This Luminar Neo evaluation will cowl Skylum’s newest photograph enhancing software program which is offered for Mac and Home windows.
With its headline AI-powered instruments and straightforward to make use of interface, Luminar Neo has been the 12 months’s most eagerly anticipated launch – however does it reside as much as its hype?
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There’s nonetheless loads of confusion surrounding the function overlap of Luminar Neo with Luminar AI, launched solely a 12 months earlier.
With the newest model, Neo presents a stable set of options that helps it step forward of its predecessor, however continues to be lacking performance to make it fully redundant.
Except for all its flashy AI options, will photographers genuinely discover Luminar Neo a helpful enhancing app, or is it destined to be a transient gimmick for the Instagram era?
On this evaluation, I reply all the most typical questions that will help you resolve whether or not you can purchase Luminar Neo in 2022.
All info is predicated on Luminar Neo v1.0.6 launched on Might 12, 2022.
What’s Luminar Neo?
- Reasonably priced one-time worth
- Simple and enjoyable to make use of
- Efficient one-click presets
- Spectacular AI instruments
- Wonderful portrait enhancers
- Quick RAW picture imports
- Promising layer-based workflow
- Particularly helpful as a Lightroom Plugin
- Gradual to reply (initially)
- Restricted photograph administration options
- Restricted print and export choices
- Disappointing cell app
- Lack of processing indicator
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Luminar Neo is a robust picture editor for Mac and Home windows, powered by AI applied sciences that may simplify advanced photograph enhancing duties, making them quick and enjoyable.
Headline AI options embody the ‘god-like’ capacity to relight a scene, exchange the sky, take away powerlines and dirt spots, and carry out numerous jaw-dropping portrait enhancements in simply a few mouse clicks.
The primary attraction of Luminar Neo is the chance for an entire novice to hold out immensely advanced photograph enhancing duties with a few clicks. It’s additionally helpful for extra skilled photographers who need to save time or experiment with their picture enhancing.
Along with this synthetic intelligence wizardry, Luminar Neo gives a stable collection of core enhancing instruments which rival different common picture editors.
Quite a few Presets are provided, (with extra out there to obtain/purchase), which apply immediate photograph results to pictures to change their look – AI recognises the picture and suggests appropriate ‘For This Photograph’ Presets to avoid wasting time.
Luminar Neo pairs up with Luminar Share, a fundamental cell app for iPhone and Android gadgets that lets you wirelessly switch your smartphone photos to be edited within the desktop Neo software program, or vice versa to be shared in your favorite social media community.
You can even set up Neo as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom Traditional, permitting it to load from inside their respective interfaces.
That is useful if you wish to maintain utilizing the DAM functionalities of your current LRC catalogue, whereas benefiting from the AI instruments in Neo, for instance.
Luminar Neo Evaluation (Up to date for Might 2022)
Skylum launched Luminar Neo in February 2022 with the intention of offering frequent updates.
This Luminar Neo evaluation is predicated on the newest model 1.0.6, which was launched on Might 12, 2022, with Masks AI, Histogram and bug fixes.
1. Set up & Setup
After downloading and launching the Luminar Neo installer, you’re given the choice to put in Neo as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom Traditional (when you’re already an Adobe person).
Unusually sufficient, you’re not in a position to set up third-party plugins in Luminar Neo (reminiscent of Topaz Gigapixel, for enlargements) – one thing you have been in a position to do with Luminar AI. Hopefully, we’ll see this in a future replace.
This system takes up 2.84GB of area on my Mac’s arduous drive, which appears common when in comparison with different photograph editors.
When the set up is full and also you’ve created a Skylum account, you’re proven a QR code which installs the companion cell app Luminar Share.
2. Importing & Searching Photos
Getting photos into Neo is straightforward and quick.
Getting pictures into Luminar Neo is useless easy and a refreshing expertise for anybody who’s ever tried utilizing Lightroom for the primary time.
Clicking the Add Images button does precisely that – you select a folder or collection of pictures in your arduous drive, click on Add, after which every part all of the sudden seems in your Luminar catalogue.
