This is my review about Luminar Neo, a photo editor by Skylum software. Luminar is a great AI powered alternative to Lightroom and has some parallels to the other no-subscription photo editor DXO Photolab. But as you will see in this review, they might have the same goal but are different beasts all together.
No subscription
As with DXO Photolab you don’t need a subscription to use the software. You can buy a perpetual licence for Luminar Neo and keep using it for as long as you want or it fits your needs. In a subscription like Adobe’s Creative Cloud you pay monthly to get all the new functionality and upgrades. But do you need those upgrades?
When we compare Luminar Neo’s cost to Lightroom you will see that Luminar is a great and cost effective alternative to Lightroom. For Lightroom you will pay 14,74 euro per month (EU pricing in 2026), that adds up to over 160 euro per year. For Luminar Neo you pay 89 euro for the most affordable regular desktop licence, and that is non reoccurring. Pay once and the software is yours. So you will be saving money after just a few months compared to the Lightroom subscription.
If you are thinking about buying Luminar Neo I’ve got a deal for you: if you use my promo code ricksreview10 you’ll get an extra 10% discount on Luminar Neo which makes it an even better deal!
Different Luminar Neo versions
The base version of Luminar Neo is available for 89 euro. For this you will receive the base desktop photo editing software without reoccurring costs that can be installed and activated on 2 devices. You do get one year of unlimited updates that include bugfixes and optimalisations and might include some small upgrades. For big upgrades you will have to buy the new/ next version.
There are 2 other versions available for Luminar Neo; one for multiple devices and the Luminar Neo Max licence. The multi device licence gives you the same as the base version, but also includes access for 3 mobile devices. You can use the Luminar Neo app on devices running iOS, Android or even use it in the Google Chrome browser. The multi-device licence costs 109 euro. So unless you are absolutely sure you won’t use it on your mobile device I’d always upgrade to this version.
The last version available is the 129 euro Max version. This includes everything the other versions offer, but includes access to the creative library as Luminar calls it. This includes presets, LUT’s, overlays and also video tutorials. It’s just a small premium over the regular multi-device option but will help you get everything out of Luminar.
And you can use my promo code ricksreview10 on any of the versions of Luminar Neo and you’ll get an extra 10% discount .
Luminar Neo vs. other editors
If you ask me what the essential difference is between Luminar Neo and other photo editors is, I’d say Luminar is more focused on automatic improvements. Other photo editors like Lightroom and DXO Photolab have some AI-tools to help in editing but focus more on manual adjustments. Luminar has fantastic AI and automatic tools and also offers great manual editing functionality when needed.
There is no right or wrong in this occasion, it is just a different approach. And there is also no reason you can’t manually control you edits in Luminar Neo as the interface does have all the tools you’d need.
For this review I’ve installed Luminar on my Apple Mac Studio M1 with M1 Max processor and 32GB of RAM running the latest update of MacOS.
Photo culling
Just like Lightroom or DXO Photolab Luminar Neo offers a library function. But unlike Lightroom and more Like Photolab you don’t have to import the images to use them. You can add complete folders containing images and start editing them. In the library module you have the option to quickly check all your images and rate them using the zero to five star method. The catalogue shows basic EXIF information like the camera, lens and settings used for the photo. The library works very fast, opening images and zooming in and out works without any slowdowns or delays. This makes using it a pleasure.
The library will also show the edits you have made to an image and has the chance to see before and after images. It also gives you quick access to HDR modes, stacking, panorama and upscaling or image restoration.
Presets
After choosing the images you like best you can flip over to the presets. Here you have a broad selection of presets available to optimise your images with just one click. For people that like the FujiFilm recipes this might feel very familiar. One click will transform your images look, feel and even the sky if you want. There are so many options to choose from you will most probably find one that suits your style and preferences.
Applying the presets is a little slower than culling the images. You have many categories like city lights, cloudy, sunsets, easy landscapes, portraits, pets etc. etc. Each category offers multiple styles that can be applied to the image, so browsing all the options might take some time. If you open a category the different styles will start preloading, it takes a while for all the options to be ready to show when hovering over them. So if you want to preview all the options you will have to be a little patient.
Some of the styles have limited impact on the image. For instance they change the colour tone, add some grain or adjust levels. But others might completely transform your image. Think adding creative filters, softening skin and removing blemishes or even replacing the whole sky in your landscape image (including adjusting the lighting and tone of the light to match the sky).
The right tool for you?
