Luminar Neo Review: Best AI Powered Photo Editor Anyone Can Use?

To be honest, I don’t consider myself an expert photographer or have photo editing expertise. I click a few pictures using my iPhone on the weekends, or sometimes I take my DSLR with me on vacations and click random things I like. However, one thing that always excites me is how professional photographers take such random pictures and turn them into amazing-looking pictures with their image editing skills.

I want to improve my image editing skills, and that’s why I’m always eager to try new apps, software, and tools that, I believe, can be a good addition to enhance my creative workflow. However, with every such new tool, there comes a big challenge: learning the software and understanding the user interface.

Recently, I had the pleasure to try out Luminar Neo by Skylum, and I must say I have some mixed reactions about my Luminar Neo review. Keep reading as I’m sharing my first impressions and review of Luminar Neo from Skylum. I’ll also be sharing my experiences with Skylum’s Luminar Neo image editing software, its key features, performance, and overall value whether Luminar Neo is worth it.

Luminar Neo Review: An Easy-to-Use but Powerful AI-Powered Image Editing Software

With several AI tools popping up, the learning curve to do things has come down, which is a good thing if you want to save time. For example, Google’s magic editor does wonders for Android users.

But, at the same time, AI photo tools are not always great, and sometimes notorious.

So, let us see if Luminar Neo manages to give us a good impression of it.

What is Luminar Neo?

Luminar Neo is an AI-powered photo editing software that allows you to edit your picture effortlessly. You may use its generative AI capabilities to explore your creativity to edit the image or simply remove an object.

And, all the processing is claimed to be on-device. So, you do not have to worry about the privacy of your photos.

Download Luminar Neo and Installation

Downloading Luminar Neo and then installing Luminar Neo was easy on my Mac Mini M2. It took just a few minutes to complete the downloading and installation process of Luminar Neo. However, when I tried testing on my early 2016 Intel MacBook Pro, it took a few extra minutes in the installation process, maybe the old system specs were to blame.

I also tested it on a Windows 11 computer, and the installation went smoothly.

To get started, you need to create an account using your email, or via social accounts. You can also use the activation code you received after purchase.

Luminar Neo Demo

If you are new to Luminar Neo, fortunately, Luminar Neo helps you learn how to use Luminar Neo and its various powerful tools quickly with sample images and tutorials.

No, you don’t have to go through hour-long video tutorials, you simply need to select the “Sample Images” folder from the left panel named “Catalog” and it has several sample images. You’ll find the “Before” and “After” versions of each image.

Clicking the “Before” image will open the image and guide you with editing prompts and instructions to use various tools. Also, clicking and opening the “After” image will provide you with a useful “Show Me Edits” button, that highlights and shows the edits made to achieve that result. That’s certainly a fun way to quickly play around and learn to use Luminar Neo tools and edit faster.

Luminar Neo User Interface and Ease of Use:

Luminar Neo has a pretty simple-to-use interface and I must say, the user interface is designed to make it easy for non-techie, non-professionals. Unlike other professional software programs, where you get bombarded with many tools and options, Luminar Neo keeps a clean and simple user interface that looks pleasing to the eyes.

When you first open the app, you get the welcome page that can be divided into three parts:

1. Catalog
2. Canvas Area
3. Tools and Properties

Catalog Panel: This is the left panel inside Luminar Neo where you get a panel to choose images, add photos, categorize and organize them into folders, and albums. You also get a folder “Sample Images” inside this panel, where you may select any sample image and play with edits and manipulation. When you open any image, Luminar Neo guides you with editing prompts and instructions to help you learn the software faster.

Canvas Area: This is the middle panel of the Luminar Neo, where you get to play with images in the canvas area. You get three tabs within the same middle panel: Catalog, Presets, and Edit to play with various editing tools and presets. At any moment, you may click the Catalog tab and that will take you back to the catalog panel where you may choose any other image from the catalog, and clicking that will open that image into the Canvas for further editing.

Properties and Tools Panel: This is the right panel of Luminar Neo where you get properties and tools. Let’s suppose you have clicked and opened any image into the canvas area, then this properties panel will show you details regarding the properties of that image, along with generative tools, and several other tools.

Luminar Neo Features

Luminar Neo features a range of features that should make your head turn. Some of those include:

Editing with Layers

Just like a full-fledged photo editing software, you get the ability to create multiple layers and work with them to create the perfect edit of an image. Layers also allow you to combine multiple projects in one if you prefer that sort of workflow.

If you have no idea what layers are, a layer is basically defined as an image stacked upon another image to form a complete image. The reason why working with layers is important is because when you edit or apply changes to a certain layer, you don’t disrupt the whole image, rather you make edits on a certain part or portion of the image and then apply over the complete image as per your requirements.

This makes things a bit easier especially if you don’t want to disturb the whole image or bring the applied changes to only the selected layer of the image while keeping the original image intact.

Multiform Presets: Single Click Adjustments

While having presets is not an AI-exclusive feature, it saves a lot of time to tweak the image colors to enhance the look of it. Think presets like pre-made editing templates which you may select and start tweaking from there rather than starting the editing from scratch.

