Luminar Neo, Anyone? (Page 2): Just finished another wedding on the week-end and used C One as my catalogue and NEO exclusively for post finishing. The entire post took a few hours (as...

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

jerryc41 wrote:

I watched "Photo Genius" do a demo using Luminar Neo last night, and it was impressive. Of course, anything can look impressive with an expert using it. Have any of you used Luminar Neo? Like most other programs, it's available as a "rental" or for $109 outright without the Extensions. You can buy the Extensions for $209. It's odd that the Extensions are almost twice the price of the program. Is the program any good without the extensions?

Just finished another wedding on the week-end and used C One as my catalogue and NEO exclusively for post finishing. The entire post took a few hours (as in really fast), the power of this software is under-rated.

Between relighting portions of photos, sliming bodies, faces, whitening teeth, improving eyes, adding some bokeh to some photos, adding sharpening, contrast, a bit of fog, one sky change, entire background replacements, and numerous other improvements, I was amazed with the program's intensity, depth, & especially speed...it has become a mature product and has become a "go-to" program for me which in many ways supersedes and improves upon all the "big boy" competitors.

Cheers!

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

I just purchased Luminar Neo based on reviews from some of the celebrated gurus of photo processing. They all seemed to be impressed with it. I also bought a learning course from Darlene Hildebrandt to get me up to speed on the program. I was really impressed with the power line removal feature as I have many St Petersburg photos covered with power line trash that ruin the photos. The other big thing is sky replacement.

I'm not yet ready to weigh in heavily on the program. This thread came up too early for meaningful dialog from me, but I wanted to add that I purchased it and have high expectations for it as "The Next Big Thing".

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Fredrick wrote:

I’ve had all versions of Luminar since it’s inception, including Neo. It’s excellent, but fairly slow on my high performance laptop.
I’m editing hundreds of photos from a wedding and it’s crashed several times. I’ve reverted back to Luminar AI which is more stable, faster, and has 99% of what Neo has.

Interestingly enough, I just finished a wedding in Neo and it was super fast on my 64K iMac without crashing at all. I am now using it as my "go-to" post program because of its speed, ease of use and power. Cheers!

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

jerryc41 wrote:

How does the list in that picture compare with the standard $100 version? I'm just afraid that if I buy it, the right column will be empty, and I'll have to spend another $209 to get the useful bits.

EDIT: I assume that if I buy the Extension Pack, I will get what's currently available, but not future extensions.

Honestly, I think the "standard" version includes everything in your list except for the Extensions section. I also have the HDR Merge, which appears in a separate drop zone where you can drag 1 to 10 images for processing. I believe you have two options when it comes to extensions: purchase each separately, or become a subscriber, where all current and future extensions are available (when they become published). I have a two-seat license (for use on two computers) and a subscription, which applies to both.

Polock

here's the rest of that base version

johnny1950 Loc: Palm Coast, Florida

Jerry
I just purchased Luminar Neo. I love it. There is a learning curve. I paid $87.00 with the discount code. I also purchased the course by Darlene for $99.00 and both are worth every penny. I am a PS/ LR user and also use Topaz the complete set. So far this seems to be a lot better than PS/LR. They have a free trial version if you want to check it out before investing. Good luck
Johnny

johnny1950 Loc: Palm Coast, Florida

Jerry
I just purchased Luminar Neo and am very happy with it. Everything is included I paid $87.00 with the $10.00 discount coupon from Phil Steele. He does an excellent presentation on it. He also recommended a course by Darlene which cost $99.00 no discount. The course is well worth while she is an excellent instructor. I now use P/S L/R and the complete set of Topaz. I started using this a few days ago and I believe it will replace P/S and L/R. Need more time with it to be sure. Good luck
Johnny

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

not just no but hell no.. I’ve been a customer all the way back to the MacPhun days (the name before Skylum). Ever release of Luminar had major issues that they said they would fix but rather what did was come up with the next best greatest thing and never fixed the problem. When they announced Neo they said it wasn’t a replacement for Luminar AI but it was. It is missing multiple features and before fixing them they started pushing extensions. The extensions for the most part are features other all-in-one products like Photoshop/Lightroom Classic and On1 are just part of the products. These extension are expensive. $299 (laughs on sale for $199) or move to a subscription plan at $99 or more.

