Two and a half years ago, I tested several photo editing programs for users looking for an alternative to the monthly subscription for Lightroom and Photoshop
I was so impressed by Luminar Neo that I adopted it as my go-to program for image post-processing and photo and video management
Skylum has been constantly adding new interesting features and improving existing ones, so it is time for a new overview of this program
Luminar Neo is extremely rich in functionalities, it would be impossible to explore them all in one video, so I will focus on the new ones and the ones I use the most
Pricing options
Luminar Neo can be bought as a monthly subscription with a 30-day money-back guarantee or as a perpetual license with a one-time payment
It works as a standalone app for Windows or Mac OS, or as a plug-in for Photoshop and Lightroom
Here you can check the updated prices, together with a discount coupon. It is an affiliate link, so I get a small commission in case of purchase
Catalogue
Like Lightroom, Luminar Neo has database management capabilities for photo and video. This is crucial for users with a large collection of media
A couple of years ago the catalogue was not as powerful as the one in Lightroom, but it has been improved
It is possible to import a large number of images from a hard drive maintaining the same structure of folders and subfolders. When adding a new subfolder or moving images from one to another, the changes made are also applied to the hard drive
It is possible to have more than one catalogue, which can be useful to separate different activities, for example professional images from personal ones. It supports Albums to temporarily group images without modifying their position in the folders, which is very handy when working on a specific project
Merge and Generative Tools
At the top of Luminar Neo in the middle, we select the Catalogue tab. To the right, we find a series of tools divided in three groups:
- Generative
- Merge
- Resolution enhancement
Generative
The first one is GenErase to remove unwanted elements in an image, filling the gaps using AI to match the texture and elements from the surrounding area
In this image, there are three electric aerials I would like to get rid of. With the image selected, I click on GenErase to open this window, containing a series of tools at the bottom
Next to the icon GenErase, there is a circle with an i, clicking on it, a description of the tool appears. We can click on Learn more to access a full tutorial about it on Luminar Knowledge Hub. These tutorials are available for most tools in Luminar, I find them very usefu
After tapping on the tab Select, we can modify the size of the brush, select the items to delete, and after tapping on Erase, the aerials are gone
GenSwaps inserts AI-generated elements in a specific area. After drawing the destination area, some text describing the desired element must be entered. Let’s try adding a cruise ship. It is good fun and can be useful on some occasions
Gen Expand extends the boundary of an image horizontally or vertically, filling the space and integrating with the surrounding area. It can be useful for a photo taken in vertical format to be included in a project in landscape orientation
Merge
Further down, we can merge several images in HDR, which is useful in high dynamic range situations
Here I have 7 shots of the same photo taken at different exposure values using the HDR mode with a DJI Mini 4 Pro. I select them and drag them to HDR merge. Several settings are available for alignment, distortion, chromatic aberration, and ghost reduction
Using Batch Merge, it is possible to load up to 100 images to be processed at once, the program will recognize and group the ones belonging to each scene
Panorama Stitching works similarly to Merge to HDR by selecting the images and dragging them to the Panorama window; some options like Devignette, Distortion Correction, and Chromatic Aberration reduction can be selected
After clicking on start, a second window shows several options for different projections: Spherical, Cylindrical, Mercator, Plain, and Fisheye. I suggest playing around with them to get used to the results
Others
Other options available here are Focus Stacking to combine several photos with different depth of field and Upscale, to enhance image resolution up to 6 times, to be used in deep crops or for large prints
The images obtained by the merge and generative tools are saved in specific folders on the hard drive. To find their location, right-click on the image and select Show in Explorer
Basic Editing
Luminar Neo has an impressive choice of editing tools, some of them based on AI. for all sorts of adjustments. But it can also be used by beginners with a simple and intuitive workflow
Let’s start from the simplest possible workflow to enhance an image in only a few seconds. We start with a slight crop to get rid of some vignetting and e few distracting elements on the sides
I like to have the histogram on screen to fine-tune the exposure values. We can summon it on the main menu on the top left of the screen, selecting View and then Show Histogram. It will appear on the top right of the screen
Opening the Develop window, we find the new Auto Adjust tab. The program tries to apply the best exposure values. It is often a good starting point
In this case, I would add some Smart Contrast, raise the Shadows a bit, then adjust the Black and white point. Within Develop, I would then open the Color tab to adjust the white balance and add a touch of saturation
Let’s check the result of this very basic grading by holding on to this icon on the bottom right below the image. We can also have a split before and after with the icon next to it
An alternative workflow for extra quick editing is using the tool Enhance. Let’s go back to the original RAW image after cropping
In Enhance, we find two sliders:
- Accent tries to find the best exposure
- Sky Enhance tries to improve the structure of the sky
Like we did before, we can then quickly fine-tune the result in the Develop panel. This second method, starting from Enhance, often yields better results
Advanced Editing
The tab Landscape contains four sliders:
- Dehaze increases contrast and saturation, and it is often useful to improve the sky structure. It is better used subtly, as it may lead to oversaturation
- Golden Hour modifies the white balance towards warmer tones
- Foliage Enhance is used when the image contains vegetation, it is better to choose subtle values
- It is then possible to play around with the tint using the slider Foliage Hue
In this image, the sky is a bit dull; it would be interesting to add some clouds to increase the depth. In the tab Sky we find all sorts of variations
Let’s try this one. We can modify the position of the clouds, refine the mask, adjust the light reflected by the clouds, and add other effects
The new sky is a bit flat, so we can go back to the tab Enhance to use the Sky enhancer slider. Now the image is more interesting
Color harmony is a powerful tool for precise color control. It offers more options and is more intuitive than the color sliders of the Develop tab
We start by adjusting the overall Brilliance and Warmth. We can choose a specific hue to modify its contrast. The next tool controls the warmth of the warmest and coolest tones independently. The last one individually adjusts the color balance of the shadows, midtones, and highlights
I find the first and last tabs particularly useful to adapt the image to a specific mood
With the tab Atmosphere, we can add Fog, Layered fog, Mist, and Haze. Each effect is controlled by three sliders: Amount, Depth, and Lightness
Water Enhancer is another AI tool. It detects bodies of water and creates a mask around them
We can then play around with different sliders affecting only the water. It is also possible to refine the mask. As you can see, the sea now pops up in the scene
Twilight enhancer mimics the lighting and color effects of the golden and blue hours near sunset or sunrise. There is a choice of five color schemes for different moods:
- Golden
- Blush
- Emerald
- Mauve
- Blue
The major adjustments are made using the two sliders Amount and Exposure. Further down, five more menus for further refinements
Supercontrast is a very effective tool to control the contrast and the balance in the highlights, the midtones, and the shadows. In this image, I can improve the structure of the sky by adjusting the values for the highlights
Noiless and Supersharp are based on AI and are both very effective
The tab Creative offers plenty of tools to modify the color and style of an image. The one I use the most is Relight for total control over the lighting of an image
The is also a series of tools for portraits
Masks and Layers
Most editing tools in Luminar Neo have a masking option to specify which part of the image will be affected
Several masking tools are available, from the traditional brush, linear gradient, and Radial gradient to more advanced ones like color selection and the powerful luminosity mask for selections based on a specific luminosity range. It is also possible to select one or more objects within the scene
Like in Photoshop, layers can be used to separate elements of an image or to combine elements from different photos