Yes, in other words, you do not have to experiment with multiple settings, rather, just click on a preset to instantly improve your image. And further, you may tweak those presets as well in case you want to enhance or make further changes.

By default, there are numerous presets available, and most of them are enough for basic image adjustments, but if you are curious about more, you can always opt for more by purchasing additional preset packs.

Sky AI

It features many AI-based tools for quick edits. One of the highlights includes Sky AI which instantly makes the skies in your image look more real. Whether you want a dreamy sky or just something that pops, it is a couple of clicks away.

Let’s say you have a cool landscape image with natural elements like sky, mountain, river, etc. and you want to instantly change the way the sky looks in your image, well, you are just a few clicks away.

Yes, with the Sky AI capabilities of Luminar Neo AI photo editing tool, you can replace Sky and make changes to make it look more cool with vibrant colors. And more importantly, you don’t have to be an expert to do that.

Twilight Enhancer AI

Twilight Enhancer AI is an interesting tool that lets you control the light setting of your environment in the image.

Maybe you took an image where the colors of the sky are dull. But, with the twilight enhancer AI feature of Luminar Neo AI photo editor, you don’t have to worry as you can simply turn it into your golden hour moment in a single click. It’s that easy.

Water Enhancer AI

I was surprised to find that the tools are laser-focused on various aspects of the image. And, one of them is dedicated to helping you enhance the water color.

I have tried and used various photo editing apps, software, and tools, and I must say that when you are working with water in the image, it is one of the trickiest parts of editing an image where you want to get the water color realistic, and attractive as well.

But while testing out Luminar Neo’s Water Enhancer AI feature, I noticed that it does a pretty good job is recognising the water area very precisely and making the required changes pretty accurately. Yes, the Water Enhancer AI feature has got that sorted for you.

Enhance AI

Enhance AI is an essential tool to help elevate all kinds of things in your image, including brightness, contrast, sharpness, and more. Don’t know where to start? What changes to make? How to begin enhancing your image?

Well, you don’t have to worry! Enhance AI tool in Luminar Neo photo editor has got you covered for that. You do not have to custom tweak everything, but just get a quick result in a single click. And, often, this should give you a satisfactory result.

Most of the time, I consider it as a starting point, and once I get the result done for me, I further proceed to make changes and adjustments depending on my liking.

Background Removal

Aha! Now we are talking about the Background Removal feature. One of the most sought-after features in AI photo editing is background removal. So, you can easily get rid of the background and fill it up with a generated background or, just simply extract the subject for another image.

When you need to remove the background from your portraits and change the background to something clean and minimal so that you may use that for professional headshots on social profile pictures, or you just want to change your background from image to something more funky and cool to impress your Facebook and Instagram friends, Luminar Neo has this cool feature to help you achieve that.

GenErase

If you have something to erase in the photo, with GenErase, you can get rid of that part and the AI tool will generate matching textures so you won’t notice that it was ever there.

If you have ever tried clicking a family photo in a public place on a special occasion where there is a huge crowd at the same venue, you must be knowing that how common it is these days to find some strangers in the background of your family photos. You click the picture, and later you realize that the best of your shots are ruined due to that.

Well, now you don’t have to worry as various photo editing tools, software, and apps are available these days that allow you to remove unwanted objects or people from your image. But the GenErase feature inside Luminar Neo takes that experience to the next level with the power of AI.

It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to remove unwanted objects from pictures, and you can do that by simply selecting and erasing it with the GenErase tool in Luminar Neo.

GenExpand

Among various cool features inside Luminar Neo AI photo editing software, GenExpand is one of the most interesting ones, in my opinion. So what does the GenExpand feature do?

GenExpand helps you widen the perspective of your original image. Maybe you could not get a full picture of the landscape or just want to reimagine your photo with a broader perspective. Luminar Neo will generate exactly what you have in your image and make it look a lot wider.

I like it because when I have a picture that isn’t wide enough, and if I try posting that on Instagram, Instagram just crops a certain part of the image which is weird. Previously I used to use some no-crop apps to fix the cropping issue by expanding the image before uploading, but now I don’t need those extra apps as I can simply rely on Luminar Neo’s GenExpand feature to expand the perspective of the image and widen my picture and show everything I want to show without letting it cropped.

GenSwap

If you want to swap the original content in your image, you can simply use a text prompt to generate it and swap it with the image.

For instance, if you need the waves of the sea in your image to look more prominent/bigger, you can do that with GenSwap. It’s like a magical wand that fulfills your wishes! Of course, image adjustments wishes only, not materialistic ones.

Relight AI

Relight AI feature immensely helps when you want a well-lit photo but could not. So, you can adjust the exposure of your image in a single click with this tool.

Erase

You might have already removed objects from your image on your smartphones, as it is a common AI-powered feature to have for photo editing nowadays. And, Luminar Neo does not disappoint with that either.

You can easily select objects in your image and remove them.

SuperContrast

SuperContrast lets you get amazing results by letting you control all levels of contrast in an image. You should be able to tweak photos like a professional with this.