Images are added impressively shortly on my 2021 MacBook M1 (32GB RAM) – testing on my spouse’s 2020 Macboom Air with 16GB of RAM was additionally equally quick.
It’s essential to notice that pictures aren’t actually ‘imported’ into Luminar Neo – they’re truly being ‘referenced’ of their authentic location, very similar to a file browser. This has sure distinct benefits and downsides.
The primary caveat to this file browser expertise is that the pictures must exist someplace outdoors Neo, or they seem as ‘lacking’.
Which means you’re unable to import photos to Neo out of your digicam’s reminiscence card except: a) you’re prepared to maintain the cardboard within the card reader till you’re completed with the photographs, or b) you switch the photographs to your arduous drive first, then add the pictures to Neo from that new location.
Confused? Mainly, when your pictures are moved or deleted in your arduous drive (exterior to Luminar Neo), the identical factor occurs inside Neo.
If, nonetheless, you delete a picture from inside Luminar Neo, it’s added to a ‘Luminar Trash’, with the unique picture remaining intact outdoors of Neo.
Software program reminiscent of Lightroom, nonetheless, employs an precise picture importing course of which creates a replica model of the file inside a separate catalogue, that means any exterior modifications received’t have an effect on the catalogued picture.
For a lot of photographers, Luminar Neo’s file browser method to file administration will likely be a breath of recent air – there’s near zero wait time for pictures to look within the software program, able to be edited.
Nonetheless, for skilled photographers who want a direct option to get photos off their SD card into enhancing software program, Luminar Neo isn’t an acceptable alternative.
It’s additionally value noting which you could add pictures from exterior arduous drives and even network-attached storage (NAS), however as quickly as you detach the gadgets, Neo will not be capable of present them.
3. Photograph Organisation
Organisation choices auto populate relying in your actions.
Ignoring the restrictions on importing from non-permanent gadgets/areas, it’s a must to admire the simplicity of photograph administration in Luminar Neo.
On the left of the display screen, the ‘Catalog’ module consists of 5 areas which auto-update primarily based in your actions:
- All Images
- Single Picture Edits
- Not too long ago Added
- Not too long ago Edited
- Trash
Hovering over every title reveals the variety of photos in every case, and ‘Not too long ago Added’ and ‘Not too long ago Edited’ supply drop downs which reveal the dates the actions have been carried out.
Underneath this, the ‘Folders’ stage homes any folder out of your arduous drive that you simply add to Luminar Neo.
Lastly, there are the ‘Albums’, which behave equally to Lightroom Collections, permitting you to compile collections of varied photos that exist already in your Neo catalogue.
You may add a number of pictures to an album or create a brand new one by deciding on all of them and right-clicking to disclose the choices. Oddly, you possibly can’t drag and drop the pictures into the Albums panel to create new albums.
4. Catalog Interface
Proper-clicking on pictures reveals numerous choices.
Luminar Neo Catalog’s single photograph view reveals a filmstrip beneath – right-clicking pictures within the single view or inside the movie strip reveals numerous choices:
- Set Flag
- Changes
- Export
- Share
- Open In
- Go To
- Create Album
- Transfer to Luminar Trash
- Present in Finder
Except for the self-explanatory, ‘Set Flag’ lets you Favorite, Reject or Unmark, utilizing the identical shortcut keys as Lightroom, and ‘Changes’ help you Sync, Copy or Paste any picture edits made throughout different pictures.
‘Open In’ lets you open the photograph in numerous apps you could already personal: Photoshop, Lightroom, Images, Components and Aurora HDR.
There’s additionally a coronary heart icon to favorite, an ‘X’ to reject and a watch icon which reveals a earlier than (unedited) model of your picture, though I nonetheless desire the implementation of the Earlier than/After instrument in Luminar AI.
One slight annoyance is the frustratingly slim facet scroll bar, which solely comes into partial view while you transfer your mouse’s scroll wheel.
5. Presets Interface
The software program intelligently recognises the photograph accommodates a lady’s face and recommends portrait presets to go well with.
Subsequent to the ‘Catalog’ module is ‘Presets’ – clicking this reveals a collection of thumbnails with considerably ambiguous titles, like ‘Experimental’ and ‘Influencer’.
