Skylum Luminar [The Ultimate Tutorial]

Skylum, formerly known as Macphun has its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, is a software development company. In addition, Snapheal, Focus, Tonality, Intensify, Noiseless, and FX Photo Studio were developed by Skylum, which is well recognised for the photo-editing software Luminar and Aurora HDR. When the company decided to develop its Mac-only product for Windows as well, it decided to change its name from Macphun, which it had used since its founding in 2008, to Skylum. Over 60 applications were released by the company in its first three years. Skylum wants to make products that will help countless photographers achieve their creative visions. The most popular downloads, though, were photography apps. Skylum’s AI technologies provide easy yet efficient photo editing options that let photographers communicate their stories visually. In addition to numerous other renowned industry awards, Skylum has won the Red Dot Award, Apple’s Best of Year, TIPA and EISA Best Imaging Software Awards, and the Red Dot Award. More than 40 million people use it throughout 141 nations. 

OVERVIEW 

Skylum products, including Luminar Neo, Luminar AI, and Aurora HDR, are designed to make it easy for consumers to create stunning photos. The company’s flagship product, Luminar Neo, uses industry-leading AI technology to enable the creation of photographs of a high standard. AI is being used by Skylum to speed up photo editing. AI solutions like Sky Replacement and Power Line have made hard, time-consuming jobs simple one-click processes. Numerous settings for quick enhancements, a Relight AI, and features to enhance portraits are all available. Skylum was created in 2008 as Macphun by two video game developers and amateur photographers, Dmitry Sytnik and Paul Muzok. First, the company produced iOS applications. One of its first programmes was Vintage Video Maker, which later became known as Vintagio. Skylum consequently made the decision to provide the same photography programme for macOS. Vintagio was ranked as one of the top iPhone applications of 2009 by Apple. In Kyiv, Ukraine, Skylum’s primary development center is situated. Ukraine is currently suffering greatly as a result of Russia’s military conflict with that country.

LUMINAR NEO 

Luminar Neo is intended for serious photographers and photo editors, similar to Luminar AI. The AI-powered tools speed up editing without compromising on quality. Because of its new overlay features and potent AI tools, Luminar Neo has a wide range of users. Best for content producers for social media, they will love the AI templates and modes. Luminar Neo’s AI tools are capable of fashion and editorial photography, the relight AI and portrait tools are fantastic. Professional photographers will benefit from using Luminar Neo to edit and publish their images. The AI clean-up tool is among the most appealing features. Dust specks and electricity lines can be taken out of your photographs using Luminar Neo. It only requires a few mouse clicks to complete because of the AI tool. Photographers can save time and money by doing away with these time-consuming activities with Neo.

How to use Luminar Neo?

You may access the download links in your Skylum account. Please note that your billing email will be immediately linked to your purchase of Luminar Neo, so you are sure to register for a Skylum account with that email or sign in to the one you already have.

STEP 1: Visit the Skylum account login page. 

STEP 2: Log in using your email address and password if you don’t already have a Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple account, or use one of those services if you do.

STEP 3: Create an account with Skylum if you don’t already have one. Verify that you enter the email address you used to purchase Luminar Neo.

STEP 4: The fourth step is to merge your accounts if you already have a Skylum account but bought Luminar Neo with a separate email address. This may be done in the My Software > App section of your Skylum account. 

Step 5: You’ll see Luminar Neo listed under the My Applications page in your account, which houses all of your Skylum software.

STEP 6: Find the Luminar Neo tab and click the Get button to download it.

LUMINAR NEO TOP FEATURES

1. Artificial intelligence-powered editing tools

A superb selection of artistic editing tools is included with Luminar Neo to support the realization of your artistic visions. In order to make editing quick, simple, and most importantly, effective, many of Luminar Neo’s tools were built to make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These tools swiftly and easily carry out intricate changes while delivering top-notch outcomes. Most of the techniques in Luminar Neo can be used either locally or globally. Although manual masking is much reduced by AI, masking tools are still available if necessary.

2. Remove Dust Spots

The Erase tool’s Remove Dust Spots automatically detect and eliminates dust spots from images. Ideally, you won’t need to use Remove Dust Spots on every picture but it’s wonderful to have when you do. It saves a lot of time and performs admirably!

