Luminar AI Review (The Best Photo Editing Software?)

Written by Adam Morris

Updated September 7, 2023

Our rating for Luminar AI

★★★★☆

We give Luminar AI 4 out of 5 stars.

Luminar AI is a powerful software tool designed to help users instantly edit their digital images with AI using various templates and tools.

Get Luminar AI for $7.95/month

What is Luminar AI?

Luminar AI is the latest innovation in photo editing from Skylum. Using artificial intelligence, the time-consuming processes of photo editing have been significantly reduced to a simple click of a button. Photographs are automatically composed, colors, tones and lighting adjusted for quick and professional results.

luminar AI homepage

That doesn’t mean Photoshop or Lightroom aren’t comprehensive options – with all their complicated features they remain standard in many fields of photography – but Luminar AI offers speedy editing that saves users time and enhances their photos without all the hassle.

In addition to basic fixes like erasing blemishes and removing unwanted elements, Luminar AI adds unique features such as the ability to recognize people’s age, gender and facial expressions. Photographers can also apply preset looks to large groups of images quickly through batch processing rather than spending countless hours on each one.

Furthermore, Automask identifies similar objects that need selective brushing or filters as explained by Skylum’s product launch video. With this type of convenience, photographers can really make the most out of their post-processing workflow.

Luminar AI Review: How does Luminar AI work?

Luminar AI is a powerful software tool designed to help photographers and artists edit their digital images. By combining the power of artificial intelligence with manual adjustment tools, Luminar AI simplifies the process of editing photos while creating incredible works of art.

Luminar AI before and after photo

Luminar AI’s primary image adjustment method is called Templates. These one-click changes give your photo a specific look, such as ‘Iconic’, a high contrast black and white look or ‘More Volume’, which enhances the contrast, adjusts the lighting and can also replace an over-exposed sky with clouds.

Through its comprehensive approach to image editing, Luminar AI streamlines workflows and allows users to make drastic changes that produce amazing effects in minimal time.

Who is Luminar AI For?

Luminar AI is an incredibly useful photo editing software for anyone looking to increase workflow speed and create stunning images. It’s a perfect choice for those who don’t have time to learn advanced editing techniques such as professionals or beginners.

With one simple action, anyone can quickly apply sophisticated stylistic adjustments that make their photos unique. For wedding photographers, Luminar AI offers a great way to streamline the process of batch editing numerous photos, making it effortless to deliver beautiful images without dedicating too much time and energy.

Luminar AI features

Small businesses and social media influencers also benefit from this easy-to-use program as it helps produce high-quality graphics in no time! With Luminar AI, users can go beyond the potential of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop by leveraging intuitive masking tools and adjustments to quickly brighten the shadow areas in portraits, smooth skin texture, reduce noise, or enhance colors with just a few clicks.

Content creators can impress their followers by offering vibrant visuals that stand out among traditional shots with minimal effort. No matter your skill level or purpose for using photography, Luminar AI has the potential to save you time while creating professional-level works of art.

What Can You Do With Luminar’s AI Tools?

With the emergence of Skylum Luminar AI, professionals and amateur photographers alike now have access to advanced tools that deliver results with minimal effort. Whereas it might have taken hours for a professional editor to achieve desired effects in a photo – such as retouching a product shot with ai accent or manipulating the sky in a landscape – professional-level effects can now be achieved quickly and easily using Luminar AI’s artificial intelligence tools.

The versatility of this software ensures that no image is beyond its capabilities. Not only can Luminar AI be used to adjust exposure, temperature, and contrast, but also to create unique atmosphere effects such as fog, haze, mist, and drizzle.

In addition to atmospheric changes, users can also modify the body type of their subject by making them thinner or heavier via the use of the weight slider within the software. With these features available in an intuitive user interface that allows for subtle yet effective adjustment, Luminar AI allows users to shape their images with precision at an unprecedented speed.

