Last month, Skylum introduced a brand new software named Luminar NEO. Since it’s the company’s third image editing tool, lots of users were left confused. Who is it for? What is its main purpose? And most of all – how is it different from the two older Skylum’s software, Luminar 4 and Luminar AI? Well, we’re finally bringing you the answers to the questions that might have been bothering you.
Who is it is for
When I first reported about Luminar Neo, I had the impression that it was created more for graphic designers than photographers. However, Skylum CPO Dmitry Sytnik told DIYP that there’s more to it. Briefly put, “it’s for people who like to edit.” Dmitry explained that Luminar NEO lets you focus more on your idea and what you want to achieve than thinking how to achieve it.
Luminar NEO is designed to be flexible, fast, and most importantly – easy to use. It’s heavily infused with AI technology, so it will do the difficult job instead of you and you can just apply the refinements if you want to.
Personally, I see a tool like this as mainly useful for new photographers. Still, I’m always more into learning how to do things yourself rather than allowing AI do it for you. Folks who have a small business and want to create visuals on their own could also benefit from Luminar NEO, considering that not everyone can or want to pay a designer. Also, if you take photos of your products yourself, you can pimp them up in Luminar NEO, too. Although, if you don’t know anything about light and composition, no editing software will help you.
Luminar NEO vs. Luminar AI
I used Luminar AI for quite some time while I was writing a review. It really has a bunch of options, and every new update gives you more control over the edits, which is something I definitely support. So why do we need a Luminar NEO now?
Well, I’m not sure that we do, to be honest, but Skylum claims that there’s a significant difference between the two. In the language of my fellow Adobe CC users, Luminar NEO is closer to Photoshop, and Luminar AI is closer to Lightroom in terms of usability. Luminar NEO gives you a lot more options and creative features. It’s focused on editing single images and creating artworks. On the other hand, Luminar AI is made more for batch editing, like Lightroom.
But where is the Luminar 4 in this whole story? How does it fit in?
Luminar NEO vs. Luminar 4
If you’re a Luminar 4 user, sad news – this software will no longer be updated. Skylum encourages you to switch to Luminar NEO and offers migration tools to make it easier. Of course, you’ll have to buy a whole new software, although it will come with a discount if you’re already Skylum’s customer.
But worry not, if you’re not ready to pay for another software and you’re perfectly happy with Luminar 4, you can stick with it for now. Skylum will continue to provide support for it, and we’ll let you know if this changes.
I hope that this article has helped to answer your questions about Luminar NEO and help you decide whether it’s worth buying or not. For now, it’s still in the preorder stage and you can get it here. you’ll pay €65 for one computer and €76 for two computers.
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