In this in-depth review of Luminar Neo, we’ll take a close look at the application and review the newest technology and tools. This write-up will cover some of the best features of Luminar Neo, as well as things we hope to see added or improved in the future.
What is Luminar Neo?
Luminar Neo is a new AI-driven creative image editor made by Skylum Software. It features several innovative tools that leverage artificial intelligence and 3D depth mapping to make complex editing quick and easy.
It works as a standalone application for macOS and Windows. Luminar Neo can also seamlessly integrate Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Photos for macOS and Microsoft Photos as a plugin and extension to accommodate a wide variety of workflows.
Luminar Neo is designed for all levels of photographers, from beginner to pro, to make creative image editing accessible and fun.
“There is a fine line between the photo you took and the photo you imagined. Often, small details make the difference. In Luminar Neo, we’ve built an editor to help you create the photo you imagined.”
Ivan Kutanin, Skylum CEO
Pros
- Wide variety of powerful AI editing tools
- NEW Portrait Background RemovalAI
- NEW MaskAI
- NEW RelightAI tool with 3D Depth Mapping
- NEW Remove Powerlines tool
- NEW Remove Dust Spots tool
- NEW Luminar Share mobile app
- Ability to use tools multiple times
- Improved performance (compared to LuminarAI)
- Great plugin for Adobe/Photos for macOS
Cons
- Missing key features: Undo/redo, perspective correction, and Clone/Stamp
- Limited Layers Capabilities
- Very basic Catalog module
In the spirit of full disclosure, it is worth noting that I am a former Skylum employee. Even though I’m no longer officially representing the company, I continue to be a champion for their products and an active Luminar Neo user.
Top features in Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo is a powerful creative editor with a full set of editing tools. We’ll take a look at some of the most useful options and features below.
1. Editing tools powered by Artificial Intelligence
Luminar Neo comes with a fantastic array of creative editing tools to help make your creative ideas come to life.
Many of Luminar Neo’s tools were developed to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to make editing fast, easy, and most importantly, effective. These tools execute complex edits with speed and ease while producing exceptional results.
Most of Luminar Neo’s tools can be used globally (meaning they affect all pixels in a photo) or locally (meaning you can apply the edits to specific areas). The AI does a great job of minimizing manual masking, but masking tools are available if you need them.
In addition to AI tools, Luminar Neo also has several basic editing tools to control Exposure, Tone, Contrast, Color, and more.
RelightAI (NEW)
RelightAI lets you independently control the lighting in the foreground and background of your photo. It creates a 3D depth map of your image that allows you to adjust brightness and warmth for near and far objects — no manual masking required. It also has controls that let you set the location of the transition between foreground and background, as well as a Dehalo slider to smooth the transition between light and dark areas.
Overall I found RelightAI to be useful for both creative and problem-solving edits. While it works on a variety of photographic subjects including landscapes, it really shines when editing portraits. Luminar Neo does a great job of recognizing people in photos.
Remove Dust Spots (NEW)
Remove Dust Spots, located in the Erase tool, does exactly what you’d think — it automatically identifies and removes dust spots from photos.
Hopefully, you won’t need to use it on every photo (if you do, it is probably time to clean your lens and/or sensor), but when you need it, Remove Dust Spots is quite nice to have. It is a great timesaver and works quite well!
Remove Power Lines (NEW)
Remove Power Lines, located in the Erase tool, automatically removes power and phone lines from landscape photographs.
This tool is effective when the power lines are up against the sky, but if there are lines in front of architecture, foliage, or other intricate details, the results can be unpredictable. Overall, I found that Remove Power Lines lessened the time I’d spend manually removing power lines, but didn’t eliminate the need for some manual brushwork.
Portrait Background RemovalAI (NEW)
Portrait Background RemovalAI, located under Layer Properties > Masking, automatically removes the background from portrait images with a few clicks. The initial results are usually quite good, but if needed, the foreground and background areas can easily be refined by clicking on the Refinements Brush. Adjust the transition area between foreground and background, and select the object (portrait subject) and background areas to refine the results. I found the Refinements Brush to be highly effective with fine details such as whispy hairs.