These presets have been the headline function of Luminar AI (named ‘Templates’), promising to avoid wasting hours of fiddling round with sliders to realize the specified look.
The ‘For This Photograph’ presets are your first style of synthetic intelligence coming to your rescue in Luminar Neo, predicting the one-click ‘look’ that might greatest complement your photograph, primarily based on its perceived contents.
In follow, in case your photograph accommodates an individual, ‘For This Photograph’ will present presets greatest fitted to portrait images. If the photograph is of a panorama, the AI suggestion will likely be presets reminiscent of ‘Surroundings’, ‘Sunsets’ or ‘Simple Landscapes.’
Clicking into every foremost preset class reveals numerous extra related presets, and so begins the testing course of.
Clicking a preset title reveals different related presets.
Relatively than complicating the method of photograph enhancing, the Luminar Neo Presets panel appears to have been designed to encourage experimentation – ‘Influencer’, ‘Cozy Den’ and ‘Winter Refuge’ imply nothing till they’re clicked.
Don’t just like the impact? Merely click on the arrow to return to the unique, or click on the guts icon so as to add it to your favorite presets.
Bizarrely, there’s no choice to fine-tune the presets in Luminar Neo like there was in Luminar AI – you both apply the preset in its entirety…. otherwise you don’t.
Having the ability to ‘again off’ the results of a preset can be a welcome function, so hopefully we see this added to Neo in a future replace.
6. Edit Interface
The ‘Edit’ module homes all of the handbook and automatic enhancing instruments of Luminar Neo. In its ‘Instruments’ panel, you’ve received the next:
Necessities
- Develop
- Improve AI
- Erase
- Construction AI
- Coloration
- Black & White
- Particulars
- Denoise
- Panorama
- Vignette
Artistic
- Relight AI
- Sky AI
- Environment AI
- Sunrays
- Dramatic
- Temper
- Tonight
- Matte
- Mystical
- Glow
- Movie Grain
Portrait
- Portrait Bokeh AI
- Face AI
- Pores and skin AI
- Physique AI
- Excessive Key
Skilled
- Supercontrast
- Coloration Concord
When clicked, every of the instruments reveals a number of sliders and sub-menus.
Something with a slider invitations you to experiment, with the partially hidden sub-menus containing choices for while you’re extra comfy with the essential performance of every instrument.
These coming from extra professional-photographer-orientated photograph enhancing software program might poopoo the considerably hodgepodge organisation of the instruments, however when you’re new to photograph enhancing, the format is user-friendly and shortly turns into acquainted,
Something with ‘AI’ after its title denotes one thing with a really particular social gathering trick – extra on these later.
Subsequent to ‘Instruments’ is the ‘Edits’ panel, which is sort of like Lightroom’s Historical past instrument, conserving observe of every edit you’ve made to the picture.
You’re additionally introduced with one other eye icon for a earlier than/after, a revert arrow to undo every particular edit, and a pen icon, which lets you make native changes like creating masks so as to add/take away results.
One factor I discovered relatively complicated was the truth that any preset you apply to your picture will likely be proven within the ‘Edits’ panel, damaged up as particular person steps of the edit.
e.g. the ‘Nighthawks’ black and white Preset applies ‘Black & White’, ‘Particulars’, ‘Improve AI’, ‘Construction AI’, ‘Face AI’, ‘Denoise and Develop’ – I assume this will change barely relying on the contents of the photograph.
Presets might be seen within the Edits panel as particular person edits.
Whereas this permits for some granular management over the preset, it’s troublesome to inform what variations the person edits truly made to your picture – selecting to regulate every one appears like a stab in the dead of night.
You’ll additionally discover ‘Layers’ on the left of the ‘Edit’ module – clicking the + icon reveals a collection of overlays which you’ll be able to add to your picture to provide numerous results: ‘Flares’, ‘Mild Leaks’, ‘Sparklers’ and ‘Stardust Bokeh’.
You can even load any picture out of your arduous drive to make use of as a layer for a double publicity impact. Any layer’s opacity and mixing mode might be altered to realize your required look.