3. Modular Engine

The Luminar Neo engine is built in a “modular” way. According to this, each editing area receives its own processor for increased optimization. The Luminar AI ran out of energy very rapidly. If there were too many effects utilized, performance would suffer. As soon as a bug appeared, the system would stop showing the updates. The main engine in Luminar Neo has undergone a considerable update. Quick adjustments are done. Additionally, Luminar Neo functions much more efficiently than previous iterations. With every firmware update, Luminar Neo, however, rapidly loses efficiency. There is a long wait while applying effects and layers.

4. Masking AI

Luminar Neo now has precise AI-powered masking thanks to MaskAI. It simplifies difficult editing operations such as compositing and enables the precise application of local modifications. MaskAI recognises distinct components of a picture. As of now, this consists of people, skies, buildings, modes of transportation, plants, water, mountains, natural ground, and manmade ground. Additional elements will be included later.  It is easy to use MaskAI. After selecting a Tool and moving a slider, select Masking > MaskAI. Select the aspect you want to alter and let the AI perform its magic. You can switch to the masking brush if necessary to add or remove portions of the AI-made mask.

5. User Interface

The user interface for Luminar Neo is excellent. It promises to be clean and simple to browse. Every tool is conveniently available. The catalog view, which displays your photos as thumbnails, makes it simple to find the picture you want to modify. And it’s easy to add more from outside sources. By choosing “Add Photos” from the menu, you may either add an entire folder of photos or just one. When you pick the album or image you want to import, your Neo Library opens. After choosing the photo from your collection, click the “Edit” button at the top of the window to make changes. The user interface of Luminar Neo is surprisingly intuitive, even for novice editors.

6. Control

The company worked with photographers and artists to develop an image editor that allows users total control over a picture. With the help of the programme, creative people can make tiny alterations to their photos to create something new and engaging.

7. Relight AI

Using the Relight AI tool, you can simply alter the tone of your photo. While filming outside, you may not always be able to get the desired lighting. You usually find it difficult to control the illumination. However, the Relight AI tool is under your control. The technology works well. The quick modifications don’t compromise the image’s quality. The only problem is that there is no area control. Simple controls let you adjust the brightness up close and far away.

8. Layers

One of the primary elements that Luminar AI lacks and that Luminar Neo will have is layers. Creators will be able to use RAW pictures as layers using Luminar Neo. Additionally, layers with pictures and masks can be saved to a new Preset or Template for later usage. Additionally, it enables the independent application of pre-existing presets or templates to any layer.

LUMINAR PROS 

Performance-oriented

The swift Luminar Neo has undergone a major rebuild. According to Skylum, Luminar Neo significantly beats Luminar AI for challenging editing tasks. The characteristics of your computer will determine the performance gains you experience.

Multiple times using tools

Luminar Neo fixes this problem by enabling you to use and add any tool repeatedly. This is useful if you want to use a tool at different levels to accentuate or decrease specific elements of a photo. You can use many instances of the same tool to create an extreme effect if moving a tool’s slider all the way up doesn’t deliver the intended outcome. When combined with MaskAI, using a tool more than once allows amazing creative freedom.

Photo Control

Note that this feature does not offer modern picture management tools like Face Recognition and Geo-tagging, meaning you cannot tag images with keywords. The photo management tool is located on the Catalog Tab and assists you in dragging photos into albums, allowing you to flag them as “Favorite” or “Rejected.”

Editing options

With options for multiple picture export, sync editing, and plugin compatibility for Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, these programmes enable users to import and manage photos using their respective top platforms. Luminar Neo offers 10 additional editing tools compared to Luminar AI’s 32, and more are expected with each upgrade.

Using a mobile app to manage images

A mobile app from Skylum has made it easier to upload photographs from your smartphone. Using the software, which is compatible with both Android and Apple devices, you can easily transfer photographs from your phone to the Luminar Neo on your PC and vice versa.

Compatibility

Connectivity options for Luminar Neo include Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Photos for macOS, and Photos for Windows. For people who already have a workflow built up with another asset manager or other image editing apps, Luminar Neo makes an excellent plugin. Luminar Neo is compatible with Photoshop (as of version CS5), Lightroom Classic (as of version 6), Photos for macOS, and Photos for Windows.

