Presets vs LUTs in Luminar Neo
Today’s tutorial compares presets and LUTs in Luminar Neo. I cover the pros and cons of each, what the major differences are between them, and discuss and demonstrate when, why and how I use them in my editing. Enjoy!
I’ve recently gotten several questions about presets and LUTs, mostly about trying to understand the difference between these two tools. So as I tend to do, I made a video about it. I also created a chart that shows all the differences, and you can download a copy of it if you join my newsletter (plus you get some Luminar presets and more - all for FREE!).
https://jimnix.com/newsletter
Both tools are excellent, although I feel they are built for different uses. I use both in my editing at times - sometimes it is one or the other, and sometimes I use both on a single image. It just depends on the look I am trying to achieve.
Check out today’s tutorial video and let me know if you have any questions!
Enhancing Details in Luminar Neo
Some quick tips about enhancing details in Luminar Neo.
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Enhancing details during an edit can have a huge impact on the image. In fact, I consider Detail to be one of the 3 key tenets of image editing (the other two being Light and Color). I may talk about that in more detail at a later time. But, as with Light and Color, I truly believe you have to be rather careful with it. Here are a few things to consider:
Try Structure AI. It’s a great tool and my favorite one for enhancing details. It’s also human-aware, so you can try it on portraits without crunching up someone’s skin.
I notice that Structure AI also slightly brightens the area where it is applied, so keep that in mind when using it.
I use Structure AI negatively all the time (slide it to the left instead of to the right), which smooths out details and makes it more soft and dreamy. This works great on skies and water.
Use the Details tool itself. I use this one less often, but on certain subjects it really helps. There are sliders for Small, Medium and Large Details, but most of the time I am happy just using Medium. Whenever I try out Small, it feels like it gets really overdone, quickly. Experiment and see what you like.
Regardless of which tool you use, consider masking the adjustments into specific areas. If not, the entire photo can end up looking a little crunchy and over the top. Certain things in a photo look good with enhanced detail, and other things do not. Hence the use of masking - a key skill in photo editing.
The image below is a great example of this technique. I used Structure AI to increase the crispness of the bridge stonework and the teahouse. Then, I used Structure AI again, but negative this time, to help smooth out the sky and water.
Sunset edits in Luminar Neo
Key tips for better sunset edits using Luminar Neo!
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Ah, sunset - that lovely time of day when soft light and warm colors come together to create a little magic in the air. I just love photographing sunset, don’t you? 📸
However, I think you have to be careful with the colors, because if you “over-edit”, the intensity can overwhelm the rest of the scene. Here’s a couple of ideas:
First, do all the light adjustments you want to do (I always start with Develop Raw and then use Supercontrast second).
Do minimal color adjustments in Develop Raw (that is, be careful with Temperature, Tint, Saturation and Vibrance).
Although it is tempting to jump straight to the Golden Hour tool inside of Landscape (in the Essentials section), I recommend using it later/last. It can really bump up those warm tones and overwhelm the edit.
Try Toning. I generally leave the Hue pretty far to the left and just move up the Saturation slider until I like the look. This is just in the Highlights section. I rarely do much in the Shadows section.
Try Color Harmony. Brilliance/Warmth as well as Split Color Warmth are excellent, but my favorite is Color Balance. Again, in that tool I stay mostly in the Highlights section, where I experiment with the Cyan-Red (towards Red) and Magenta-Green (towards Magenta) sliders. Sometimes I will also go into the Shadows and test out the Yellow-Blue (towards Blue).
Don’t use too many color tools. Sunset shots often just need a little bump, so if you use several tools to enhance color, it can get out of control quickly.
Here’s an example photo. I started with Develop Raw and then Supercontrast. Then, I used only Color Harmony to get the colors looking how I wanted them to look (I used Brilliance/Warmth, Split Color Warmth, and Color Balance too - all in just slight amounts). It’s beautiful and colorful, without being overwhelming (at least to my eyes). If I added Golden Hour to the image, it would be oversaturated.
Cannon Beach, Oregon
Luminar Neo is Here!
Luminar Neo is finally here! Here’s a few quick thoughts about it, and some great video resources to help you get up and running with it quickly. Thanks for following along!
The day is finally here - Luminar Neo is publicly available!
Yes, the original announcement and pre-order period started in September 2021, which feels like a really long time ago (well, it is 5+ months, so yeah). But the day is upon us, and Luminar Neo is now generally available. As you might expect, I created a First Look video on my YouTube channel, which I will link to below. In the video, I cover what’s new, what’s coming but not yet in the product, what’s different from Luminar AI, and also what’s missing (in my opinion). Yes, I do think there are some things that are missing from this initial launch version. I do think they will be added, but I do not know when.
Don’t have Luminar Neo yet? You can get it here.
I have been using the beta of Luminar Neo for a few months now, and have found it to be both quick and stable (I am on a Mac). Considering all the new stuff that is still to come (Mask AI and Portrait Background Removal, most notably), I think it is and will continue to be an amazing product. But it’s not perfect.
Once all of the remaining, promised features make it into the product, I think this will be a very formidable one. I already use it all the time, and have no reason to expect that to change.
I have already been sharing a lot of videos about Luminar Neo, which you can find in this playlist on YouTube.
Some of the more popular videos include:
Hopefully those give you some ideas about how to get the most out of Luminar Neo!
And oh yeah, I have a TON of Luminar Neo videos that I am planning. So if it’s of interest to you, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel to stay up to date on all these things.
I’ll be there every week making tutorials for ya!
Luminar Neo: A Few More Insights
Skylum is back with more news on Luminar Neo. Dive into this post and accompanying video to see what it’s all about!
Skylum is out with another press release today, detailing a few more insights into the upcoming Luminar Neo. Let’s dive in and see what they are talking about!