Luminar AI’s Interface

The user-friendly interface of Luminar NEO allows users to quickly begin editing their images with minimal effort. The streamlined interface is loaded with four handy tabs at the top menu bar, allowing novices and expert users alike to navigate through the primary workspaces.

Luminar AI easy to use interface

It is compatible with a large selection of RAW files from many camera models, making it easier than ever to get started. Moreover, the AI-powered tools in Luminar NEO provide an efficient workflow that is incredibly fast and smooth.

Automation of laborious tasks lets users focus on exploring new possibilities instead of wasting time on tedious procedures. All these features make this software an excellent choice for beginners and experts alike – its user interface definitely deserves a perfect score of 10/10.

Importing & File Management In Luminar Neo

Importing and File Management in Luminar Neo is a breeze. With just a few clicks, you can add single images or upload an entire folder quickly and efficiently. What makes the importing and editing process fun and even easier is that when uploading single images, they’ll automatically be added to a special group called “Single Image Edits.”

This prevents those images from getting lost amongst the thousands of other images in your library, since Luminar Neo provides efficient file management solutions. Another great feature of Luminar Neo is its library functionality.

It allows you to organize your imported images into collections and sort by keywords, stars, color labels, or custom metadata to easily find the photo you want.

All these features make it easy to manage all your images without ever leaving the comfort of your own workspace. Whether you’re a professional photographer or hobbyist, taking advantage of all these features will ensure that your editing experience with Luminar Neo is streamlined and intuitive.

Luminar AI Review: Features

AI-powered Editing Tools

Luminar NEO is an AI-powered tool that offers photographers versatile features for quick editing. It uses artificial intelligence to automate many laborious tasks, providing effortless and efficient photo enhancement.

Luminar AI tools

Furthermore, it includes manual editing tools as well. For instance, its color correction function can be used to adjust hues and saturation with a few simple clicks, while the Denoising algorithm separates luminosity noise from chroma noise in order to reduce image graininess.

Moreover, the application is organized into four distinct categories: Adjustments (for cropping and perspective correction), Creative (for creating unique looks), Sky Replacement (for replacing the sky in your shot) and Layers & Masking (for blending different elements together). With its simple-to-use interface and useful tutorials included in its tutorial catalog, Luminar NEO helps you take your photography to the next level.

Luminar Neo Presets

The latest version of Luminar, Luminar Neo, introduces a new feature of Presets that eliminates the need for Templates used in older versions. This is an incredibly convenient update that makes editing and retouching photos easier and quicker than before.

With the implementation of Presets in particular, users can make manual adjustments to their images without being tied to the preset they choose. This is unlike previous instructions where any current adjustment would be affected by the preset adjustments, making it necessary to restart any prior work if unsatisfied with results.

Presets also come with a personalized selection service – when you open up Luminiar’s Preset Panel, your photo will be scanned to identify its composition: people, buildings, landscapes or even epic skies.

It then automatically generates a few recommendations corresponding to those categories that will make optimal outcomes once applied. No more wasted time scrolling endlessly through filters! The combination of easy application and precise categorization makes Luminar Neo’s Presets an ideal choice for anyone seeking quick and satisfactory edits to their photos.

Luminar AI Plugins

Using the Luminar AI plugin is a great way to give your photos an extra boost in editing. This plugin works with all of the major image editing programs, such as Adobe Lightroom Classic (starting from version 6), Photoshop (from version CS5) and Photos for MacOS.

In order to install Luminar AI as a plugin, users first need to install it as a standalone app. Then they can open it and locate their existing photo-editing software in the File menu. With just one click, they can easily add the plugin to their creative workflow.

Luminar AI integrations with Photoshop and Lightroom

Once installed, the Luminar AI plugin comes with some amazing features such as sky replacement tools, real-time masking capabilities and portrait retouching features that make extensive adjustments easier than ever before. It also enables creative minds to craft stunning images right out of their photos while preserving natural color saturation and sharpness.

