Luminar Neo Reviews 2025 (IA)

Luminar Neo Review (2023) Now With GenErase and GenSwap

In this comprehensive Luminar Neo review, I will give you my thoughts on the first few months of using this photo editing software. You’ll learn about the pros and cons, what Luminar Neo does well, what it’s still missing, who I think it’s for (and not for), and more!

It’s broken down into chunks and you can click any of the headings below to jump to that section. But I recommend reading my entire evaluation, especially if you’re still on the fence, or have questions. I’ve tried to answer anything and everything so this is a thorough Luminar Neo review and FAQ resource for you.

Update: Skylum Software released a new GenSwap tool November 16, 2023 with their Update 1.16.0. on top of their recent October update 1.15.0 which introduced GenErase.

What is Luminar Neo?

Luminar Neo is the current generation (as of the time of writing this review) of photo editing software created by the folks at Skylum. Previous versions include Luminar AI, Luminar 4, and Luminar Flex.

Luminar Neo is a complete solution with a full raw photo editing workflow as stand-alone software, OR you can use it as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, or Apple Photos and incorporate it into your existing workflow.

Get a Free Gift with your purchase

If you are going to purchase Neo then don’t miss out on my free gift hack, it takes a second and you will get a completely free gift from Skylum included in your purchase.

Simply go the the Skylum website and proceed to purchase whichever package you are interested in, then just before you go to the checkout section pretend to exit the page by moving your mouse toward the top of the screen and a pop-up will appear, this is where Skylum will give you a free gift if you continue your purchase.

So fingers crossed you saved some money with my review promo code and now you got a free gift too, how cool is that 🙂

• I should mention here that if you purchase Neo via my discount code or via any link in this review I might get a slight commission for approved sales, it costs you nothing to use my link or code in fact you save money… I use this commission to keep this website running and to write reviews like this one. It also helps to pay for a tree to be planted. 

If you want to see Luminar Neo in action then please feel free to check out my full Luminar Neo Review video below or read on for more information on Luminar Neo.

This Luminar Neo Review has been written and judged from my own personal experiences using this software since before it was even officially released which was well over a year ago now and watching it evolve into the editing application I love today.

Now I highly recommend you download a trial copy of Luminar Neo and try it out on your editing machine for yourself. The reason i say this is we are all using different spec’d computers, different cameras, have different editing styles and just use different features.

My computer is serious editing machine and has plenty of power and I mainly edit 46mp raw files with the odd few lower resolution drone shots thrown into the mix. 

Let’s look at the Pros and Cons of Luminar Neo next.

Luminar Pros and Conns

PROS

Luminar Neo has to be one of the best all-round editors that’s equally at home editing landscapes, wildlife photography and portrait photography.

Its AI technology and applications are second to none, with a stunning array of editing apps built into one platform

The inbuilt catalog facility is great for helping to organize and store your images.

The Price has to be one of the serious advantages of Neo as for what you get it’s excellent value for money.

CONNS

It can be resource-hungry so make sure to check your editing machine is up to spec (nearly all editing apps are resource-hungry these days though).

It’s not free (there is a free trial option).

Landscape editing features

Sky Replacement in Sky AI

This feature works super smoothly and is not only super fast to use but incredibly simple also with a whole multitude of controls so you can adjust the horizontal and vertical position of the sky as well the brightness and the relighting facility as well as reflections on water etc… again the video review is the one that’s going to show all that off.

Relight AI

Relight AI gives you the possibility to completely change the lighting in an image via 3d depth mapping so for argument’s sake you want to change the brightness levels of your foreground, you could have used a gradient filter or layer to brighten a part of your image but that was incredible crude as it just brightened or darkened everything regardless of it’s depth in the image.

Luminar can now sense depth in a two-dimensional image which is huge and will help avoid spending ten minutes with the brush tool painting on the effect you want.

Minimum Computer Requirements	8 GB RAM, 10 GB disk space
Minimum Software Requirements	macOS 10.14.6 (Mojave), Microsoft Windows 10
Mobile / Tablet Option	No
Tethered Shooting	No
Keyword Tagging	Yes
Camera and Lens Corrections	Yes
Brush Tools	Yes
Layered Editing	Yes
AI Editing	Yes
Noise Reduction	Yes
Export Options	JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JPEG-2000, PSD, PDF
Best For	Photographers who want to spend little time editing while also being able to make dramatic edits

Luminar Neo is a program that can support almost all your needs in photographic post-processing. It provides an organizational platform as well as a great number of edits. There are also several options to support the final photographic file. This includes upscaling and stitching for panoramas or focus-stacked images.

It cannot perform some advanced manipulations that you can find in Adobe Photoshop. But it is impressive how many advanced manipulations it can perform at the click of a button.

Skylum approaches its software differently than the industry leader, Adobe Lightroom. Instead of finer levels of control, they provide broader features that are changing how we approach photo editing. This is seen in their AI masking and other creative functions.