capture and moved into generative video and images. Its video line is called Ray and its image model is called Photon, while Dream Machine is the name of the product you use them in. That three-way naming is why searches for Luma land in slightly different places depending on the words used. Ray is the interesting half. Luma describes Ray3 as a reasoning video model, and more usefully, it is the first to generate in native 16-bit high dynamic range and export as ACES2065-1 EXR. Practically, that means a clip arrives with the color depth a film or advertising pipeline expects, instead of a flattened 8-bit file that fights every grade you apply to it. Nothing else on the FLORA canvas does this. ## Quick facts - **What runs on FLORA:** fourteen builds. Photon on the image side, and Ray 2, Ray 2 Flash, Ray 3.2 and Modify Video on the video side. - **Photon:** text to image, about 35 seconds, about 0.02 US dollars a run. - **Ray 3.2:** text to video, image to video and first and last frame, about 2 minutes. About 0.36 US dollars at 720p and about 1.44 at 1080p, so asking for 1080p costs four times as much. - **Ray 2 Flash:** the quick option, about 60 seconds, about 0.29 US dollars. - **Ray 2:** about 200 seconds, about 0.85 US dollars. - **Modify Video:** video to video editing, about 2.10 US dollars a run. - **Output:** 720p by default and 1080p on request, plus native 16-bit HDR on the Ray line. Resolution is the single biggest cost lever here, so read the next point before you budget. - **Provider:** Luma AI. Proprietary, so there is no self hosted option. ## What it is great for - Work that has to composite with filmed footage, where HDR and a 16-bit EXR save you fighting the grade later. - Cheap image exploration on Photon, where two cents a run makes a hundred attempts affordable. - Editing a clip you already have through Modify Video, which keeps whatever already worked. - Bridging two frames, since the first and last frame mode runs on Ray 2, Ray 2 Flash and Ray 3.2 alike. ## The builds compared Luma gives you more rungs on the ladder than most families, and the cost spread across them is nearly a factor of four. Ray 3.2 is the sensible default: it is both cheaper and faster than Ray 2, which it replaced. | Build | Type | Speed | Cost | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Photon | Image | ~35s | ~$0.02 | | Ray 2 Flash | Video | ~60s | ~$0.29 | | Ray 3.2 | Video | ~120s | ~$0.36 at 720p, ~$1.44 at 1080p | | Ray 2 | Video | ~200s | ~$0.85 | | Ray 3.2 Edit | Video to video | ~180s | ~$1.30 | | Modify Video | Video to video | ~200s | ~$2.10 | ## Editing a clip instead of regenerating it Two of the fourteen builds take a video as their input. Modify Video and Ray 3.2 Edit both change a clip you already have, which is a different proposition from generating a new one and hoping it lands closer. If a take is right apart from the grade, the time of day or one element in the frame, editing keeps everything that already worked. They are the most expensive runs in the family, at about 1.30 US dollars for Ray 3.2 Edit and about 2.10 for Modify Video, so they are worth reaching for once a generation is nearly there. Luma documents video to video at up to 20 seconds, which is longer than most models will generate from scratch. ## Example outputs Luma Photon, the image model. A still, about 35 seconds to generate and about two cents a run. Luma Ray 3.2, the same scene as a clip. 5 seconds at 1920 by 1080, about 2 minutes to generate. The 720p version of this run costs a quarter as much. ### Copy and paste prompts `Wide landscape photograph of a lone tree on a ridge at dawn, layered mist in the valley below, muted palette` `Slow aerial drift over a misty valley at dawn, layered ridges receding into haze, a lone tree on the near ridge` `From the first frame to the last: the mist clears and the light turns from blue to amber` ## Parameters | Name | Type | Default | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | prompt | text | required | Describe the shot and its motion | | image_url | upload | none | Required for image to video | | last_frame | upload | none | For the first and last frame mode | | resolution | select | 720p | 720p by default. 1080p is available and costs about four times as much | | loop | toggle | off | Returns a clip that cuts back to its first frame | ## Prompt tips - Comp on Photon before you spend on Ray. Two cents buys you the composition and the palette, and you can hand the result straight to image to video. - Leave resolution at 720p until the shot is right. Asking for 1080p quadruples the cost of every attempt, so it belongs on the take you keep and not on the ten before it. - Default to Ray 3.2. It is faster and less than half the price, and Ray 2 is the generation it replaced. - Describe how bright and how dark the frame goes, as well as its color. The HDR generation has somewhere to put a blown highlight and a deep shadow in the same shot, which most models do not. - Reach for Modify Video when you have a clip that is nearly right. Regenerating throws away everything that already worked. - Use the first and last frame mode for anything with a clear start and end. It is the most reliable way to control where a shot finishes. ## Running Luma AI in FLORA On the FLORA canvas Photon and Ray sit as separate blocks, which makes the cheap-still-then-video pattern natural. Generate a frame on Photon, approve it, feed it into Ray 3.2, and the clip comes back on the same board. Because Photon costs about two cents, that first step is effectively free compared with the generation that follows it. The techniques cover the surrounding steps. Start from a description with [text to video AI](https://flora.ai/techniques/text-to-video-ai.md), animate an approved still with [image to video AI](https://flora.ai/techniques/image-to-video-ai.md) or the [AI image to video generator](https://flora.ai/techniques/ai-image-to-video-generator.md), and tidy a frame beforehand with the [background remover](https://flora.ai/techniques/background-remover.md) or the [image upscaler](https://flora.ai/techniques/image-upscaler.md). Comparison is a block away, so use it. Put Ray against [Seedance](https://flora.ai/academy/seedance.md) and [Kling](https://flora.ai/academy/kling.md) on motion and [Veo](https://flora.ai/academy/veo.md) on sound, or Photon against [Nano Banana](https://flora.ai/academy/nano-banana.md) and [Flux](https://flora.ai/academy/flux.md) on the image side. Our rankings of the [best AI video generators](https://flora.ai/articles/best-ai-video-generators.md) and the [best AI image generators](https://flora.ai/articles/best-ai-image-generators.md) cover the wider field. ## Luma AI FAQs ### Who makes Luma AI? Luma AI, a research company that began in 3D capture and moved into generative video and images. Ray is its video model line, Photon is its image model, and Dream Machine is the product they run in. ### What is the difference between Ray 2 and Ray 3.2? Ray 3.2 is the newer generation and it is both faster and cheaper, at about 120 seconds and 0.36 US dollars against about 200 seconds and 0.85 for Ray 2. Unless you have a specific reason to stay on Ray 2, Ray 3.2 is the better default. ### What does HDR generation actually give me? A clip with real color depth, where an 8-bit file would have thrown most of it away. Luma's Ray line generates in native 16-bit high dynamic range and can export as ACES2065-1 EXR, which is the format a film or advertising pipeline expects. If your footage has to sit next to filmed material and survive a grade, this is the difference you will feel. ### Does Luma AI generate images as well as video? Yes. Photon is Luma's image model and it runs on the FLORA canvas at about 0.02 US dollars a run, which makes it one of the cheapest ways to explore a composition before committing to a video generation. ### Is Luma AI better than Runway or Seedance? For anything heading into a film or advertising pipeline, the HDR and EXR export is a genuine advantage no other model on the canvas offers. For character consistency Runway Gen-4 is stronger, and for long single takes Seedance is. All of them run on the FLORA canvas, so the fastest answer is to send one prompt to each.