These hoping for a real layer-based enhancing expertise akin to Photoshop or ON1 Photograph RAW will likely be disenchanted, but when all you need is an easy option to experiment together with your pictures, Neo comes up with the products.
7. Customary Modifying Instruments
Clicking instruments reveals numerous choices for full handbook management over enhancing.
For photographers who prefer to take a handbook method to their photograph enhancing, the Develop panel is the place all of it begins – ‘Publicity’, ‘Highlights’ and ‘Shadows’ are acquainted, whereas ‘Sensible Distinction’ is exclusive to Luminar, controlling each highlights and shadows in tandem to offer your picture a pleasant increase.
Underneath that, ‘Blacks & Whites’, ‘Curves’, ‘Sharpness’, ‘Noise Discount’ and ‘Remodel’ are self-explanatory, whereas ‘Coloration’ refers to temperature and white steadiness, and ‘Optics’ fixes lens distortion and vignetting.
(Based on a Skylum rep who talked to PCMag, Luminar Neo features a database of lens and digicam profiles which might be used behind the scenes for these numerous optical corrections. For something that doesn’t exist within the database, it makes use of basic algorithms.)
Underneath the ‘Develop’ panel, there’s a combination of AI-powered instruments and extra acquainted commonplace ones reminiscent of ‘Vignette’ and ‘Particulars’.
Confusingly, ‘Coloration’ exists right here too however offers with ‘Saturation’, ‘Vibrance’ and the removing of color casts.
‘Erase’ accommodates two of Luminar Neo’s newest instruments inside its drop-down: ‘Take away Powerlines’ and ‘Take away Mud Spots’, each of which work much like Photoshop’s content-aware spot therapeutic instrument, albeit however with no extra clicks.
Additionally of observe is the ‘Panorama’ instrument, which lets you dehaze a photograph, add the phantasm of a photograph taken at golden hour and even improve the foliage in a scene.
The explanatory labelling of instruments is Skylum try to make the photograph enhancing course of extra accessible to the common individual. Whereas in Lightroom, you’d must twiddle with color temperature, readability and numerous different instruments to get a golden hour impact, in Luminar Neo, you may get the identical lead to a single click on.
The ‘Artistic’ panel homes instruments that you actually need to experiment with to know their impact, regardless of explanatory names reminiscent of ‘Dramatic’, ‘Temper’ and ‘Mystical’.
My favorite is the ‘Sunrays’ instrument, which nonetheless blows my thoughts regardless of being a number of years outdated. The power to position a practical solar in your picture, and have the solar’s rays wrap round or poke by means of objects as if all the scene have been three dimensional is just unbelievable.
Numerous choices finetune the look of the solar rays.
The ‘after’ picture above is simply from making use of the default sunrays settings – from right here, you should utilize numerous different sliders to fine-tune the look to your choice – see screenshot above which reveals the choices.
The ‘Portrait’ panel accommodates largely AI instruments, and at last, the ‘Skilled’ panel, which homes ‘Supercontrast’ and ‘Coloration Concord’.
‘Supercontrast’ lets you alter the highlights, midtones and shadows distinction individually, then use steadiness sliders to fine-tune the adjustment.
‘Coloration Concord’ offers with ‘Brilliance’ and ‘Heat’, which appear much like ‘Saturation’ and ‘Coloration Temperature’ discovered elsewhere within the panel.
Underneath this, you’ve received ‘Coloration Distinction’, ‘Cut up Coloration Heat’ and ‘Coloration Steadiness’, which lets you individually alter the colors within the shadows, midtones or highlights.
8. AI Modifying Instruments
Sensible portrait manipulation is nicely inside the grasp of anybody. Picture: Maria Lysenko
OK, so that is the place all of the enjoyable begins.
For those who’ve learn some other Lumnar Neo evaluation, you’ve little doubt already been bombarded by photos of skies being changed and faces slimmed – it’s straightforward to develop into desensitized by simply how extremely easy and sensible advanced photograph manipulation has develop into.
In a nutshell, Luminar Neo provides a set of non-destructive RAW enhancing instruments powered by synthetic intelligence that allows you to perform advanced enhancing duties in simply a few clicks.
