Luminar Neo

[swoosh]

Anyone use Luminar Neo? If so what are your thoughts?

 

[StevenAunan]

Yes. And I also used Luminar 4 before Neo was launched. I used it for the first year without a membership and was satisfied. Some of the extra tools are worth the cost.

What I like:

• price: perpetual license is affordable; marketplace of additional features available but not required.
• ease of use: interface is simple and effective; numerous editing tools (35, not counting presets) range from essential to niche; visual feedback is fast; copy image edits from one image and paste onto to other images; rotate and flip.
• image management: create custom folders and albums; flag as favorite, reject or unmarked; star rating 1-5; sort images by date, camera, focal length, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, file format; delete individual images or batches.
• this is a huge plus for me: parent folder view also displays all images in child folders, and you can drill down into subfolders.

What I don't like:

• generative AI tools require a membership, but they don't work very well and I don't like AI anyway. (Some of the basic tools like twilight and water enhancer also use AI, but you can set the amount of alteration.)
• the ease of use can make it too easy to over-process images.
• delay in adding new camera profiles.
• no tool to import images from storage cards

I recently purchased DxO PhotoLab 9 and Film Pack 8, and that has become my primary editing suite. I also have Exposure X7 because it imports and renames images automatically. And I find myself going back to Neo for its excellent management tools: PhotoLab doesn't display images from subfolders (only the parent), and I have all my photos organized in a parent "topic" folder (landscapes, travel, wildlife, etc.) with child subfolders by date.

PhotoLab's editing tools are superior, but I still give Neo a strong recommendation.

 

[David Stallard]

Wife 'Cory' uses Neo exclusively and loves it, it is def slower on the processing than LR but she takes her time with each image and always blows me away.
I was going to make the jump but what stopped me was batch processing - with the motor racing I will spin through the shots from the day with IrfanView to delete any bad ones (usually shoot around 2500 - 3000 in a full 8 to 10 hour race day, then I run them all through LR with a premade pre-set whilst I have tea / shower - quick check and upload - Neo hasn't got that feature that we could find (not quick and reliable for that many in one go anyway)