Additionally, more complex layers and effects can be added too for even more customized results! All in all, this advanced technology makes crafting exquisite art much more convenient and accessible for both amateur photographers and professional minded creatives alike.

The Luminar AI Templates

SkyAI

Sky Replacement, which is available in Luminar 4, has proved to be an incredibly useful and powerful tool for masking the sky into shots. However, its single downside was that it does not take into account reflections which often made the replacement in such images quite evident.

Luminar AI sky AI tool

It is now able to inject reflections into water and other reflective surfaces amazingly well. All you have to do is take a look at some of the impressive results Luminar AI can produce with their Sky Replacement tool—it’s simply mesmerizing.

Thanks to SkyAI’s sophisticated deep learning algorithms, it intelligently masks out and replaces the skies while ensuring that there are no unnatural breaks or artifacts left behind. It really is revolutionary!

Atmosphere AI Tool

The Atmosphere AI feature is a great asset for any user of Luminar AI. It allows users to quickly remove atmospheric effects from images without needing to go through much effort. With this tool, users can easily take away fog, haze, and mist that often cover the object or subject in the image.

To do this manually with Adobe Photoshop would require applying several masks along with filters and correcting the hue and saturation according to the image in order to make it look realistic. But with Luminar AI’s atmosphere AI tool all of this can be accomplished automatically after just one click.

Luminar AI atmosphere tool

The easy-to-use atmosphere AI also allows anyone to adjust levels manually so that they can create an exact effect they are looking for without compromising on crisp results. Thanks to its ability to quickly identify areas that require adjustment in order to get rid of unwanted atmospheric elements, users no longer need to spend more time than necessary manually handheld out changes which leaves plenty of opportunities for creative editing.

All in all, the humble Atmosphere AI tool is integral part of any photo editing workflow now and provides added advantages beyond manual fixes as well.

Skin AI

The emergence of SkinAI tools in the digital age has revolutionized portrait photography. BodyAI and FaceAI are two innovative technologies designed to give models a slimmer body and improved facial features with minimal effort. This is especially useful for Instagram models, influencers, and shutterbugs as it enables them to quickly create attractive and face-slenderizing portraits with the click of a button.

BodyAI tools can be used to tighten and slim down faces making them look more toned while FaceAI offers features such as blemish-removal, skin smoothing, skin tone adjustment, wrinkle removal, eyes whitening and much more.

Luminar AI body AI tool

These technologies are also incredibly simple to use allowing users to dial in a desired settings quickly giving them professional grade polished results without complex editing methods or the need for complicated photo editing software.

Additionally, they come packed with auto-preview options that allow users to preview before applying any effects ensuring they get exactly what they are looking for. With SkinAI becoming increasingly popular in the world of digital photography we can undoubtedly see its capabilities being utilized more widely in the near future.

Iris AI

The IrisAI tool is a revolutionary photo editing tool created to help photographers capture the perfect shot. Unlike Luminar 4, this innovative tool does more than just add expressive eyes – it can tweak and improve the color, shape, size, and brightness of each element of the iris as well as enhance the texture overall.

As if all that weren’t enough, IrisAI also boasts unique technology that allows users to edit multiple people in a single photo without making any drastic changes or degrading the quality of the final product.

Luminar AI face AI tool

Thanks to its precision editing abilities, IrisAI helps create those special moments with ease and accuracy. Perhaps even more impressive is its ability to sort through various facial features found in a portrait shot and bring out some details that were barely visible before – such as brightening up dull irises or differentiating between two similar faces. With this powerful software at your fingertips, you’ll be able to craft stunning photos with ease.

Portrait Bokeh AI

Offering incredible control over the blurring effect seen when someone is in the center of a portrait photo, Portrait Bokeh AI can detect poses and people in the image, allowing you to selectively blur the background.

Rather than relying on traditional manual adjustments and complex masking techniques, Portrait Bokeh AI utilizes artificial intelligence to create a depth map of an image. With this insight, it can accurately remove sharpness from objects based on their distance from the main subject.