Today’s press release adds a little more color to 4 upcoming features, which I will detail down below.
Dust Removal AI
Line Removal AI
Overlays
Luminar Share
If you have’t yet placed your preorder, you can do that here: https://bit.ly/3hbDXEP
And of course, I made a video about all of these features as well, which is below:
Dust Removal AI
This feature looks amazing, and it certainly going to be a time saver for me (and probably everyone else, too). It will automatically remove dust and lens spots from your photos for you. I can’t tell you how great of a use of AI this will be. I think of AI as being a useful way to do complex things more quickly, and honestly removing dust spots is menial and boring. The fact that it will be automated is amazing!
Line Removal AI
Add this to the same category as Dust Removal AI - it will automatically remove power lines from your photos. Once again, an amazing and creative use of AI. You can now quickly and easily clean up those annoying powerlines in your city photos, and get back to the fun part of editing photos. This is another big one for me, as I am always shooting in cities, and frankly sometimes powerlines are just difficult to remove. I can’t wait to try this!
Overlays
Taking advantage of the Layers capability, Luminar Neo will include a library of overlay content so you can quickly and easily make your own creative vision for an image come to life. This is a welcome addition to Luminar, especially for those of us that like to experiment with various creative outcomes.
Luminar Share
This mobile companion app will allow us to quickly sync images from our mobile device to Neo, and then sync back the edited image for social sharing. This will save me a lot of time for sure, because today I have to email a photo to myself, download it from email, add to Luminar, edit, then email back to myself, save on my mobile, and then share on Instagram (for instance). This automates that process and it sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to try it!
That sums it up for now. If you have any questions, just let me know, and thanks!
4 New Features Coming to Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo will include these 4 new features, and this post outlines all the details. Relight AI, Layers, Mask AI, and Portrait Background Removal AI are all coming - check it out!
Luminar Neo Will Include Layers, Relight AI, Mask AI, and Portrait Background Removal AI
If you have seen my previous videos about Luminar Neo, then you already know that I am excited about what is coming. But today Skylum put out a press release, detailing 4 new features that are coming in this new product, and it’s really exciting stuff.
Preorder Luminar Neo: https://bit.ly/3hbDXEP
Here is my video outlining all these features:
Relight AI
This new lighting tool uses 3D depth mapping to identify both planes (foreground and background) as well as elements (people, buildings, skies, etc) in a photo. Then you can creatively adjust the light in a photo. You can position the light as needed, adjusting the foreground and background separately. Effectively we are now going to be able to fix problematic light in any image, blend it seamlessly between foreground and background, and get amazing results.
Layers
The layers function in Neo will allow you to combine multiple images, even raw files, for endless creative outcomes. Take advantage of blend modes, opacity, masking and more to get the results you want. They will include built in overlays and an object library to give us some creative options right at our fingertips. It will accept textures, PNG with transparency, and more. Plus it will be easy to move, rotate, flip, transform and even reorder the layers as needed.
Mask AI
Now THIS is going to be awesome! This is AI-powered, context-aware masking. So it will automagically identify lots of different items in your photos: people skies, water, mountains, and more. That way you can target specifically where your edits will go without having go through any manual masking processes, which are tedious and prone to error. Note that this capability will not be available at launch this winter, but rather it is coming in a free update in early 2022.
Portrait Background Removal AI
This will isolate your subject and remove the background with one click. Pretty amazing, and certainly very useful as well. Initially this is focused on portraits, but they are also exploring other uses for this tool. And like Mask AI, it will not be available at launch but instead will come in a free update in early 2022.
Thanks for checking this out, and hope this information is helpful. Be back soon with more info, as soon as I have it!
Skylum Announces Luminar Neo!
Skylum just announced Luminar Neo, a new app coming late this year. Check out all the details and my video in this exclusive preview!
My good friends over at Skylum Software have just announced that their newest product is coming later this year. It’s called Luminar Neo, and preorders start today!
Preorders start today - use this link to save some serious $: https://bit.ly/3tfOmnL
No, I do not yet have the product. This is what I describe as a pre-announcement. The product is coming, but an exact date is not yet available. It is expected later this year, so I would estimate that it will be a winter release. As soon as I have it, and can share some more details, you can rest assured that I will do so. The best way to stay up to date on this is via my Newsletter (sign up here), and on my YouTube channel.
I am busy trying to get all the details for you, and this blog post and my accompanying video contain just about everything I know so far.
Preorder Pricing: Starts: September 9 (8am New York Time) - Ends: September 19 (8am New York Time)
Preorder today and get the best deal: https://bit.ly/3tfOmnL
For old Skylum app users:
$34 for 1-seat license for Luminar Neo
$49 for 2-seats license for Luminar Neo
$63 for 1-seat license for Luminar AI+Neo
$88 for 2-seats license for Luminar AI+Neo
For new users:
$54 for 1-seat license for Luminar Neo
$59 for 2-seats license for Luminar Neo
$83 for 1-seat license for Luminar AI+Neo
$98 for 2-seats license for Luminar AI+Neo
Remember: you have a 30 day money back guarantee, from the date you receive it. So you can order now, get the very best price, and then decide later if you are going to keep it or not. It’s completely risk free!
Be sure and check out my preview analysis video about Luminar Neo. In the video I provide a bit more background and context for this release than I do here on the blog.
New Features
Now, let’s get into some of the amazing new features that are coming, along with some screenshots that Skylum was kind enough to provide for my readers. Here are the key new features that I am currently aware of:
Image layers!
Apply any tool, to any layer, in any order, even multiple times
Unique masking, per layer and per tool
Portrait background replacement
Remove distracting elements: dust spots, power lines
Advanced image relight, with a single slider
