Luminar Neo – The King of Sky Replacement
Luminar Neo is arguably the best sky replacement out there. With a host of new tools, including layer masking, it’s hard to go past.
A brief history
Initially released by Macphun, Luminar has been around for over ten years now. The company was started in 2008 by two Ukrainian gaming software developers. As the company grew, its focus moved to creative photography. In 2015, Macphun partnered with Trey Ratcliff and developed an HDR program named Aurora. Luminar, intended as an all-in-one alternative to Photoshop, was released in 2015.
Initially, Luminar was only available for the macOS. However, in 2018 Luminar also included a Windows PC version in its release, and it was at this time, Macphun changed its name to Skylum. Luminar Ai was released in 2021, and Luminar Neo followed in 2022. All Luminar products have featured sky replacement, with each new release improving the technology. Over the years, Luminar has won many prestigious industry awards for photo editing innovation, including four gold awards at the Digital Camera Grand Prix.
Luminar Ai
Luminar Ai was a brand new product – not an upgrade to Luminar 3 or 4. Instead, it offered an entirely new approach to photo editing powered by artificial intelligence. Luminar Ai also introduced various tools for portraits and enhanced the landscape tools. The sky replacement in Luminar Ai also received a significant upgrade.
Luminar Neo
Like Luminar Ai – Luminar Neo was a new product built from the ground up – not an upgrade. The portrait bokeh is excellent, with Neo automatically masking out your subject to isolate the background. You then adjust the sliders to your liking to create a creamy bokeh behind your subject. How much bokeh remains entirely within your control. The Relight feature is another excellent addition. Neo calculates the depth of the image and creates a 3D map. You can then adjust the light naturally from front to back.
However, the sky replacement is why I use Luminar in all its iterations. Too often, I have taken a shot that I was happy with, except for the bland sky. Returning time and time again to get the shot in perfect conditions isn’t always feasible. So sky replacement saves the day. I remember when sky replacement was in its infancy, and trying to do it in a heavily treed image almost drove me to drink! In Neo, adding your own custom skies is much easier, and the replacement sky will now also reflect onto the water, ensuring your sky replacement looks more natural.
Do You Need Both?
So, the big question is, I guess, do you need Luminar Neo if you already have Luminar 4 or Ai? Well, it depends on which one you have. Luminar 4 was notoriously (painfully) slow to load and process images, so if you didn’t upgrade from Luminar 4 to Luminar Ai, I would definitely recommend you take the plunge for Luminar Neo. If, however, you do have Luminar Ai, I would still consider Luminar Neo a good investment. This is because the loading and processing of Neo are markedly faster again. In addition, the interface is more intuitive and straightforward. Plus, there are all those lovely new features.
Neo’s rebuilt engine has much better speed and performance than Ai, and with Neo, you gain the ability to add layers, much like Photoshop. Luminar Neo also has the Remove Powerlines and Remove Dust Spots. Both work with a single click without time-consuming manual masking. There is, however, a brush option to manually remove more complicated power lines and dust spots. However, at the time of writing this, only Luminar Ai has Dodge and Burn and Clone. However, neither of those tools is a deal-breaker to me, as I have them in Photoshop.
Sale Starts today!
Skylum’s summer sale starts today with a massive 60% saving on Luminar Neo. Luminar Neo is usually priced at $123 Au – less the loyalty discount if you already have a Skylum product. Both programs offer a free trial and give a 30 money-back guarantee on your purchase. Lifetime licences with standard updates are included.
- The summer sale price of Luminar Neo, a one-time purchase, is $67 for one licence or $84 for two licences(around $50 off). They are also including Aurora HDR and Nature templates for free
Click HERE for the special sale price – Sale ends June 10, 2022
Verdict
I have been with Luminar since Luminar 4. I then bought Luminar Ai as soon as it was released. The following year I purchased Luminar Neo with the early bird special – and I can say unreservedly, I love it. It’s packed with more advanced features than Luminar Ai and is faster and simpler to use. I still have Ai on the computer for when I want to access the few things Neo doesn’t have, and Skylum is still putting out updates to Luminar Ai. I do expect, however, that Luminar Neo will eventually catch up, and when that happens, I will uninstall Luminar Ai. If you own Luminar Ai, upgrading to Neo will give you a better experience, and with your loyalty discount, it’s excellent value. For me, Luminar Neo, with its superior sky replacement and faster processing, is a clear winner.
disclosure:
The links given here are affiliate links. While they won’t cost you any extra, I may receive a commission if you purchase using the links in this post. However, these are programs I bought myself and are highly recommended.