They sell sizzle (new features) and never fix the meat. Go look at On1 2023 or Photoshop/Lightroom Classic and you will get products that under promise and over provide. The new On1 release has some great features and ways to do things I have to do in Photoshop/Lightroom Classic right now.

I have the complete creative cloud (for school), On1 , Affinity Photo , Luminar 3, Luminar 4, Luminar AI, Neo, Topaz Sharpen AI , Topaz Gigapixel , Topaz DeNoise, Topaz Studio, Topaz Studio 2, Nik, and Apple Photo (the shared family album). When On1 2023 comes out I will have replaced all of the above except for creative cloud which I get for $80/yr, Affinity Photo (because I like their stacking features better than Photoshop or On1) and Topaz Studio and Topaz Studio 2 which are my creative plugins but are no longer being supported by Topaz.

you can get a trial of On1 2022, look at the videos of what they are going to release in October and a trial of Photoshop/Lightroom Classic and see products that actually work.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

jerryc41 wrote:

Thanks. Take a look at the screen shot below. Does the base program have that list of tools on the right?

Jerry, Yes, Luminar NEO is now my Go-To Photo Editing program. The base program has many fine tools. The Extensions are simply marketing to generate more revenue for Skylum. The Extensions cost more than the base product. It would be nice if Skylum had put the Extensions into the base program as updates...but sadly no.

To show how quickly one can do edits...it took me about 3 minutes to produce the updated image of your red car. Did Enhance, did sky replacement, and brightened the tree trunk only with a mask.

(Download)

cdesigns123

Very helpful, informative and enlightening discussion.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Fredrick wrote:

I’ve had all versions of Luminar since it’s inception, including Neo. It’s excellent, but fairly slow on my high performance laptop.
I’m editing hundreds of photos from a wedding and it’s crashed several times. I’ve reverted back to Luminar AI which is more stable, faster, and has 99% of what Neo has.

I still can't figure out what comes with the basic package. Background removal is an extension. They offer a free download, but does that include a free installation? I'll have to try it.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

jerryc41 wrote:

I watched "Photo Genius" do a demo using Luminar Neo last night, and it was impressive. Of course, anything can look impressive with an expert using it. Have any of you used Luminar Neo? Like most other programs, it's available as a "rental" or for $109 outright without the Extensions. You can buy the Extensions for $209. It's odd that the Extensions are almost twice the price of the program. Is the program any good without the extensions?

I've had Luminar 4, AI and Neo. Luminar 4 is still the best of the three. I mostly use them for sky replacement; the best product for this that I've found. AI was a waste. Neo doesn't have much to offer over 4.

bwa

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

I had problems with Neo on my Mac M1 but thankfully Skylum have fixed it. I own lots of programs including ON1 and I'm currently playing them against one another as a replacement for some things I used Nik for. Neo has lots of potential IMO but I'm very uneasy about the marketing behind both of these companies.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

jerryc41 wrote:

I watched "Photo Genius" do a demo using Luminar Neo last night, and it was impressive. Of course, anything can look impressive with an expert using it. Have any of you used Luminar Neo? Like most other programs, it's available as a "rental" or for $109 outright without the Extensions. You can buy the Extensions for $209. It's odd that the Extensions are almost twice the price of the program. Is the program any good without the extensions?

Neo sucks at this point. It doesn't even have a clone and stamp tool. I prebought it and have Luminar 3 and 4. They haven't even finished Neo and they are trying to extort more money for extensions which some of were supposed to be a part of the original neo

JohnBoy5562 Loc: Alabama

I have it and it is ok but when I bought it I had a membership X which I renewed I bought the plug in straight out. Noe then they changed it to where I could not watch the videos unless I upgrade my membership to pro. If I had to do it all over again I would probably would buy Adobe for $9.99 a month. I feel Luminar Neo screwed me as a customer.