The thing I like most about this tool is that I can create a cutout of my subject and save it as a PNG, preserving the transparency. I can open the file as a new layer on another image in Luminar Neo, or use it in other photo editing apps that support transparencies. The possibilities for creative compositing with portraits are endless!
MaskAI (NEW)
MaskAI brings precise AI-powered masking to Luminar Neo. It allows for easy compositing, the ability to precisely apply local adjustments, and facilitates other complex editing tasks. MaskAI detects separate elements in a photo. Currently, this includes people, skies, architecture, transportation, flora, water, mountains, natural ground, and artificial ground, with more elements being added in the future.
Using MaskAI is simple. Choose a Tool and move a slider, then click on Masking > MaskAI. Let the AI work its magic, and choose the element you want to affect. If needed, you can switch to the masking brush to add or remove areas of the AI-created mask.
My experience with MaskAI has been mixed. Sometimes the mask is nearly perfect, other times I have substantial cleanup work to do with the brush. Well-defined elements with good tonal and color contrast are more easily recognized by the AI — which is to be expected. Overall, this is a great addition to my editing workflow and is usually a valuable timesaver.
AtmosphereAI
AtmosphereAI uses 3D depth mapping and content-aware technology to add fog, mist, or haze to the background or foreground of a photo.
It does a beautiful job of adding a touch of depth and mystery to landscape photos.
BodyAI
BodyAI uses human-aware technology to realistically shape a subject’s torso and abdomen. It effectively corrects lens distortion when photographing portraits with wide-angle lenses and can give the appearance of removing or adding weight when needed.
Portrait BokehAI
Portrait BokehAI uses human-aware 3D depth mapping to mimic the look of photographing a portrait with an expensive, large-aperture lens by softening and blurring the background and accentuating the quality of light behind the subject.
In order for Portrait BokehAI to work well, there needs to be depth in the image — meaning physical space between the subject and the background. On the right image, this tool creates beautiful results. However, when the subject is too close to the background (or there is little to no contrast in the background), the effect is not as convincing.
CropAI
CropAI analyzes a photo’s composition and suggests a crop based on the contents. The suggested crop is often an improvement, but I usually tweak the placement of the crop before finalizing the results.
EnhanceAI
EnhanceAI contains two sliders: AccentAI and Sky EnhancerAI. AccentAI is essentially a slider version of an Auto Tone button. Move the slider to the right to improve tone, color, contrast and more using AI analysis. Sky EnhancerAI recognizes the sky and makes blues richer, clouds more defined and can intensify sunrise and sunset colors.
When I’m editing photos in Luminar Neo, EnhanceAI (specifically AccentAI) is usually my first stop. With one slider I can improve the overall tone of my image without having to mess with all of the sliders in the Develop section (but if need them, I can use those, too).
FaceAI
FaceAI is a collection of several artificial intelligence-based tools for retouching portraits. Slim faces, adjust the lighting on faces, make eyes stand out, whiten teeth, and more — no manual masking required.
FaceAI is a dream for portrait photographers. Complex retouching tasks are made simple and the results are stunning.
SkinAI
SkinAI is specifically designed using AI technology for smoothing and retouching a person’s skin. The results are remarkable. Even when moving the slider to higher levels, realistic skin texture is preserved, while lines and blemishes are de-emphasized.
SkyAI
SkyAI is Luminar Neo’s sky replacement tool. It allows you to use one of many included sky textures or you can create and use your own. SkyAI has several sliders that allow for precise placement and blending for a realistic effect.
SkyAI is one of my favorite features in Luminar Neo. A lot of other apps do sky replacement, but in most cases, Luminar Neo does it best!
StructureAI
StructureAI allows you to adjust midtone contrast and clarity. Human-aware and content-aware AI technology applies the effect selectively based on the contents of the photo so that areas that need extra detail get it, and areas that should have less detail are preserved.
StructureAI works exceptionally well and is put to use on almost every photo I process.
2. All New Luminar engine, built for performance
Luminar Neo was rebuilt from the ground up and is designed for speed. According to Skylum, Luminar Neo is significantly faster than LuminarAI for complex editing tasks.