LUMINAR NEO CONS

Editing Features

If you’re used to using the independent editing features of Luminar AI, you could find it difficult to adjust to Luminar Neo’s one-click editing solution. Professional photo editors might find it difficult to give up customizing possibilities, but if you’re just starting out with photo editing, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Basic Local Masking and Composition AI

Basic Local Masking and Composition AI are not available in the new Luminar Neo, which will only be noticeable to those used to the earlier Luminar AI, newer users won’t be able to distinguish the differences

Limited Layers

However, Luminar Neo manages Layers in a terrible way. As far as I can see, they have no additional functionality other than how they behave similarly to textures in Lumina AI’s Local Masking. At the present, only image layers can be added. To create a stamping or adjustment layer, there is no system in place.

Catalog is not modified

Users who had hoped to see more organizational features like Stars, Color Labels, Keywords, and the ability to edit information will be disappointed because the Catalog module in Luminar Neo is essentially identical to what was provided in Luminar AI with just minor interface changes.

LUMINAR PRICING 

With just the three economically efficient plans listed below, you can have the photo-editing programme you’ve always desired.

Pro Monthly plan: This subscription includes the photo editor Luminar Neo and provides access to every big platform upgrade as well as all free platform upgrades, including those for performance and stability. You have immediate access to all Extensions, including those launched over the course of your subscription. With this package, technical support is offered around-the-clock. The monthly fee per user is 1189 INR, and the annual fee is 14268 INR.

Pro annually plan: This plan offers round-the-clock technical support, and picture editor Luminar Neo Pro annually has access to all free platform upgrades, including those for performance and stability. Users have easy access to all Extensions, including those released during your subscription period. You will pay around 583 INR each month for this plan, which has an annual user fee of 6999 INR.

Lifetime plan: Includes the Luminar neo picture editor, access to speed and stability updates, and any future restricted platform updates that can be acquired with the 2022 Extensions pack. Normally, you would pay 7899 INR upfront for this package.

LUMINAR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) 

How does Luminar differ from Lightroom?

The primary distinction between Luminar and Lightroom is that Luminar offers a quicker editing experience. Professional photographers will benefit from Luminar’s one-click artificial intelligence and considerably simpler UI than Lightroom.

How can my Luminar catalog be moved?

To transfer a Luminar catalog properly, you require all of them. Access the folder containing the “luminar” file by moving up one level in the Finder or Explorer. Transfer the folder containing the “luminar” file and its other contents to a different place. You can now transfer it to your external hard disc at this point.

What differentiates Luminar from Luminar AI?

The Develop module, the first group of tools in Luminar Neo’s Edits section, is a significant distinction between that software and Luminar AI. The Develop section, much like in Lightroom and other photo editors, includes a number of fundamental editing capabilities that Luminar AI shockingly lacks.

Is Luminar AI suitable for new users?

Although Luminar is easy to use for beginners, it is certainly qualified for experts. Using the Library option, you can import smaller projects or single images very quickly. “AI Sky Replacement” is one of Luminar’s greatest features.

Does Lightroom CC support Luminar?

Skylum Luminar is an independent tool that can serve as a strong replacement for Lightroom, but it can also be added as a plugin if you prefer to stay using Lightroom while still having access to Luminar’s vast libraries of presets and filters.

CONCLUSION 

SKYLUM LUMINAR is a powerful picture editor Luminar Neo provides a variety of industry-leading AI tools, a digital asset management module, and more. Replace skies, include realistic fog, use one-click presets, and enhance your photographs with stunning light leaks and bokeh effects. It is a user-friendly, elegant editing program like Luminar Neo that may satisfy novice and even experienced editors, especially those who want to optimize their processes using AI-powered tools.  Relight AI is extremely cool, especially for portrait and landscape photos, and Mask AI will be an excellent addition to the software. Luminar’s Sky AI is great and further solidifies Luminar’s spot as one of the best sky replacement products on the market. No matter how much or little experience you have with photo editing software, it’s rather self-explanatory and ought to be simple enough for most individuals to grasp right away. The capability to use it as a plugin for your current software, such as Photoshop, is also advantageous for people who want some of the functions of the software but may not want to rely on it. It’s fantastic for people who want to spend the least amount of time editing possible because all of its artificial intelligence technologies step in to make editing less painful and challenging. The editing done by Luminar AI is likewise of exceptionally high quality.