My Luminar Neo Review: Does it Live up to the Hype?

After nearly 7 months of using it, I'm finally ready to give you my Luminar Neo review. I'll take you through what I think are the pros and cons of the software, to truly understand where it excels, and where it leaves a bit to be desired.

You'll get a better idea of where the software is at and what's yet to come.

You'll also see why Luminar Neo has become such a valuable part of my photo editing workflow (and you should too.)

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📢 Buy my Luminar Neo course

📌 Table of Contents

0:00 Introduction
1:09 What is Luminar Neo?
4:56 What are the minimum computer specs for Luminar Neo
6:58 Why Luminar Neo is a BIG part of my workflow
12:24 Luminar Neo Pros
26:56 Cons - What are the shortcomings?
34:01 Skylum is a Ukrainian company - pro or con?
35:00 What are the future plans for Luminar Neo
35:46 Extensions - What are they?
39:26 Who Luminar Neo is FOR and NOT FOR
42:58 Pricing for Luminar Neo explained
44:49 Education - How to learn Luminar Neo

📷 Amazon Resources (affiliate links)

Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

📷 Related Videos to Watch

Luminar Neo HDR Merge Review

Luminar Neo Portrait Background Removal Tool

Luminar Neo Layers Tutorial

📷 Luminar Neo Review
My written review of Luminar Neo

I recently spent a few weeks test driving several photo editing software. My extensive review of them can be found here:

See which editor turned out to be the best in my opinion.

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#LuminarNeo #LuminarNeoReview #photoediting

[SkywayScott]

Thank you for concisely and rationally presenting information. I am SOOO tired of people being flashy, trying to be cool, and waving their hands all over
the place and not simply presenting information effectively. Well done.

[Johnelainelich]

Awesome!!! Like the sky replacement the most!! Well delivered information in a easy to understand format.

[markhorst]

Darlene you are the reason why I chose Iluminar neo. I also purchased your course which is also a very good decision on my part.
I bought a lifetime license of Neo and I just purchased a bundle extension pack. I couldn’t feel better about my choice. Your videos are very helpful in making the transition from other editing programs. I’ve been on Lightroom user from way back. I decided for what I do I want something easier powerful enough to do advanced editing at a more reasonable price. Thanks again Darlene

[shannonpage]

Thanks so much for a hugely informative video. I’m buying all the ads ons & am excited about the future potential of the product.
Also appreciated the tip about Picmonkey!

[samossurfphotography]

Thanks for taking the time to do this review, very thorough & I really enjoyed it. It made up my mind to purchase it & give it a go 👍

[PoetryFilms]

That’s an excellent, thorough introduction to Luminar Neo. The best I’ve seen. Many thanks. Subbed.

[michelesholar]

thank you for explaining luminar neo . i've been looking for a easier way to edit my photos.
I am sold! thank you again!

[ubbyliv]

Great overview - thanks. I already have everything including your course 😊 As for the extensions I’m one of those who always want all the goodies so I went for the yearly subscription.

[ThePNWRiderWA]

This is one of the best objective reviews I have seen a product. I have been using their products on my Mac when they sold Mac stand alone tools

The biggest thing is the product is lacking and frustration is the lack of a undo ability.

Some of the tools, I find very helpful, with multiple ways to do contrast, and their masking is pretty accurate and easy. Dodge and burn was a nice add on.

Noiseless is very slow on my m1 Mac compared to others, even slower than topaz.

HDR merge works better than photomatrix which was surprising

[brucewiebe]

I started with L3, L4, AI and then NEO. Also have Aurora so I got the Merge extension. I also have Topaz DeNoise, Sharpen and Gigapixel so some of the other announced extensions would improve my workflow but are not necessary. More than a little frustrated with the new pricing models. Many of their products released in past years have hardly been functional, lacking features, slow (and I have a fast MacBook Pro with 64 GM Ram) and bug filled. Seems to take them a year to deliver what was promised and then, just as the program is working OK, they release a new program where the existing catalogue won’t work with the new release.
I think I will sit this round of upgrades out. Use what I have and revisit things in a year.
Really like your videos. Keep up the good work.

[jmbonthous]

Very good video-- clear, lots of substance, very helpful. Thank you

[oldmalty]

Darlene, I think you pretty much nailed the pros and cons of Neo (for where it is now) in a fair and unbiased fashion.
I used Luminar4 as an occasional supplement to Adobe editors previously and bought Neo as soon as it was available. It was marketed in an unusual manner, kind of the promise of ‘jam tomorrow’ which required a degree of faith in Skylum. I don’t regret taking that gamble and after 12 months it’s becoming a fully fledged stand alone editor to challenge market leaders. Furthermore I took the plunge on the extension pack also.As a landscape photographer, I used Aurora previously so I knew it would work well. De-noise is also important to me, so these two alone make the pack price worthwhile. We already know upscale is coming and maybe focus stack, which will really put the cherry on top. I also believe Skylum will continue to evolve and improve existing tools.
….. Adobe should worry !

[uhoku_official]

Hi Darlene, this video is so useful, thank you.
I just purchased the 2-year Neo subscription to use as a standalone as I work with Topaz and Affinity, not photoshop nor Lightroom.
I’m wondering what the upside is to install the Photos for macOS extension and if you recommend it.
Thank you.

[geraldhill]

Hi Darlene,
You asked what I am using regarding NEO. I love the program. However, I have not bought the extensions because I already have Topaz products that do a good job, especially the new Topaz Photo AI. Thanks for the excellent video.

[michaelpegg]

Good review and hope that Luminar do correct the basic shortfalls Ctrl Z and masking or they wil be left behind.

[stefanbernhard]

How does the streamlined workflow and HDR compare compare to on1? I'm using LR and Photoshop (as an intermediate level user, and find it unnecessarily time consuming! Great video 👌😎

[hVFKZuQPeCcu]

Best video i’ve seen overviewing Luminar Neo, thanks! I’d agree with most of what you said. Quickly, here are some beefs. The powerline erase is useless to me. Unless the powerlines are very simple, it leaves far too much residue. The Mask AI is very frustrating and so many times very inaccurate. With no edge aware brush available to clean up the masks i stick with Photoshop. Neo renders my Fuji files horribly sometimes, especially if they are underexposed. Capture One, Lightroom, and ON1 are much better. I could go on but that’s a taste of my gripes. Overall, it can do a lot of things and i agree it is simple to use.

[linkup]

Been using Neo for a while now and like it. What I am struggling with is that I miss all the print options from lightroom as I can’t afford the monthly subscription from Adobe. Any ideas?
Great content as always. Thank you.

[charlesmargrave]

I use On1 Photo Raw 2022 as my base (replacing Light Room). Send files to NEO for extra processing. My problem with NEO is that the individual extentions is almost the same price as upgrading (with discounts) to On1 Photo Raw 2023. The 2023 version has many of the NEO extentions capability.

[WilliamWallaceRoss]

Fantastic job laying it all out for those who might be looking to purchase Photo Editing Software and those of us who own Skylum Products. Gives me something to think about as a NEO Owner and I think my first order of business will be to move my library to an external drive, making it easier to have one catalog, instead or moving folders off my Mac.