Luminar VS Lightroom - Is Luminar Neo Worth it For Photo Editing?

One thing people got wrong in luminar is the relight control.
It darkens or lighten up from the top or bottom just like photoshop applies black or white gradients, depht is more like moving the gradient up or down, is not like really applying to a certain depht in the distance from front to back, no.
I applied relight to a portrait, and darken up the background I noticed it apply it to the face too so I have to clear the face but I had a problem, there was an ugly shadow at the edge of the face, I had to use my wacom tablet to carefully erase this thick dark shadow created by the dark relight control, well to make the story short, I took 2.5 hrs fixing this picture, then I was thinking to enhance with Affinity Photo (I own photshop too, learning Affinity v2) not a lie, but I got a better result in just 55 minutes, with Affinity, I was able to soften the skin and cleaning skin imperfections a feature that I love better than photoshop, I love photoshop and actually use luminar with photoshop, believe me, I will recommend Affinity before luminar, besides is cheaper too, the last thing, luminar takes too long to open and the same to apply controls, my PC? I just built it, for games to render fast but I have no games, my games are photoshop, affinity photo, lightroom, canvas and luminar.
Skies, other control that makes me think, do I have time to waste? Sometimes it applies on top of buildings or people and I have to clean a lot, this luminar sometimes makes me sick.

You do professional landscape photography but you don't notice a dirty sensor? Typical...

It may be handy for easy photo editing, but Luminar's photo management is about as dirt-basic as can be - it is light years behind Lightroom.

I tried Luminar 4 when it was launched. It was too slow program for my computer and I did stick with Lightroom. I now have a new computer and are also switching soon to 45-60 megapixel camera and I do not think my ancient Lightroom which was then one time purchase works for that anymore. And absolutely I will NOT be having any subscription based software in my house ever. So now it is either Luminar Neo or DxO Photolab.

Besides the monthly fee (which was annoying), Lightroom kept telling me it couldn't find my images. I was spending more time searching for lost images and folders. In short, I was having a DAM problem-digital asset management. I wanted something simple-- I wanted to control where and how my images were stored. When Luminar came a long it solved the issues. When Luminar Neo arrived I found my decision was a correct one. Easy workflow. Thanks for the video !!

Does luminar have a mobile app? Can we edit raw photos?

Does Luminar NEO have a mobile app (as Lightroom has)? Thanks

I think from seeing this luminar has awesome potential, but at the same time i’m scared it’ll turn the newer generation into lazy editors & eliminates real skill

your video is way too choppy to see the effects even change much. sorry, I kept replaying to try to see what you were demonstrating and it just was frustrating to try to see.

Luminar wins on price purely because it has a lifetime option. Adobe is greedy.

Its easy - one has moved to subscription only, the other offers a "one time only" purchase option. If there is any usable alternative, good riddance to everything adobe I say.

Great video but you can't say you're not affiliated with Luminar and then the link you ask people to click on is an affiliate link with your name in the URL. We all get that you have to make money from affiliate links and more power to you, but be transparent about it. I would've trusted you and the product more had you been honest.

I bought Luminar AI and it is by far the SLOWEST photo editing software I have ever used. It only works properly if you use 1 photo at a time. Once you load it into a library, good luck.

For reference, I use a 12 core Ryzen with Geforce 3080. The software is NOT programmed to use hardware acceleration efficiently.

Long advertisement.

Cool! Thank you David! I am buying Luminar Neo based on what you shared! Thank you!!

Thanks for the video

Over half this video is the presenter talking to camera and very little demonstration most of which is glib and superficial.

What about the catalog and importing, folders , export, print, book????

The problem with Luminar is that the software requires ultra professional setup, but I’m sure almost no one with such a setup will use Luminar before Lightroom.
The speed of editing and AI masking in Lightroom are much superior.

Had adobe and now Luminar has completely replaced it. If you know how to use your camera Luminar is all you need for photo edits. If you want to pretend to be a pro adobe makes you sound better but your photos are what they are.

I classify myself as a enthusiastic hobbyist photographer. I would like to have a photo editing program that is not complicated to use. Been doing some research and the more I learn about Luminar Neo the more I feel this should be the one for me. All editing programs will not check all the must have for everyone. However I feel the that this one will save me from a great deal of stress doing my edits. Thanks for your informative video.

Does Luminar Neo supports windows tablet mode?

in 6 months they will come up with a new "Skylum" product with exact the same things with maybe 1 extra feature. I like their software, hate their business model.

If it can't do everything I want to do in Lr and Ps, it's not a contender. It just costs more money.

I love Luminar Neo. This company is based out of Ukraine. They continue to deliver the goods during extremely adverse conditions. Blows my mind. This is one of the huge reasons that I am supporting them. That being said, the more I use the program, the better I am getting at it. I love the results.

Luminar Neo has some excellent features and I like the WAY it works. For example, you have all those tools and sliders but you can re-use them to address different parts of the photo. Each time you call up an instance of the tool all the sliders are returned to the defaults. Each tool has its own masking ability, so no trying to do everything in the one mask. Makes editing really easy. If you do something with a tool you don't like just delete that instance of the tool. No going back through "history" trying to get back to a good point of your editing. .
The one thing I really like is that you don't have to "import" photos. Just import the overall folder on you computer. Any additional photos you store in that folder in the future will automatically be displayed the next time you open Luminar.
However, it does have some drawbacks. There is no photo management section as in LR. You need to have a really good file structure to be able to find photos quickly and display of exif details is very limited. At the moment you can't use plugins to Neo (you could in Luminar 4) to call up an external editor or tool, but that has been promised. Some of the AI tools are pretty flaky, especially MaskAI when used on landscapes or seascapes, but they are only at version 1 so will improve.

