Luminar NEO Early Access - An Honest Review - Feb/2022

Luminar Neo is Skylum's newest photo editing software, sort of a mix between Luminar 4 and Luminar AI. During this article, we'll experiment with the latest features available on the Early Access version from February 2022.

I've started importing files from many different cameras and types to see what would happen. I had Sony RAW files, JPGs, Tiff files, Canon RAW, and DJI Air2S RAW files in my main folder. Luminar Neo could handle and recognize all of them without any problems.

This version still doesn't have many of the features that will be present in the final version. Amongst these are the background removal tool, histograms, dodge and burn tool, clone stamp, Body AI, Face AI, presets, linear and radial masking tools, and the capacity of synching adjustments.

Also, on this page on Skylum's website, you can see a complete chart of the differences between Luminar 4, AI, and Neo, in case you're already on one of the past versions and wanna be sure what you're getting if upgrading. I'll leave the link in the description.

Essentials for editing are all here within the Develop or Edit module, where you can tweak the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, etc.

We got the curves and also the control per color channel. It's possible to affect the sharpness, optics, defringing. These are common ground for those used to Lightroom, but many free softwares lack such features, so it's a step up.

You'll see beside some of these that we got AI written, and these are the tools with some artificial intelligence included.

Enhance AI almost edits the photo for you. It adapts the luminosity and contrast well, so go there if you're looking for a quick turnaround of a pic.

Structure acts on contrast very gently.

Relight AI will try to understand how the image is tridimensionally and when you tweak the brightness near or far, you'll see it doesn't go linearly, respecting the photo's depth.

After tweaking a couple of parameters, you'll notice that all sliders roll back to zero when you recheck them. And this happens as the workflow includes a separate panel, with the history of changes alongside the possibility of readjusting previous actions.

I'm not quite sure I like it, or if I'd prefer to have them with my last adjustments on the main panel, I guess it's a workflow thing you have to get used to.

Photos in which the software has more trouble are complex and intrinsic details, such as hair or leaves. So you can't go extreme not to cause a weird halo effect that is quite difficult to fix inside Neo.

Sky AI is very impressive. It detects and masks the sky well in many different scenarios and adapts the image's lighting to match. Below you have many controls to make it as realistic as possible. This is probably the most discussed feature. Personally, I don't mind subtle changes. What do you say? Let me know if you think it's fair in the comments.

On a shot full of leaves, it performed remarkably well. Sincerely, I was not expecting it at all to be this good.

Atmosphere AI adds fog, and you'll be able to control the depth by adjusting the sliders, another pretty cool feature.

Now for the last two leading AI functions added: inside the Erase menu, first the cable removal feature. A more realistic one: so one click, and it's done. Just one spot is left behind.

And finally, dust removal, and this one is pretty impressive. On the picture below, which needed something of this kind, Luminar excelled.

I couldn't find an example in which this function didn't work well—definitely more straightforward than going manually through the clone stamp tool.

Sunrays add these sunshine rays, giving the photo a very cool look if not overused.

Mystical takes away a bit of sharpness and adds glow. So that's the thing, many tools are combinations of others, in which the software is trying to do it for you.

Portrait bokeh masks the subject and lets you control the out-of-focus situation in the back. This one does it pretty well, making some of the hair disappear, which is not good, but the image already had an excellent shallow depth of field.

So it does a good job selecting the subject, but the 3d mapping is not that good. The only way to fix it is going a bit extreme and blurring it all out.

Skin AI also worked pretty well with these photos, subtle yet noticeable. Here, the skin smoothens out nicely without looking plastic. The skin defects also worked well.

On the bottom of the main panel, you'll find two extra tools that are very interesting. The super contrast has a lovely roll-off between highlights, mid-tones, and shadows, allowing for a beautiful tuning of shades.

Color harmony helps with white balance and is the color grading tool for you to add color in each level of tones separately, like blue to shadows and orange to highlights.

Now, if you do landscapes and wanna do HDR merges or Panoramas, this software will not do it for you. HDRs in the Luminar workflow should be handled with the Aurora HDR, and for panoramas doesn't seem to be a tool yet.

There is no synchronizing changes tool yet, but it is promised for the final version.

For a fair comparison, I'm making non-AI changes to five images and comparing them with the same modifications on Lightroom to see how long it takes to create the final JPGs.

Mostly it seemed to use CPU and the GPU only in small bursts.

Finally, the result was devastating for Luminar: Lightroom exported the five images in 2s only, while Luminar took 40+s.

One last function that I enjoyed trying was Luminar Share. It's an app that connects to your software on the desktop by scanning a QR code, and while in the same network, you can pass files super quickly between them.

To notice that the resulting image was not in the original size. The RAW image coming out of the 24MP sensor of the Sony A7iii was 6000x4000, but the file on the smartphone had only 3840x2560. For social share and use on the phone, it's more than enough, but definitely, something to know, especially if you're thinking about doing a backup or sending this file for printing later. Not sure it will keep being like this or not.

Now, last but not least, let's talk about the price. Luminar is a pay once solution, and the software is yours for life. Clicking the link below will take you to the checkout page. Once there, you'll have the option of getting Neo or a bundle containing Luminar Neo + Luminar AI.

Sincerely I don't see that much sense, considering most of the exciting parts of AI are in the newly built Neo.

And, pro-tip, if you wait a little bit, you can get it in two installments, as a pop-up appears on the screen after a while.

Now is it worth it? Just like Luminar AI, if you're using free software right now, definitely Luminar has a lot to offer. Despite all the AI automation, you'll have access to tools like channel curves, contrast adjustments, denoise, rolling back and adjusting past settings, automatic modes, overlays, radial and graduated filter, and much more. Would I buy it right now? If you feel like it can work for you, then yes. When the final version comes, you can re-evaluate it, and if something doesn't work out to be like you expected, use the 30-day money-back policy they offer.

Now, if you're using the Adobe suite or Capture One, unless you want to get out of the subscription model, I don't think so. For me, the combo Lightroom and Photoshop are still better in organizing your files, editing power, and flexibility.

So who's it for? I think if you're starting right now, try some of the free software available such as Capture One Express, Darkroom, or others and understand if it's something you enjoy. If yes, Luminar is an excellent upgrade from it. But if you're focused on high-end professional work, Adobe and Capture One are more ingenious tools.

I hope this helps, and stay tuned for the official launch! Subscribe to the Youtube channel and the newsletter to be alerted when new content about Luminar comes out.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you at the next one, ciao!!