Additionally, this tool can do much more than just blur — users can also shift perspective with its “adjust depth” slider or add emphasis to subjects both subtly and more dramatically with various effects. Thanks to this cutting-edge technology, transforming photos into hadforgotten masterpieces has never been easier!

Composition AI

CompositionAI is an innovative tool from Luminar AI that simplifies the photo-editing process for photographers of all skill levels. It uses artificial intelligence to automatically recognize the elements in any picture and then crop them following the rule of thirds.

This allows users to quickly achieve a balanced and aesthetically pleasing composition without having to manually adjust their photos. The end result is a photo with an optimal composition that has been carefully crafted by CompositionAI’s algorithms.

Luminar AI other tools

The tool also provides additional features, such as offering manual options for users who wish to make further adjustments to the composition. For example, users can customize the area of focus by tweaking specific points in the image or by bringing certain elements further into frame for emphasis.

Additionally, there are several preset layouts offered to offer easier control over how elements are arranged within the photo. With CompositionAI, you have complete control over how you want your pictures to look – no matter your experience level in photography.

Structure AI

StructureAI is a revolutionary AI-powered tool designed to bring detail and texture to photos. By leveraging modern machine learning approaches, the algorithm behind StructureAI is able to analyze each photo and identify objects within them – such as water, rocks, grass, etc. – before applying realistic textures for the ultimate realistic look.

This approach totally eliminates potential artifacts caused due to incorrect pixels manipulation or too uniform textures patterns generation. Furthermore, when it comes to people or other figures captured in said pictures, StructureAI is smart enough not to apply any texture at all, making sure the subject remains unaffected.

This new set of capabilities not only helps professional photographers with their masterpieces but also makes everyday sceneries look beautiful whether they are taken with a smartphone camera or from an expensive DSLR one.

With StructureAI you’ll get your images looking like artworks with smooth edges, harmonious colors and natural textures ready print it out or upload it without having much scene composition knowledge. So why don’t just let StructureAI help you out by bringing life and realism to those images!

Accent AI

AccentAI is an AI powered editing tool designed to make quick and effective photo adjustments. With this software, users can spend less time tinkering with confusing settings, and more time producing amazing images.

AccentAI is equipped with advanced artificial intelligence that enables it to recognize and adjust to different objects within a photograph. It automatically executes basic adjustments like enhancing lighting and boosting colors in order to create a more natural, vibrant look for each image. This makes it possible for even novice photographers to take professional grade photos without needing an extensive knowledge of manual photo editing tools beforehand.

Luminar AI focus tool

AccentAI offers users more flexibility than Lightroom’s “Auto Settings” feature as it does not require any input before making adjustments. Instead, the AI infers what type of subject is present in the photo and then chooses the most appropriate adjustments accordingly.

AccentAI can recognize up to 30 different types of landscape scenes like beaches or forests, various types of portrait subjects from people or animals, and many other types of photography like night shots or aerial photography. This technology allows users to quickly refine photos while still keeping their styles intact, thus opening up more creative possibilities for digital artists everywhere.

Sky AI Tool

Sky Enhancer is a tool which assists in giving dull or bland looking skies an improved texture and color. It does this with the help of artificial intelligence, making it easier to create more aesthetically pleasing images.

With the use of powerful algorithms and deep learning, Sky Enhancer takes the picture you provide and enhances it automatically, ensuring that each sky looks as vibrant and lively as possible.

Luminar AI sky AI tool

This AI driven technology can also help when photographing scenes with hazy or over cast weather conditions. Instead of battling against grey skies for hours to make the perfect shot, photos can simply be taken and then edited after using Sky Enhancer.

This tool is incredibly convenient for photographers because it works fast while still producing great results. You don’t have to spend countless hours tweaking and finessing a photograph to get a beautiful sky – just one or two changes by Sky Enhancer will do the job perfectly!