This is a hard one. I like the quick way to edit your images. And I am impressed by the quality of the results you can get with Luminar Neo. The broad selection of presets can spark creativity as it shows me options I wouldn’t have thought about. Especially the creative colour filters that can quickly add a classic, film like tone to the image. Almost as the recipes in the Ricoh GR III or the Fujifilm camera’s.
But it can also feel a little like cheating. Especially the presets that change the complete sky of your image. The quality of these filters have become so good that I sometimes can’t even see if an image has the original sky or it has been replaced. The sky replacement is so advanced it will keep the birds flying by in the original photo and it has no problem with branches or other objects in the sky. And because the whole colour of the images is changed to match the sky you can make a sunset look like daylight and a grey sky like a painting from a Dutch Master painter of the golden ages.
If the presets take away some of the magic of editing I have some good news for you. In the Editing menu you can also go full DIY, with or without any AI smarts.
DIY editing
If doing the work yourself is more your style you can still do that with Luminar. All the basic and more advanced options you know from for instance Lightroom are available. This will make it possible to completely edit the images the way you want. The options are clustered in sub-tabs in the ‘edit’ section. I think this shows the way Luminar is designed. Automation and AI-tools first but if you want full manual control that is also available.
Again, this is all a matter of taste. Luminar Neo is great if you are looking for software that will offer great results with minimum effort. Or if you are new to editing and need some extra guidance and a great starting point to get going. The thing I do really like is that also in the ‘manual’ editing you can access most of the advanced AI tools and use them selectively. So you can for instance add sun rays or use the Twilight Enhancer functionality in an image that you’ve manually edited. This gives you more control when you want or need it.
The good thing about using the manual editing is that Luminar is very responsive. On my older Mac Studio and while using 24 megapixel Nikon files editing is smooth and very fast. When moving the sliders you will instantly see the result in the preview, with no perceivable lag or delay. In this regard it is even more smooth than DXO’s Photolab 9, as that will sometimes lag just a little using the same files and hardware.
Luminar Mobile
Another great thing about Luminar Neo is that it also offers a very comprehensive mobile app, for iOS and Android. The app has the same look and feel as the full application making it easy to use both next to each other. I’ve only used the app on my iPhone, but I can only imagine that it will work even better on an iPad/ tablet with the bigger screen.
The Luminar Mobile app uses the same philosophy as the full app. You start with the ‘AI’ enhancing on the first tab, where you can use a ‘volume knob’ to increase or decrease the amount of auto enhancing the app does. This is a great way to get started as you have control over the end result in a very simple way. If the result isn’t to you liking you can swipe through the different tabs to make adjustments to almost any setting.
Another way to get started is to use one of the mobile ‘film recipes’, shown as rolls of film. Choose one and select the amount and tweak until it is to your liking. And you might think the advanced functions like sky replacement only work on your pc, but even those are available on the mobile app. And the most impressive thing about it is that they work just as good and fast as on my pc.
Conclusion about Luminar Neo
Luminar and the accompanying app offer a very comprehensive and easy to use alternative to products like Adobe Lightroom. The philosophy is different, in stead of making you do all the work Luminar offers you the option to get you started with all the AI tools. This will give you a great starting point to further enhance your images.
For ‘old school’ photographers and editors that grew up with doing most of the work in the field and then fine-tuning in post this might feel a little overwhelming. But the great thing about Luminar is that it offers you a choice. Let the software do its magic and get you very good results with minimal effort. Or use the software’s tools to give you a great starting point for editing and fine-tune where needed. Or just forgo all the AI and automatic options and just dive in and do it manually.
Is Luminar Neo right for you? If you use my discount code ricksreview10 on any of the versions of Luminar Neo you’ll get an extra 10% discount .
I like that flexibility. When I want to edit some quick snapshots, I like using the AI functions to get a very impressive result in a matter of seconds. And you can even do that on the mobile app. When needed you can tweak the result to you liking with minimal effort. If I’m working on something that earns a little more time and attention I have the choice to use the manual functions and get the exact result I need.
For the price you pay I truly believe you should look in to Luminar Neo as an alternative to Lightroom or other apps. The functionality is great, it is easy to use and I like the well designed user interface. In everything you can feel that the people behind Luminar put a lot of effort in the software, making it a great option for photo editing both on your pc and mobile device.
Is Luminar Neo right for you? If you use my discount code ricksreview10 on any of the versions of Luminar Neo you’ll get an extra 10% discount .