Performance gains will vary based on your computer’s specifications. On my machine (a very well-equipped 2019 MacBook Pro) I didn’t see a noticeable change in performance compared to LuminarAI, but it is worth noting that LuminarAI typically worked smoothly on my machine as well.
3. Mirror photos between desktop and mobile with Luminar Share (NEW)
The Luminar Share mobile app (for Android and iOS) is designed to transfer photos between Luminar Neo and your mobile devices. The app creates a local peer-to-peer connection between your mobile device and computer (no internet required) allowing you to mirror photos from your mobile device’s camera roll to Luminar Neo and share edited photos from Luminar Neo back to your mobile device.
I had a rocky start with Luminar Share, but after some help from the Skylum Support Team, I now have the mobile app up and running.
I was skeptical about Luminar Share’s usefulness and have other fairly simple ways of moving photos between my computer and phone. However, I was delighted to find that Luminar Share saves me a few steps.
With Luminar Share, I don’t have to go searching through my Downloads folder or dig through my Apple Photos library. Also, since the shared photo from my iPhone now resides in Luminar Neo’s Library I can go back and re-edit it anytime — the changes are not baked in.
I’m optimistic that Luminar Share will be far more useful than I initially realized.
4. Use tools multiple times
One of the limitations of LuminarAI was that a tool could only be used once. Luminar Neo solved this problem and now lets you use and add any tool multiple times. This is extremely useful when you want to use a tool at different levels (or in different ways) to accentuate or de-emphasize different areas of a photo. You can also use multiple instances of a tool to create an extreme effect if maxing the slider out isn’t enough of what you’re looking for. Combined with MaskAI and other available masking tools, using a tool multiple times allows for exceptional creative control.
Learn more about using tools multiple times in Luminar Neo.
5. Luminar Neo integrates with Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Photos for macOS, and Photos for Windows
For those who have an established workflow with another asset manager or other image editing tools, Luminar Neo makes an excellent plugin.
Luminar Neo works with Lightroom Classic (from version 6), Photoshop (from version CS5), Photos for macOS, and Photos for Windows.
What’s missing in Luminar Neo?
Luminar Neo is quite powerful but is lacking a few features you may have expected including:
- Clone & Stamp
- Dodge & Burn
- Undo/Redo
- Hotkeys
Limited Layers capability
The implementation of Layers in Luminar Neo is disappointing. They work similarly to textures in LuminarAI’s Local Masking, and as far as I can tell offer no additional functionality. At this time, only image layers can be added. There is no mechanism for creating an adjustment layer or stamped layer.
No improvements to the Catalog
Luminar Neo’s Catalog module is virtually the same as what was available in LuminarAI, with only minor changes to the user interface. Users who were hoping to see additional organization tools such as Stars, Color Labels, Keywords and the ability to edit metadata will be disappointed.
Who is Luminar Neo for?
If you love working with your photos and want to have a wide variety of editing tools at your fingertips, Luminar Neo is for you.
Luminar Neo is a good fit for:
- Enthusiast and pro photographers who want editing tools that perform complex tasks with ease.
- Portrait photographers who want retouching tools that save time and produce amazing results.
- Landscape photographers who want a wide array of creative tools at their fingertips.
Luminar Neo may not be a good fit for:
- Photographers who want quick edits and prefer to be behind the camera, instead of the computer.
- Photographers looking for a Lightroom replacement
Luminar Neo pricing
Luminar Neo users can choose between a 1-year subscription or a lifetime license of Luminar Neo. Pricing is based on “seats” which represent how many computers you can have Luminar Neo installed on. You can save 10% with the code PHOTOFOCUS.
1-year subscription
$59 for 1 seat or $79 for 2 seats. Subscribers get the added benefit of receiving all future updates and new feature add-ons.
Lifetime license
$79 for 1 seat or $99 for 2 seats
Luminar Neo comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t love it, you can request a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.
Luminar Neo — AI photo editing to boost your creativity
Luminar Neo’s advanced AI technology-driven tools make it an innovative solution for photographers who want to do intricate editing without complexity. It offers flexible options that can fit a variety of photographic workflows.