I've been using Luminar since 2018 but have recently (1 month ago) re-invested in LR classic mainly to get the image management capability. I have installed Neo as a plugin to LR. Mostly it works well but some of the extensions such as focus stacking and merge (HDR based on Aurora) are not available when it is used as a plugin. I understand why, but its a pain in the arse as I use these quite regularly. Stuffs up my workflow. If I want to use either of these I have to use Neo as a standalone, do the focus stack or merge which creates a new tiff file then go through the hassle of importing to LR to continue. Much easier to do the whole edit in Neo.
I would recommend Neo as a standalone for someone new to editing who doesn't have thousands of photos as its so easy to use. For more experienced editors I think its better used as a plugin to some other editor.

Definitely worth having Luminar Neo; I have started with Luminar 2, and every new version was better then the last. I only pay to upgrade if I need/want to. I use in conjunction with DXO for best RAW converting engine, and better catalog functions. I always hated the Ligthroom convoluted import scheme.

Hows this compare to Capture One

Very nice video. Some feedback from me would be that you should investigate another software for recording your screen. The framerate is very slow. I have another channel where I teach developer stuff and there I use "Free Cam 8". Check it out - it might work for you also.
Have a great day

David, can you tell me how to locate the Sky Replacement tool in Neo, it's not in the Creative menu, no idea if i have it or it's hidden somewhere.
Thanks if you can.

Luminar lost me completely when I learned that the extensions were $109 each if you want them. I am a Lr/Ps user and actually enjoy editing so speed isn't interesting to me. I know some folks don't enjoy the process of editing so for them it may be different.

Does luminar neo have the capability to manage photos? Library of photo albums?

I start with Luminar 3 till the NEO version. but the new billing system and the Extension costs pushing me out of Luminar NEO.

You keep arguing that the usage of some of the features, make the photo look "Fake". I would use the word "expressionism" because let's face it, the moment you hit that preset, the photo is no longer authentic or "pure". 😉

Thanks for the video, and thanks for asking for others' experiences. Useful.

Thanks David, that's just what I needed to hear. I was about to purchase Luminar Neo and thought I might need to hear a review on it first. They have an end of the year holiday special now for $99 for the lifetime so I'm going to get it. Thanks!

This is just my 2 cents worth, but here is no such thing as lifetime with any of these companies, because usually annually they bring out a brand new version say v2 which you'll have to pay an upgrade fee for. You also stated Neo is a little cheaper than LR yes, but for the extra couple of $ you get Photoshop, Camera Raw plus a free Portfolio web site I actually use saving me paying for web space.
My biggest gripe is speed, Iv'e just upgraded to a M1 Macbook pro 16gb, and Neo still takes forever to process my finished edits, whereas LR flies through them.
A very professional video David well done, which has helped many out there I'm sure to decide what's best for there needs.

Hi David, great video! I currently have Luminar AI and was seeing if it was worth it to upgrade to Neo plus I was comparing Neo to LR. Question, does LR presets work on Luminar? Thanx

I have to admit, I am less than enthused by all this one click and it's fixed software. I own Neo, not totally sure why because I have never used it beyond a quick test drive when I first got it. I am one who thoroughly enjoys editting time and I'm not taken with all this other stuff. I think Neo actually walks a fine line where it gets pretty fake looking pretty fast.

Luminar Neo vs DxO PL 6?? <3<3

My ultimate goal is to completely get away from photoshop due to its complexity. I have an idea in mind for a picture and I don't want the software to make the process of getting there frustrating. With Luminar, I get to where I need to go very fast and my clients are super happy.

Hi David, yes, I used to subscribe to the Lightroom and associated software photography package but 2 factors lead to my transferring to Luminar Neo. I opine the following: cost of Lightroom to Luminar, and complexity of Lightroom and associated software to LuminarNeo; doubtless many can easily become adept with Lightroom and its associated software, but I couldn't. Regards JB

This year is my 50th anniversary as a working photographer. I just added a new Dell computer as an additional editing platform in addition to my two Macs. I find Adobe's subscription model abhorrent and went looking for a substitute. After testing a couple of options I decided to take a chance with Luminar as I got it about two hours ago for a sale price of $89.00 so I figured for that price the gamble was worth a try. I have now completed uploading 4393 images. The interface is nothing short of brilliant. The speed of adding the images was incredibly fast and the visual representation of the images is beyond outstanding. I'm looking forward to the editing capabilities and I suspect I will be very pleased.

You can pay for the perpetual licence but they get around providing you an app that lasts until a major upgrade by rereleasing it under a new name, Ai>Neo, unlike the likes of Serif where you get a few years of ownership and updates. Might as well be subscription based, which I don't buy into.

The problem with Skylum software is the deception. I have bought every form of every Skylum Offering for the last five years and NEO was a fraudulent roll out. The Extensions they now offer where part of the promised advertisement for the software early purchase. AI Background removal is now an extension but was the big hook originally. I use mainly Capture One 23 and will no long support Skylum Products.

which do I enjoy using the most is lightroom, neo is like filters and luts over your photo with sliders and masks

Yes, I use Luminar Neo. I have stopped using LR or PS all together.

Is there an iPad version of luminar neo? I guess not…

Love Luminar, AI and Neo. Only use LR for B&W in Silver Efex. This suits my photography.