Luminar Neo: A Next-gen AI-powered Photo Editor from Skylum

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Luminar Neo: A Next-gen AI-powered Photo Editor from Skylum

In today’s world of stunning visuals, finding the right photo editing software is like finding the perfect camera lens—it has to fit your style, your workflow, and your creative ambitions.

Whether you’re polishing professional shots or working on personal projects, Luminar Neo positions itself as a versatile tool that’s both powerful and user-friendly.

What is Luminar Neo?

Luminar Neo is the latest photo editing software from Skylum, available for both Mac and Windows. Building on the success of Luminar 4 and Luminar AI, it introduces a suite of new features powered by artificial intelligence. From AI background removal to portrait enhancement and sky replacement, Luminar Neo automates complex tasks, allowing you to focus on your creativity.

Luminar Neo review: features that impressed us

# AI magic at your fingertips

Luminar Neo is packed with AI-powered tools designed to streamline the editing process. A standout feature is Color Transfer AI, which allows you to seamlessly match the colors of one image with another. This tool is perfect for creatives seeking consistent tones across multiple images or those inspired by cinematic or artistic color palettes.

Upscale AI, which boosts image resolution while maintaining quality, is another notable tool—ideal for print photography or zoom-ins where detail is crucial.

The Mask AI feature detects and isolates elements like skies, water, and people in images, simplifying the masking process and making complex edits faster and more efficient.

# Relight AI: fix lighting like a pro

With Relight AI, Luminar Neo analyzes the depth of your image, allowing you to adjust lighting in the foreground and background separately. This tool excels at correcting lighting imbalances, particularly in challenging landscapes or portrait shots, and even lets you simulate different times of day for a dynamic effect.

# Sky AI: replace and adjust skies instantly

Sky AI makes sky replacement seamless, automatically adjusting lighting, depth, and reflections to match the new sky. Whether you’re enhancing a cloudy day with a dramatic sunset or fine-tuning outdoor shots, Sky AI saves hours of manual labor. Its ability to also adjust water reflections ensures realistic, high-quality edits.

# Portrait retouching

Luminar Neo shines when it comes to portrait retouching. With Portrait AI and Portrait Background Removal AI, you can soften skin, enhance eyes, and remove backgrounds automatically. Portrait Bokeh AI adds depth-of-field effects, blurring the background while keeping the subject sharp and focused, ideal for creating professional-grade portraits with ease.

# Supersharp AI

Supersharp AI sharpened blurry images effectively during our tests. However, at higher settings, it did introduce some artifacts, especially in areas with fine detail. It’s best used sparingly to avoid over-processing, but it’s a handy tool for rescuing slightly out-of-focus shots.

# Noiseless AI and denoising

In low-light conditions, Noiseless AI performed admirably, reducing noise without sacrificing much detail. However, in extremely noisy images, some areas became over-smoothed, resulting in a slight loss of texture. Nonetheless, it’s on par with leading noise-reduction tools like DxO and Topaz.

# Handy presets for quick edits

Luminar Neo offers a wide range of adaptive presets that automatically adjust based on the type of photo you’re editing—whether landscapes, portraits, or macro shots. These presets streamline the editing process and are fully customizable, allowing advanced users to create and save their own presets for future use.

# Layer-based workflow

Luminar Neo’s non-destructive layer-based workflow lets you stack edits without affecting the original image. Its improved performance allows users to work with multiple layers, masks, and blend modes, making it a flexible, accessible alternative to professional-grade platforms like Photoshop.

# Extensions for specialized edits

For specialized editing, Luminar Neo includes useful extensions like HDR Merge and Focus Stacking.

HDR Merge combines multiple exposures to balance out highlights and shadows, producing stunning high-dynamic-range images. Focus Stacking enhances macro photography or scenes with multiple focal points, ensuring clarity throughout the image.

Both extensions offer additional creative control, ensuring high-quality final edits for more advanced photographers.

Personal experience

Having spent time using Luminar Neo for my own photography projects, I found it to be an impressive tool that truly enhances the editing experience. The AI-powered features significantly reduce the time spent on manual adjustments while still allowing room for creative expression.

The Sky Replacement feature was particularly delightful; I could transform a bland sunset into a breathtaking twilight scene in seconds. The results were so seamless that I often received compliments on the vibrant skies in my photos!

However, while I appreciated the ease of use, I did encounter some challenges with Mask AI. Although it generally performed well, there were instances where it struggled to identify certain elements in more complex images, requiring some manual tweaking.

TheSweetBits verdict

Luminar Neo strikes a balance between ease of use and advanced features, making it suitable for both beginners and intermediate users. While it doesn’t have the depth of customization or speed of top-tier competitors like Photoshop, it offers a solid range of AI-powered tools that simplify complex edits.

If you’re looking for a versatile photo editor that can handle most tasks with minimal effort, Luminar Neo is a great choice. However, if you need highly detailed control over every aspect of your editing, you might find yourself occasionally reaching for other professional-grade software like Photoshop.

Pricing and compatibility

Yearly Subscription: $89/year. This plan includes all future updates and AI features, making it ideal for those who want to stay current with Luminar Neo’s ongoing enhancements.
Lifetime License: $149 (one-time payment). This plan provides a permanent license for Luminar Neo (with AI features) but does not include future extensions or major updates unless purchased separately.

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