Sunrays

Sometimes getting Sunrays in your photos can change how it looks entirely. And, with this tool, you can add Sunrays to your image, and also adjust the position of it, to make it blend in as much as possible.

Atmosphere AI

While the wizards can only control the weather in the mystical world, you get that superpower with the Luminar Neo AI feature set. The atmosphere AI tool lets you adjust things like fog in your image, making it look way different from what you actually captured.

Face AI

It is difficult to perform tweaks to a close-up face in an image. You need to utilize various tools in the right combination to make things look better.

But with the Face AI feature, you can easily tweak the eyes, dark circles, iris flare, lips, and various aspects of the face instantly.

Skin AI

If you want your skin to look perfect in the images, and make it look like a professional photo, Skin AI can help you with its adjustment capabilities.

Portrait Bokeh AI

While you can turn non-bokeh images to the ones with bokeh on a smartphone, Luminar Neo gives you a mad amount of control to adjust the portrait images. You get to control the depth, edges, highlights, softness, strength, and size of the bokeh.

Supersharp AI

Supersharp AI tool lets you intelligently control the sharpness of your image. This is a rather simple tool, but works decently well.

Upscale AI

One of the best use cases for editing an image is to upscale it, improve the resolution of the photo for a print, or just make it look better.

And, AI technology helps the most in this scenario. Some images would look absolutely satisfying after upscaling them, especially, the lower-res photos.

Noiseless AI

It is incredibly challenging to get rid of the noise in an image due to poor lighting conditions. However, with the noiseless AI feature in this software, you can try minimizing it as much as possible. In some cases, it would disappear completely.

Availability as Plugin

During installation, you have the option to install Luminar Neo as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom Classic, which should be helpful if you use those tools.

While you can use it as standalone software, it will not be able to replace professional-grade photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. So, you can couple them together and harness the AI capabilities in Adobe software as well, without any hassle.

Luminar Neo Performance

Luminar Neo is a pretty-looking image editing tool. It works well enough considering you have the latest graphics drivers installed (considering Windows).

If you have an integrated GPU on a Windows computer, it may not be a smooth experience. However, if you have a dedicated GPU on your Windows machine or a not-so-old Macbook, Luminar Neo should perform reasonably well.

That being said, it is not the fastest user experience one can get on either of the systems. So, there is definitely room for improvement there.

I noticed a couple of crashes on my Windows setup. But my M2 Mac Mini had no hiccups in running various processes smoothly including the AI ones.

Luminar Neo Pricing: How much does Luminar Neo cost?

You can get a free 7-day trial to test drive Luminar Neo. Once that ends, you need to pay up to continue using it.

Luminar Neo starts at 69 USD per year as a subscription. However, it also offers a perpetual lifetime license for just $119 where you can access all of its features forever with a one-time payment.

The pricing could differ as per your region. For instance, it is lower for Indian users.

The lifetime license will not give you major feature upgrades down the line. So, you might need to pay a small upgrade fee when a major update comes along. But, if you do not want to get those major upgraded features, you can continue using the current features without any restrictions for as long as you want.

If you are opting for a subscription, you can expect all kinds of updates as long as you continue it. So, you have plenty of choices to get what’s best for you.

Luminar Neo Customer Support

Luminar Neo has a very helpful customer support team. If you ever get stuck or find anything confusing, first, there is a handful list of user guides and frequently asked questions to help you fix the most common issues you might come across, and if you still need further help, you may simply contact the customer support team.

The customer support team is very supportive and will help you within 24-48 hours on working days.

Luminar Neo Pros and Cons:

Just like any other photo editing and image manipulation program, Luminar Neo also has some pros and cons that I would like to mention here. So, here are the things I liked about Luminar Neo and what I didn’t like about Luminar Neo:

What I Liked About Luminar Neo:

• Intuitive and beginner-friendly interface.
• Time-saving AI-powered tools for professionals.
• Affordable compared to other industry-standard software.
• Regular updates with new features and performance improvements.
• Advance masking and enhancement capabilities.

What I Didn’t Like About Luminar Neo:

• Limited customizability for professionals preferring manual controls.
• Resource intensive, requiring modern hardware for optimal performance.
• Occasional bugs in newer features and updates.

Is Luminar Neo Worth It? Luminar Neo’s Value for Money

Luminar Neo is a pretty decent tool to try. It may not be the best. So, it is subjective to what you need.

If you are looking for the AI tools included, and do not want to use online editors to achieve results like Luminar Neo does, it is a nice privacy-friendly option that processes things locally on your device.

The lifetime license should make sense for many people. However, the subscription may not be for everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions About Luminar Neo:

The Pro Review from TechReviewPro

Luminar Neo AI photo editing tool is a breath of fresh air in AI-powered tools. It tries to make genuine attempts to ease up the photo editing process with one-click processes, and advanced controls.

Its integration capability with Adobe software also makes it a good complementary option to have, if not your primary, tool for photo editing.

What do you think about Luminar Neo AI? Let me know in the comments!