Whereas a number of of Luminar Neo’s much-touted AI enhancing instruments are literally out there in some kind or one other in Photoshop and elsewhere, the way in which they’re introduced in Neo is far more user-friendly.
Right here’s the present collection of AI instruments, in addition to a pair we’re eagerly awaiting:
- Masks AI
- Portrait Background Remover AI (Coming quickly)
- Crop AI
- Improve AI
- Construction AI
- Relight AI
- Sky AI
- Environment AI
- Portrait Bokeh AI
- Face AI
- Pores and skin AI
- Physique AI
I’ve examined all of the out there instruments and may affirm that they work exceptionally nicely within the majority of circumstances.
As an expert photographer with over 10 years of expertise enhancing pictures, I’ve no need for sure AI instruments provided by Luminar Neo.
I can obtain related outcomes to ‘Crop AI’, ‘Improve AI’ and ‘Construction AI’ manually by utilizing instruments present in the usual adjustment panels.
Issues like including sensible bokeh to a picture, eradicating a background or relighting a scene (controlling foreground and background brightness), I can undoubtedly deal with, however it takes appreciable time to do correctly.
Nonetheless, I draw the road at changing a whole sky, altering the form of a topic’s physique or performing delicate facial retouching. That is the realm of an expert retoucher with years of expertise.
With Luminar Neo, you possibly can obtain all of the above in a few clicks – typically, with only one click on, like within the instance of the Eiffel Tower beneath.
I might present you earlier than and after photos of the results of those AI instruments, however to be trustworthy, they’re all greatest illustrated proper right here on the Luminar homepage – you possibly can even click on and work together with a number of the instruments in real-time.
Out of all of the AI-powered instruments, Sky AI continues to be my favorite and most spectacular. Whether or not your photograph is a pure panorama or an city scene with individuals and buildings, Neo does a jaw-dropping job of swapping out the sky and relighting the scene to go well with.
100% zoom highlights the fragile masking of recent sky by means of the tower.
Even when your authentic photograph is a cloudless scene at noon, you can also make it appear like a sundown shot in a few seconds.
You may see within the screenshot above the unbelievable stage of element retained by the Sky AI instrument – each hole within the Eiffel Tower reveals the substitute sky by means of it! Cloning and masking one thing like this in Photoshop would take hours and a really expert hand.
I’m additionally impressed with the Portrait enhancement instruments which might carry out edits to faces and our bodies that might rival even the most effective skilled retouchers.
I can see the portrait manipulating options being helpful for shortly enhancing selfies to be shared on social media – issues like whitening tooth, smoothing pores and skin and even altering eye color might be achieved in a few seconds with Luminar Neo.
Except for the flexibility to slim faces, darken lips and whiten tooth, by far essentially the most helpful software in my view is the flexibility to regulate the face gentle even in pictures of a number of individuals – that is extremely useful for me when enhancing household teams, with the software program controlling the brightness of every face within the photograph.
You may see within the ‘After’ picture above how the software program makes use of synthetic intelligence to recognise every of the themes’ faces for me to manually add the Face Mild function with the slider.
(For those who look carefully, you’ll discover the second woman’s face is unaffected by the instrument, presumably as a result of the Face Mild instrument has introduced the publicity up on the opposite ladies’ faces to match hers.)
One other useful gizmo which is unique to Luminar Neo is the Portrait Bokeh AI function, which utilizing AI to recognise the topic(s) in your photograph, separating them from the background so a fake-bokeh might be utilized (blurring the background).
Portrait Bokeh AI lets you management the background individually from the foreground to introduce a faux bokeh impact which might be manually adjusted utilizing a masks (proven in crimson).
Portrait Bokeh AI is helpful for photographers who don’t personal costly ‘quick’ lenses, or when photographing teams reminiscent of within the instance above, the place utilizing a big aperture would usually render a number of the topics out of focus.
One other key function of the newest Luminar Neo launch is the long-anticipated Masks AI, which makes use of a neural community to detect as much as 9 separate parts in a photograph: individuals, skies, structure, transportation, water, flora, mountains, pure floor, and synthetic floor.
