My Honest Opinion about Luminar Neo

So Skylum announced yet another new photo editor, and I wanted to quickly share my initial honest opinion and first impressions about it. I apologize in advance if I am wrong about anything, and I will wait until I get my hands on the beta before I pass full judgment, but my initial thoughts are skeptical and this is coming from someone who is a Luminar affiliate. I hope I am proved wrong!

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO LINKS:

MUSIC LINKS:

[alkippe]

Imagine disliking a video for someone trying to stop you from being ripped off 🤦‍♂️

[fretless]

I've used Luminar products since before it was called Luminar (as well as Aurora for HDR) and stopped at Luminar 4. I wasn't interested in buying AI because it really only seemed to remove the control I have in 4. From the marketing, it seems that Neo has added features of layers and masking that might make it a little closer to a full-featured package, which Luminar has never been. I've always had to go to other software for stitching panoramas, for focus stacking (even HDR stacking forces you to buy Aurora), etc. I'm hoping that some of those features get implemented in Neo or an update at some point. Luminar has always been a very user friendly package that allows hobbyists like me to do a lot of powerful editing/processing with far less knowledge and experience than would be required to do them in Photoshop, but it's always been lacking in some significant parts of a workflow. Through an email offer, I got an even lower pre-sale price, so bit the bullet and am keeping my fingers crossed.

[kavi]

I bought version 4 with your discount code based on your recommendation and got angry when they replaced it with AI when it clearly was a replacement. I got some updates for 4, but they have not added anything meaningful or new, and performance is still bad on Windows and my daughter's macbook. When I saw this video go up, I thought, oh no, please don't sell out and tell us how amazing Neo is going to be...PHEW!! You would have lost me as a subscriber. Thank you for looking out for us. I salute you!

[fenraven]

You're not wrong. I've enjoyed L4 and AI, but this release feels sketchy. As you said, it should have been an upgrade to AI.

[nickandhelmi]

Aww we dont use this but it sound unnecessary upgrade 🥺 good on you aaron to be honest, ppl will appreciate this for sure ❤

[didierroubinet]

I bought all the versions for the last years and will buy this one as each new release brought me features I loved ;-)

[andrewhillphotosvideos]

Yes you can carry over your folders over from luminar4 and Ai .. The new engine they are using to make Neo is not compatible with the previous software's

[Livingtheglobe]

It will be able to carry over not at the launch but on the 1st update.

[salahmed]

You've nailed it, my friend. It's exploitation pure and simple, and Skylum should hang their heads in shame.

[wipeoutking]

Thank you for saying what you honestly think. Refreshingly rare.

[Zaibacu]

About the business model... Companies basically have two choices:
- Release incremental updates for a price (like Skylum is doing)
- Take a subscription fee (Adobe)

There's kinda no in-between, they need to make money somehow :) Maybe some kind of hybrid approach where you buy software and pay subscription for extra features, but would it be better?

[Swayzee]

Great review Aaron. Always nice to see an honest review. I don't use Luminar, but it was cool to see the highlights and concerns.

[mariaandbryan]

Cool t-shirt Aaron!
And you are freaking awesome, we know we can count on you with honest reviews.
Luminar AI looked really cool when you first introduced us to it, and we totally thank you for being so unbiased regardless of you being an affiliate to Luminar.

[sirelegance]

Skylum 2018: "Luminar 3 is a broken mess. Let's abandon it and make Luminar 4. It will be a full photo editor with all the bells and whistles.
Skyum 2019: "Luminar 4 is a broken mess, let's release a more streamlined, dumbed down version and call it Luminar AI
Skylum 2021: "Luminar AI is a broke mess. Let's release a full photo editor with all the bells and whistles. We'll call it Luminar 4...I mean Luminar NEO!

[MOAB-UT]

For a non-pro I think NEO will be a nice piece of software to help them make their raw images pop without too much fuss.

[sarag]

I liked AI but found myself always going back to LR+PS just because there are more tutorials online and stuff. I appreciate your honestly on this though, I think it's important to have integrity and call out companies when they do shady moves like this. Kudos to you.

[nickandhelmi]

Aaron, i love the tshirt!!☺ btw love your honesty upfront👍🏻

[IlyaWazuhiru]

off-topic: love your tshirt, where'd you get it?

[gregallenphoto]

Thanks, really good point of view. I would pay a bit more to have it all combined.

[mikiedphoto]

I 100% agree with you!
Thank you for it!