Luminar Neo is designed for all levels of photographers, from beginner to pro, to make creative image editing accessible and fun. The overall toolset is useful and enjoyable to use. It will be fascinating to see how this software evolves over time.
Create the photos you imagined, with Luminar Neo
Your photos are precious. That’s why Luminar Neo puts them in the spotlight. Check out the latest in AI photo editing, with tools to make your workflow faster and allowing you to bring your unique ideas to life!
From my perspective, unless I am missing something, who has used L18 but chose not to upgrade until purchasing NEO but have viewed all the youtube tutorials I can can find I am not sure whether to bother even re-installing the software. First issue was with the Library which does not offer an option to have my Explorer structure of Windows 10 but just offers choices that really are not beneficial, particularly capture date which is default. It also for some reason found over twice as many images than is available on the HDD. Second issue is that when trying… Read more »
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Murray. Compared to Luminar 2018, there are a lot of new and improved tools to work with in Neo. For that reason alone, I’d install Neo and give it a try. With regard to the Library, I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying about not being able to see your folder structure. Neo lets you add any folder, and if that folder has sub-folders, you can see/browse those in the Library. I know drag and drop is a feature that has been requested for a long time. I’m not sure if/when it… Read more »
I have found Luminar Neo to be a disappointment, it is less functional than Luminar 4, Layers are just another name for effects, the only difference is effects don’t offer masking or layer blend modes, I rarely use effects. It is not even close to Photoshop or Affinity Photo for that matter. As far as for professional photographers, I don’t think so. Why don’t they add proper adjustment layers. Like Luminar 4 had. Then it may be considered a genuine rival for it’s competition. It is Luminar AI V2. Bottom line. Hype for hypes sake.
I share your disappointment in the implementation of Layers, Phil. From what I’ve heard, improvements are coming in a future update. For now, though, they aren’t very useful.
For portrait photographers, ability to open closed eyes, move eyes left to right and full sizing, face move left to right and up and down and “natural” skin tone abilities would be very helpful for post photo. Further ability to readjust facial areas such as nose, chin, lips and cheek and jaw would also be very helpful. Natural eye color is important.
Great suggestions, Mel! Be sure to send your feature requests to [email protected] so the team can log them for consideration.
Something that motivated me to ask for be refunded: Luminar has been reinvented… Again, but, in addition, removing some fundamental tools I was used to take advantage of for my working process. I am talking about the ability to move to the next picture while editing another picture, for instance. Or dodge and burn, perspective editing, batch processing just to mention some. It looks that Skylum politics, at the moment is to remove two old features for each new feature added. Most important, the program is frightening slow on the same hardware where luminar AI was used to (litterally) fly.… Read more »
The company has always been about glitz at the expense of fundamentals. Take masking, in Luminar. Luminosity masking is great as is gradient mask. But there is no intelligent masking. You want to mask a square house? You have to paint the mask, very carefully.
Now Neo features … less. Only option is to paint the mask. (And in my first try, it gets painted in the wrong place.
Now Neo features … fewer layer features (no adjustment layers).
I agree the lack of masking features is a big problem. According to Skylum, Gradient and Radial masks will be coming in v1.1 and there was talk some time back about bringing back luminosity masking, but I’m not sure where that stands. That is something I always missed in Luminar AI as well. On the brighter side, Mask AI should be coming out in an upcoming update. I look forward to putting it through its paces and will update this article when I’ve had a chance to try it.
From personal results in pre- and post-release testing (as reported to Skylum) it would be wise to lower one’s expectations of some new functionality at this point.. The dust spot removal tool only recognizes sensor dust – lens dust & scratches are not recognized or mitigated. With the sample photograph above, live demonstration on other platforms does not yield the quality results as shown without additional manipulation. . The power line removal tool yields inconsistent results at best – even with power lines against clear sky. The tool suffers the same limitations as the clone tool (underlying all erase operations)… Read more »
Also missing: adjustment layers. Each layer must have an image on it.
After having used Neo for a couple of days, I like some of the new AI capabilities but overall consider a DOWNGRADE from Luminar 4.