In different enhancing software program, masking entails a tedious strategy of manually ‘portray’ areas with a masking brush. That is not mandatory in Luminar Neo, with the Masks AI doing all of it for you mechanically… though with blended outcomes.
In follow, I discovered that the instrument did a blended job of figuring out parts in a photograph – as you possibly can see within the screenshot beneath, it appropriately recognised a human, sky, flora and mountains, however incorrectly noticed structure and man-made floor.
Clicking every of the weather to view the masks revealed additional inconsistencies – whereas the topic and sky have been spot on, the opposite parts weren’t so correct.
That is the place the handbook instruments are available in, with the brand new Gradient and Radial masks used at the side of the common brush permitting you to fine-tune every part.
AI Masks appropriately identifies some parts in photograph.
I just like the path Masks AI is taking the software program, however admit that there’s nonetheless some option to come. It does a good job when the photograph accommodates very distinct parts, however after all, this isn’t at all times the case with images.
One good function of Masks AI is the flexibility to repeat and paste changes to subsequent photos, with masks making use of changes solely to the identical masked areas – i.e. it intelligently recognises the identical factor in every photograph.
9. Output and Sharing
Sharing choices are undoubtedly restricted.
When you’ve achieved enhancing your pictures, you could be questioning what subsequent – how do you get your pictures out of Luminar Neo?
The reply lies in a tiny share button positioned within the prime proper nook of Neo – clicking it reveals 4 sharing choices: ‘Disk’, ‘Messages’, ‘Mail’ or ‘Share to Gadget’ through the companion app.
Why Skylum selected to not embody all these choices in a devoted export module baffles me.
One other weird omission is any devoted print module – the one option to print photos from Luminar Neo is by clicking File > Print within the prime menu, which exports your chosen picture to your laptop’s default print app.
The shortage of export and print choices is all relatively anti-climatic. After making your pictures look superb with all the assorted AI instruments, you’re left questioning why Skylum isn’t as excited as you to share or print them!
For skilled or eager hobbyist photographers, the shortcoming to regulate export settings or the print course of will likely be a deal-breaker.
Nonetheless, many photographers received’t care. It’s a easy course of, and on the finish of the day, you’re nonetheless in a position to get your pictures out of Neo to retailer, share or print.
Deciding on Print from the menu simply launches your default OS print display screen.
The choice to ‘Share to Gadget’ is an odd one. You’re instructed to scan a QR code utilizing your telephone to attach the Luminar Share app to the desktop Neo software program.
From right here, you possibly can ‘Ship Images to Luminar Neo’ or ‘Mirror Luminar Neo’ – the latter choice enables you to see any edits you make to your picture in real-time.
At first, I dismissed the companion app as fully ineffective, however in time I realised its enchantment to Instagrammers specifically as a option to share Luminar Neo creations on Instagram in fewer steps. It’s additionally a useful direct option to switch any photos shot in your telephone to Neo.
10. Efficiency
AI instruments trigger very brief CPU spikes.
Since testing a buggy and frustratingly gradual early entry model for my preliminary (scathing) Luminar Neo evaluation, I’ve to say issues have improved within the efficiency division.
Nonetheless, there are nonetheless some points with pace, most notably while you apply presets or use any of the processor-intensive AI instruments for the primary time.
We have been promised a a lot quicker expertise with Luminar Neo when in comparison with its predecessors. Whereas I admit the AI instruments are actually faster than Luminar AI, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment.
Clicking ‘Sky AI’, for instance, entails a few seconds watch for the brand new sky to be added. Nonetheless, any subsequent skies are inserted nearly immediately.
Luminar Neo’s imaging engine wants a few seconds to analyse the contents of your photograph – when that’s full, making numerous modifications inside the identical instrument is a comparatively quick and clean course of.
In testing, I used Mac OS’s Exercise Monitor to see what’s taking place beneath the hood of Luminar Neo, and certain sufficient, the AI instruments trigger a pointy spike in CPU utilization, which shortly dissipates to regular ranges.