Augmented Sky AI

Augmented Sky is an artificial intelligence feature powered by the Luminar 4.2 update. It uses technology to generate elements into your photographs that would normally take lots of time to sync in with a photo, or even might not be possible with photography alone!

The list of animations you can add using Augmented Sky is long and includes all sorts of elements like mountains, clouds, birds, hot air balloons, aurora etc. It also provides certain effects that give additional dynamics to your photos like blowing wind for trees or running clouds tech.

In this way, it allows photographers and graphic designers to express their creativity more effectively without requiring any extra effort or advanced knowledge. Moreover, they don’t have to worry about buying expensive software as Augment Sky works on most macOs much faster and easier than ever before.

Not only does it help create amazing visuals but also helps the user save time in post-production workflows. This makes Augmented Sky a great tool for anyone looking to up their game in creating stunning visuals quickly and effortlessly!

Color Harmony

Color Harmony is a powerful tool for enhancing digital photos by adjusting color tones. It offers five sliders, each of which has the ability to affect various aspects of the image: Brilliance, Warmth, Color Contrast, Split Color Warmth and Color Balance. These sliders make it possible to fine-tune the colors in a photo based on whatever desired result might be sought.

Luminar upscale AI

The Brilliance slider increases or decreases brightness in each individual color. The Warmth control adjusts from cool to warm tones and can help improve contrast between different elements in the image. Color Contrast enables you to adjust the difference between highlights and shadows as well as reds and blues.

With Split Color Warmth you can change how intense colors are rendered while maintaining their hue. Finally, Color Balance helps bring all of these elements together by allowing adjustments of individual primary colors such as red, green and blue. Each of these features creates an artifactfree experience that gives images a natural look after adjustments have been made.

How Much Does Skylum Luminar Neo Cost?

The Luminar Neo software offer users a variety of options when it comes to obtaining the product. Depending on how long you plan to use the software, you can purchase either a one-year subscription for $99 or choose lifetime access for $129.

With the one-year subscription plan, users will receive all future upgrades and add ons; whereas those who opt for the lifetime access plan will only receive performance, stability, and Mask AI updates.

Luminar AI pricing plans

Those who need multiple seats for their computers also have an option available to them. They can choose two seats of Luminar Neo with a yearly subscription package starting at $99 per year or purchase lifetime access for both seats at $99. This is a great way to get more out of the software without having to spend too much money.

Regardless of which option they choose, each user will get access to all features offered in the software with unlimited updates and plenty of tools and content like presets, textures, AI Sky Enhancer and more.

Is Luminar AI Worth It?

Luminar AI is a great choice for beginners who want to begin their journey in photo editing. It offers a simplified yet powerful user interface that allows these users to easily perform basic edits such as cropping and adjusting exposure.

Users are also able to customize the look of their photos by utilizing AI-powered sky replacements, image-editing presets, and other tools that automate tedious tasks for beginner users while applying advanced effects. The ability to quickly edit images in Luminar AI with little effort makes it an attractive option for entry-level photographers.

Luminar AI golden hour tool

On the other hand, experienced photographers may find Luminar AI not quite up to par since the platform doesn’t offer sophisticated image management tools like layers, layer masks, or RAW file post-processing.

Additionally, Luminar AI lacks any kind of collaboration feature that would allow professionals who work in teams to easily share edits between them. All this combined makes Luminar AI less suitable for advanced users who prefer complex editing processes and require more control over how their images are manipulated.

Pros

The pros of Luminar AI are numerous, and make it an appealing choice for photographers, content creators, and small business owners. First, with Luminar AI, you don’t have to invest a large chunk of time mastering complex editing software like Photoshop.

The interface is simple to use and can be quickly mastered- a great advantage for someone who needs to create great-looking photos but doesn’t want to spend hours learning how to use complicated tools.

Luminar AI erase tool

Second, Luminar AI is one of the few picture editing programs available at an affordable price. On top of that, once purchased, there are no subscription or hidden fees – making it great news for those on a budget! Lastly, it comes with hundreds of templates for both beginners and professionals alike – ranging from basic adjustments such as brightening images to applying more complex edits like applying masks or layers.