Great summary, thanks. I have to say I am hugely disappointed with this inaugural release of Neo. It feels like half a product to me. After massively promoting Neo over the last 4-5 months, I was expecting, at the very least, Ai ‘Plus’. What we got was Ai ‘Lite’ with one or two fancy filters, such as power lines and dust spots. Probably harsh, but honestly, with the number of times I inadvertently snap a scene with power lines, I think I’ll stick with Ai for now. No adjustment layers No conversion of custom template to Neo? No 3D feature… Read more »
Hi Harry – I’m glad you found the summary useful. I can say that conversion for Luminar AI Templates is coming, as is a catalog migration tool. The functionality of Augmented Sky is doable now using the limited Layers functionality. It just doesn’t include the built-in objects that Luminar AI did. However, if you have any objects in PNG format with a transparent background, you can add them via Layers. The Optics tool is buried in the Develop/Develop RAW tool. Tutorials and a user manual are in-process. For the rest, we’ll need to wait and see. Neo has potential, but… Read more »
Hi Harry – I just tested using Layers to do the job of Augmented Sky AI and discovered that it does NOT support transparent PNGs at this time. Word is, that functionality is coming in the future, but no ETA. Sorry for the misinformation!
Thanks for you replies Angela. I don’t know about you, but I feel distinctly short changed by Neo, especially after the ‘volume 11’ pre-launch promotions. It feels like Neo fell way behind any development schedule Skylum may have been operating under and they just decided it was better to launch something, rather than nothing. Big mistake, in my view. They should have come clean, delayed the launch by a year and offered refunds, if necessary. My guess is that most people would have left their money in and waited for the ‘full’ product. As it is, Skylum have really messed… Read more »
I miss the before/after slider, too. I agree Luminar Neo has a ways to go in order to live up to the promos. I think it’ll get there, but I get why people may be disappointed with the launch.
I enjoy the fact that Luminar software is continuously enhancing their AI features, as their performance and quality is always improving. I don’t have any issues running this software. However, in my opinion, it would be a better customer experience if they released a product with all the key features necessary. For example, everyone expects histograms in a release, especially when they’ve had them before. And that makes users begin to notice all the little things missing instead of appreciating the great additions to the software. Keep adding, and don’t take away, and this software will find itself growing its… Read more »
100% agree, Andy!
When I opened a raw file in Neo I straightaway found there was no way to correct lens distortion. First step in my workflow and already the software had fallen flat on its face.For goodness sake, when are Skylum going to get it right? The only things I find Luminar useful for are the sky replacement and the sunrays tools.
In previous versions one could add birds and rocket and moon etc. Where is that on Neo?
You can use the Layers tool to add objects to your image. The tool as it existed in Luminar AI is not present in Luminar Neo, but Layers opens up quite a bit more in terms of possibilities.
There is batch processing in Luminar AI and NEO. In the french version, it’s under IMAGE and then ADJUSTMENTS. The option is there.
Daniel, at the time of publication, batch processing and copy/paste adjustments was not a part of Luminar Neo. It’s always been in Luminar AI, however.
I am a novice, by far! I am not looking for a product to do the workload of a paid photographer. But all my Luminar Neo photos now say they are “not connected” showing a triangle with an exclamation point. One cannot edit or even view the photos in this state, and there appears to be no easy or intuitive way to reconnect the photos to the files? I’ve looked everywhere, contacted support, the Luminar Community chat appears to be non functioning/missing as well. My only option has been to download a gigantic Mac guide which I’m praying will shed… Read more »
Hi Jessica – I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with your Luminar Neo library! It sounds like your Luminar library has become disconnected from where your photos are located in your file system. You may have moved them or possibly they are stored on a hard drive that is not currently connected. You’ll need to locate the folder of images on your hard drive and then tell Luminar Neo where to find them. This article should help: https://manual.skylum.com/neo/en/topic/reconnecting-lost-edits
I am still pretty new at all this, but I would like to know why and how to stop every time I open up Luminar Neo or do an adjustment, the photos are saved in my photo album on my computer? I have to go back on my computer photo file and delete tons of duplicates. Very frustating.