Because the CPU spikes are so short-lived (2-4 seconds), they don’t have an effect on the soundness of any functions you might have operating within the background. Nonetheless, these spikes might have been the explanation for the software program to often crash like Lightroom and some other processor-intensive enhancing software program.
One factor I want to see in Luminar Neo is a few sort of indication that the software program is processing a process – it may be fairly disconcerting to be ready with out figuring out if something is definitely taking place. A easy spinning wheel on the cursor would suffice.
Except for the headline AI options, every part else features nicely with good responsiveness and clean transitions.
There’s little to no delay when switching between the ‘Catalog’, ‘Presets’ and ‘Edit’ modules, which is one thing Lightroom often struggles with.
Including photos to Luminar Neo is lightning quick, though you do want to attend a second for the picture to render if you wish to edit it.
All in all, so long as your laptop meets and ideally exceeds the minimal system necessities and also you’re conscious of the shortage of any indication that a picture is processing, utilizing Neo is far much less irritating than it was.
Is It Value Shopping for Luminar Neo?
The power to purchase Neo as a one-off buy is especially engaging.
Purchase Luminar Neo if:
- You need to save time enhancing pictures – there’s no denying how helpful the AI instruments are in Lumianr Neo. There’s no less complicated and quicker option to carry out sure advanced edits, and the one-click presets make your pictures undeniably prettier.
- You don’t need to pay for an Adobe subscription – whereas Luminar Neo is certainly not a substitute for Lightroom or Photoshop, it does supply lots of their instruments and several other that don’t exist on both platform.
Luminar Neo might be purchased outright for a similar worth as a number of months’ Adobe subscription, making it nice worth for cash.
- You discover Photoshop too sophisticated – once more, they’re very totally different packages, however Neo may also help you carry out sophisticated picture edits in seconds that might take you hours in Photoshop.
- You need to have enjoyable together with your photograph enhancing – enjoying round in Neo is enjoyable. The interface encourages experimentation and power labelling is usually easy and self-explanatory.
- You’re a heavy Instagram person and wish a easy option to polish and share pictures
Don’t Purchase Luminar Neo if:
- You want highly effective photograph administration instruments – Neo is extra of a photograph browser than it’s a photograph supervisor. The disctinct lack of keywording/tagging/sorting instruments makes it a no-go for execs who require this performance.
- You want numerous print choices – there’s no option to print photograph sheets, collages, and many others. You may solely management print sizes from inside your laptop’s default printing app.
- You want an built-in cell enhancing app – whilst you can wirelessly trasnfer photos to and from Luminar Neo to the smartphone app, you possibly can’t do a lot else with it. It’s a far cry from the wonderful Lightroom Cell app.
- You already personal Luminar AI – there’s little must improve at this level, except you actually need one of many aforementioned instruments that the older software program is missing.
- You don’t have a robust PC or Mac – examine the minimal system necessities beneath. For those who don’t meet them, the enhancing expertise will likely be sluggish.
FAQs
Luminar Neo and Luminar AI are basically related photograph enhancing software program. Their layouts are associated, they each lack DAM performance and the core enhancing instruments are just about an identical.
In an electronic mail interview I performed final 12 months, Chief Product Evangelist Richard Harrington of Skylum mentioned that Luminar AI is a slower program than Neo, constructed on an older imaging engine. He added:
Luminar Neo encompasses a model new ‘modular’ engine which implies that every a part of the enhancing course of might be optimized for the most effective speeds. Much less reminiscence is required to edit the pictures and updates to the software program can happen extra steadily.
One of many widespread complaints of Luminar AI was in regards to the pace, so it is a welcome improve, though Neo is way from excellent.
Luminar Neo additionally provides a number of new instruments and options that differentiate it from Luminar AI, together with:
- Masks AI (coming quickly)
- Portrait Background Removing AI (coming quickly)
- Relight AI
- Energy- line and dust-spot removing
- Layer-based enhancing
Luminar Neo can even inherit options already current in Luminar AI, reminiscent of the flexibility to create presets, dodge & burn instruments, cloning, and the radial and gradient masks.
Though there’s no official assertion on this from Skylum, it’s probably that Luminar AI will finally be retired in favour of Neo, which is able to inherit all future updates and current AI options to render it redundant.
