Mastering Luminar Neo: A Comprehensive Tutorial for Beginners

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luminar neo tutorial

Luminar Neo Tutorial

Looking for my Luminar Neo Review? Check it out: Luminar Neo Review

Now let’s continue with what editing software is all about…what it can do for your images and workflow.

We’ve all been there, right? It’s super frustrating to deal with a mess of photos, tricky editing tools, and hours spent trying to get that perfect look. It can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re just starting out or dealing with a growing collection of images.

That’s where Luminar Neo comes in. It’s a super intuitive photo editing solution that’s designed to make things easier.

In this Luminar Neo Tutorial, we’ll take a look at how Luminar Neo can help you!

👉 I’ll show you how to organize your files, use the AI tools to make quick edits, and create great portraits, enhance landscapes, and manage your photo library more efficiently.

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I’ve partnered with the people at Luminar Neo to get you a special deal. When you apply the coupon code PP10NEO at checkout, you’ll get a generous 10% discount!

Get Organized in Catalog

The first tab we’ll discuss in this Luminar Neo Tutorial is the Catalog tab. This is where you organize your files.

You’ll see a bunch of folders on the left, but the most important thing here is the big Add Photos button at the top.

👉  This is because you need to populate Luminar Neo with your photos before you can start working with them.

So you’ll need to create a catalog of your files.

luminar neo tutorial | A screenshot of how to add a photo

Before you do that, go to the folders on your computer or external hard drive and take a good look at them. How are they organized? Is it clear, is there a system, are you confident that you can find what you’re looking for quickly?

If not, now is the perfect time to set up a new and improved organization system!

And you know the thing about systems, right? They only work if you stick to them consistently 🙂 It doesn’t really matter what kind of system you choose, just use it consistently.

Okay, happy with your system? Let’s move this Luminar Neo Tutorial along…Hit the Add Photos button! Alternatively, click the plus icon next to the Folders tab. You can decide if you want to add your entire catalog of files or maybe just a few folders to start with.

Virtual Folders 

While you’re waiting for your files to be added, let me explain how this actually works in Luminar Neo. Your photos aren’t actually imported into Luminar Neo. The application creates a shortcut to the folder and generates previews.

👉 Right-clicking on a folder brings up a new menu where you can rename the folder, add more files, create subfolders, etc.

One thing to note is that what happens to folders in Luminar Neo also happens to your folders on your computer or hard drive, and vice versa. This is very important to be aware of!

The two systems – the virtual folders in Luminar Neo and the real files in your folders on your computer or external hard drive – mirror each other. Whatever you do in Luminar Neo is reflected in your real folder. Likewise, whatever you do in the folders on your computer or external hard drive is mirrored in the virtual catalog in Luminar Neo.

This includes renaming and moving folders and files, as well as adding and deleting files. So be aware of this. To keep your files safe, they have built-in a step to delete them only in Luminar Neo for a period of time. Always choose this option if you’re not sure.

Selecting and Collecting

There are two important things a catalog like this should be able to do, and Luminar Neo does both.

👉 Number 1 is that it should allow you to select the photos you like and want to edit.

👉 Number 2 is that it should allow you to create folders with groups of photos from different locations, usually around a common theme.

Selection Process

Next step in this Luminar Neo Tutorial is the Selection process. You can access this by right-clicking on the file and selecting Set Flag. You can also simply select the file and assign a label using a keyboard shortcut.

luminar neo tutorial | a screenshot of how to select photos

There are basically three types of labels you can assign to your files:

👉 Favorite (keyboard shortcut P)

👉 Rejected (keyboard shortcut X)

👉 Unmarked (keyboard shortcut U)

All files start as unmarked. This system is not as granular as Lightroom’s, it’s a simple yes or no option. Of course, you can assign a Maybe to the Unmarked option.

Once you’re done you can select the Favorites by clicking on the top at Showing: All Photos and clicking Favorites.

Creating Albums

Albums is where you collect files from different folders.

👉 Click on the Plus Icon next to Albums and give your Album a name.

Then you can simply drag and drop the photos you want from the various folders into the Album.

