Luminar Neo 1.22 - In-Depth Review - All Grown Up?

[@GregoryLopez1]

100% agree: Neo is great for beginners. I started out using it to edit RAWs from my phone and didn't know anything about editing to start with. I then upgraded to a Fuji X-T5 and fed RAWs through DxO PureRaw into Neo for better results. Only now am I really seeing the limits of Neo, and just started using DxO Photolab as my main editor. But I still export from Photolab to Neo when I need panos, HDR, generative stuff, or light casual portrait touchups which is easier on Neo than DxO. Neo taught me the basics of editing, and I still recommend it to folks who are starting out or want easy edits. And it genuinely has some great time saving, non-gimmicky tools like Relight, Supercontrast, and Color Harmony.

[@Andyhutchinson]

Totally - it's a great entry point into photo editing and it'll hold your hand as much as you want in the early days.

[@MRing1107]

Same as others, I felt burned on a prior version of Luminar so bailed on them entirely, even though I really loved their golden hour adjustment. All these years later I struggle to do the same thing manually, much to my personal shame.

[@edwardkillesteyn1479]

Thx Andy. I have both Neo and ON1, and have just moved to subscriptions for both. I ditched LR many many years ago when Adobe first shifted to subscription models and the others were still offering lifetime purchase. Adobe was clearly reading the market better even then given the others have now all moved to subscription models. My dilemma is whether to go back to LR. For the moment I have no need of photoshop, and prefer to do editing on a desktop rather on a mobile device-so the Adobe pack may be a bit of overkill for me. You make a powerful point about demosaicing, but think if the photo is properly exposed it is less of an issue. Anyway, it’s all fun. Cheers. Ed

[@Andyhutchinson]

All good points. Yes - a correctly exposed photo will present no issues - I think it's just useful to understand the limitations so you know how far you'll be able to push things. :)

[@DaveBerthiaume]

I purchased Neo when it first came out, but quickly soured on it when they started charging extra for additional features. I'll be sticking with Lightroom and Photoshop, since I will not support the paid extension pricing model. Sometimes when I'm done processing an image, I'll hop over to Neo just to see what some of the presets do to it. Once in a while I like the result and it gives me ideas for improvement. In any case, I don't see Skylum receiving any more of my business as long as they continue the current pricing model.

[@Andyhutchinson]

Fair enough - they're all at it to lesser or greater degrees.

[@nutin321]

The hidden gems that you skipped are: orton effect, high key, relight and portrait tools. They are handy.

[@Andyhutchinson]

Yea I had to make a decision about what to include and what to leave out - unfortunately if I'd tried to cover everything it would have been a 45 minute review 😆️

[@StunDamage]

The Orton effect is best left to a pixel editor like Photoshop/Affinity. Sure, it's not a single slider solution there, you have to play with layers and blend modes/ranges, but it gives you a lot more control over the effect.

[@grumpywiseguy5992]

I have both the Lr/PS and Luminar Neo. I use LR for most editing but when it comes to sharpening my Flower photos, Luminar is by far superior. Even though it creates a TIFF file to do it. I use Luminar as a LR plug-in. I also have On1 but find it too fiddly and the interface hard to use. So it depends on what I have to accomplish what I end up using. Some things I find that even Photoshop is the best solution, but I have no desire to get a PHD in Photoshop just to do some masking or removal. Thanks for the great review.

[@daviddyephotography]

my feelings the learning curve for Lr/Is leaves me shaking my head

[@Andyhutchinson]

Cheers. Yea it does a solid job on sharpening, though I use Photolab for that these days, or the PreSharpener in the Nik Collection. :)

[@MRing1107]

If you’re on a Mac and second tier RAW development is OK with you, then Photos is free and has all the basic sliders. You’re review earlier this year on it was really eye opening

[@Andyhutchinson]

For sure - if you want to do stuff like sky swaps or HDR you need to move away from Photos though. :)

[@thebird404]

Andy I really enjoy your content and honest opinions. I am very interested in your thoughts on de-mosaicking raw images. I remember when I bought a new canon 20D and canon's view was no one knew more about developing the raw data than themselves so they urged the photographer to use canon DPP. I wonder what your feelings are re camera own software Vs DXO etc. I would be interested in seeing some content on this subject.

[@Andyhutchinson]

The own-brand RAW apps do okay, but they are lacking the bells and whistles you get in the third party apps. I certainly don't agree they do the best just at demosaicing.

[@stuartsilverman3797]

Excellent once again! Could it be time for another review of Photomator on the iPad? I hope so.

[@Andyhutchinson]

Unfortunately I don't own an iPad. :(

[@CultureAgent]

Like the first commenter, I stopped at Luminar 4, I thought it was more than a bit cheeky how they immediately rebranded on what was a new product at the time. I dislike subscription models intensely. That's why I use Affinity Photo, although with that app being bought by Canva, that perpetual license model is under threat, despite what the team at Serif say. Fingers crossed!

[@Andyhutchinson]

Yea - a couple of popular apps have been eaten up this year - Photomator, Affinity Photo - be interesting to find out what their fates are.

[@fvsch]

Thanks for the review, Andy! Luminar is not for me, but I agree that it can be a good tool for beginners, at a decent price compared to more professional tools.

[@Andyhutchinson]

Thanks mate - it definitely has a niche. :)

[@tonyb2760]

I never went past Luminar 4. These new lifetime versions don't seem to live very long before passing away.

[@Andyhutchinson]

No they don't do they - it's just marketing spin.