(One thing related occurred with Luminar 4, which was brushed beneath the carpet in 2021, a lot to the annoyance of current customers and followers of the software program – myself one in every of them!)
The ultimate distinction between Luminar Neo and Luminar AI is value, with Neo being barely dearer.
What are the System Necessities?
Mac:
- MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Professional, iMac, iMac Professional, Mac Professional, Mac mini, early 2010 or newer
- CPU Intel® Core™ i5 or higher
- Reminiscence 8 GB RAM or extra (16+ GB RAM is beneficial)
- macOS 10.14.6 or increased. IMPORTANT: macOS 10.13 isn’t supported.
- Arduous disk 10 GB free area; SSD for greatest efficiency
- Show 1280×768 measurement or higher
Home windows:
- Home windows-based {hardware} PC with mouse or related enter gadget
- CPU Intel® Core™ i5 or higher, AMD Ryzen™ 5 or higher
- Open GL 3.3 or later appropriate Graphics Playing cards
- Reminiscence 8 GB RAM or extra (16+ GB RAM is beneficial)
- Working System Home windows 10 model 1909 or increased (solely 64-bit OS).
- Arduous disk 10 GB free area; SSD for greatest efficiency
- Show 1280×768 measurement or higher
What are the Supported Languages
- English
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Portuguese
- Italian
- Chinese language Simplified
- Chinese language Conventional
- Korean
- Russian
- Japanese
- Dutch
Extra information right here.
How A lot Does Luminar Neo Value?
Luminar Neo is offered in 2 Plans: a Subscription for US$59 and a One-time buy for US$79.
(Each choices include a 30-day money-back assure.)
You may select between 1 or 2 ‘seats’, permitting you to make use of Neo on 1 or 2 computer systems.
Our suggestion: Purchase Luminar Neo for a one-time buy with 2 seats. That is the most effective worth for cash.
There are different plans which embody a Luminar X Membership and numerous presets as items – for the reason that provides steadily change, faucet the button beneath to see precisely what’s out there as we speak.
Luminar Neo Promo Code – $10 Low cost
Skylum has offered a restricted time Luminar Neo coupon code to avoid wasting $10 – use it quickly earlier than it expires.
Coupon Code: shotkit10neo
(The code will also be used at the side of any current discounted Neo worth.)
To make use of the low cost code, click on the button beneath, then click on one of many Purchase Now buttons, then click on the blue ‘Enter Promotional Code’ textual content and enter shotkit10neo and at last click on Apply.
Closing Phrases
There’s no denying that Luminar Neo has some spectacular social gathering tips.
Your entire focus of the Skylum advertising and the furore surrounding its launch has been on these headline AI options, and in that, Neo fully delivers.
As a ‘common’ picture editor, it provides all of the instruments most photographers will ever want for a handbook enhancing expertise.
The place it falls brief, nonetheless, is as a one-stop-shop for all of your photograph administration/enhancing wants – that is why it’s additionally been developed as a free plugin for Lightroom, a far superior DAM.
At first, I assumed an expert photographer like me would don’t have any want for Luminar Neo, however I used to be unsuitable. Actually, I discover myself opening Neo to carry out fast picture edits that might usually take for much longer, or simply merely to have a mess around with my pictures.
It’s on this experimentation that I’ve grown to take pleasure in utilizing Luminar Neo – enhancing pictures is not a laborious process, or a way to an finish.
Moreover, for novice photographers or these merely unaccustomed to advanced post-production methods, Luminar Neo is a silver bullet to reaching issues that might in any other case be inconceivable.
When you settle for Luminar Neo for what it’s, it’s arduous to withstand. It’s a easy, highly effective, pleasurable and inexpensive software program which continues to enhance.
Unique Low cost
Highly effective AI enhancing instruments enhance pictures in much less time. Reasonably priced one-time pricing and thrilling future updates. Use coupon code shotkit10neo to avoid wasting $10.
Disclaimer: All suggestions are neutral and primarily based on person expertise, with no bias towards the merchandise or the model. The merchandise on this put up might comprise affiliate hyperlinks.