You can also use Luminar AI as both a standalone app or plugin with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom which is extremely useful if you already have money invested in these programs. All in all, Luminar AI is an excellent choice when looking for a powerful yet inexpensive photo editor.

Cons

Using Luminar AI for photo editing can be beneficial in terms of providing fast and easy AI-based adjustments, but it also has certain cons. Firstly, Luminar AI doesn’t give you as much control over your photos as traditional image editing because most changes are applied automatically by the software’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

It does a great job at improving contrast, structure, color, and other details without any manual input from you; however, if you like to take a more individualized and detailed approach to your edits then Luminar AI might not be suitable for you. Secondly, since Luminar 4 is based on a different platform than Luminar AI there is currently no way to migrate photos between them in bulk.

This means that if you’ve spent time tweaking catalogs of photos with Luminar 4 then switching over to the new version will mean painstakingly recreating all those adjustments manually. Ultimately this could lead to frustrated users who don’t want to repeat all their hard work or may prefer the more hands-on approach offered by Luminar 4 rather than the automated one provided by AI features in its replacement.

What’s the difference between Luminar 4 and Luminar NEO?

Luminar 4 and Luminar NEO, although often confused for one another, are actually two separate programs. Luminary 4 was the predecessor to Luminar NEO which includes more of the same features along with some new additions.

Luminar 4 included all the editing tools needed to replicate a quick Lightroom experience, including AI-powered tools such as sky replacements and layers. It also had image storage and organizational capabilities.

Luminar AI vs Luminar NEO comparison table

On the other hand, Luminar NEO is an AI image editor primarily designed for making automatic adjustments and creative effects with easy speed and accuracy. It builds on the qualities that have made Luminar so popular but provides helpful new tools such as Sun Rays filters or object removal for those looking to take their editing further than just basic manipulation.

In addition to advanced editing functions, it also contains organizational tools useful when managing multiple images at once or searching through large libraries of photos.

System Requirements of Luminar AI

Luminar NEO is a powerful and efficient image editing software for both Windows and Mac users. As stated in the user manual, this program requires certain system specifications to be able to run optimally on your machine. It needs a 64-bit operating system, a minimum of 4GB of RAM, and a GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM.

Furthermore, it also requires 8 GB or more of disk space available for installation, although no additional license fee is necessary. The software can be updated anytime by clicking on the Luminar NEO logo at the top menu bar and looking for the Check for Updates option.

Luminar AI system requirements

Unfortunately, despite being loaded with powerful features for quick photo edits, Luminar NEO doesn’t provide many other tools that professional editors seek out. This includes layer support, advanced image editing tools for enhanced control over their results, as well as very few organizational tools included in the program.

Moreover, many would appreciate more intuitive interface options that are found in other software. While Luminar NEO might offer some helpful features to casual photographers or hobbyists, its lack of customization makes it unsuitable as an all-encompassing photo editor beneficial to professionals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Skylum Luminar AI is an amazing piece of editing software that is well worth its price tag. It has a range of AI-powered tools and presets to make creating stunning images faster and easier than ever before.

It does an excellent job at things like Sky Replacement and portrait editing for those who want to get the most out of their images without spending too much time in the editing stage. Its results are usually quite realistic, provided that they’re used with subtlety; otherwise they could end up looking unrealistic or cartoonish.

All in all, Luminar AI stands as one of the top pieces of image editing software on the market today for anyone looking to take their photography to the next level quickly and easily.

Navigate through our Tools Review page to be updated with the latest AI software today. Our team is constantly adding new tools to assess such as Conversion AI, Topaz Video Enhance AI, Surfer, and more!

Adam is a crypto expert & AI enthusiast who has been researching and writing on the topics since 2017.

He’s spoken on numerous podcasts and has been featured in many prominent media publications such as Forbes, CNN & CNBC.