Pros and Cons of the Catalog

The Pros
  • It’s a pretty simple system, it doesn’t take much time to understand where everything is and how it works.
  • It allows you to get organized and keep track of everything you’ve photographed and edited.
  • You can create albums based on themes, locations, topics, and anything else that comes to mind.
The Cons
  • Because it’s not a complicated system, it’s pretty basic.
  • Keywording your files is not possible.
  • Adding, removing, and changing metadata is not possible.

💡 Check out How To Watermark Your Photos in Lightroom

luminar neo tutorial | a screenshot of how to create an album

Get Started in Presets

The next tab in this Luminar Neo Tutorial is Luminar Presets, which is basically the filters section. I won’t spend much time here. Just check them all out. There are tons to choose from.

The important thing about presets or filters is that you should be able to adjust the strength of the preset/filter. And Luminar Neo lets you do just that.

Luminar presets are organized by theme and style, making it easier to choose a preset without feeling overwhelmed.

You can create a favorites list. And when you hover over a preset, you can preview the effect. You can also create your own presets, which will live here alongside the Luminar Neo presets.

👉 A preset can be a great starting point. Once you’ve applied the preset, you can further edit the file in the Edit tab.

luminar neo tutorial | a screenshot of the presets section
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I’ve partnered with the people at Luminar Neo to get you a special deal. When you apply the coupon code PP10NEO at checkout, you’ll get a generous 10% discount!

Get Creative in Edit

So, the next step in this Luminar Neo Tutorial is editing. This is what it’s all about. This is where the rubber meets the road. Everything else is fluff, important fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

I was most curious to see how Luminar Neo would perform when it came to editing my images. What is it capable of? I’ll answer that question in a minute, but first, let me give you a quick overview of all the tools in the Edit panel and how they’re organized.

👉 By the way, each tool has a little information icon and if you click on it, you’ll be taken to a web page with an explanation of the tool. I think that’s very nice and helpful, especially for beginners.

The editing menu is on the right and is divided into a few sections, the most important being Essentials, Creative, and Portrait. 

Tools & Edits Tabs

At the very top, you can see 2 tabs: Tools and Edits. Once you’ve done some work in a tool and closed it, that edit lives under the Edits tab.

👉 This is important to be aware of because if you reopen the same tool in the Tools tab, you cannot adjust the edits you have already made. You can, however, do that in the Edits tab. You can also delete an edit in the Edits tab if you’re not happy with it.

Most tools allow you to create a mask from within the tool, which is pretty cool.

luminar neo tutorial | A screenshot of the image tools tab

Essentials

Essentials is where you’ll find all the …. yep essentials.

It is usually where you start your editing journey.

👉 Open Develop (from Essentials) and you have most of the editing tools you need at your fingertips.

This is where you’ll find the Erase tool, and Landscape is also worth mentioning.

luminar neo tutorial | a screenshot of the essentials tab

Creative

In the Creative menu, you’ll find tools like Relight and Sunrays – both of which I’ll take a closer look at in this Luminar Neo Tutorial.

There are also tools to add mystery, glow, and a bit of fog or grain.

👉 When you open Mood, you’ll find a bunch of Luts, which are basically filters. Play around with them, it’s fun.

Portrait

The Portrait menu is pretty awesome for portrait photography – as long as you stay away from the tools that change the shape of the body because, as we discussed earlier, of the ethical implications.

💡 Read more about Ethical Editing in my Luminar Neo Review.

But there’s a lot of other super fun stuff to do in the Portrait section. I went all out in this Luminar Neo Tutorial, so read on to find out what it can do!

Make Your Images Come Alive

Now that you’ve got the basics down, let’s explore! In terms of editing, I wanted to answer a few questions in this Luminar Neo Tutorial:

👉 How easy is it for a complete editing novice to get a well-edited image in just a few clicks using AI?

👉 How does Luminar Neo perform without AI? By just using the editing tools that don’t involve AI, like exposure, color, contrast, etc.

👉 What’s the performance of the various built-in AI tools? Are they able to produce a natural look, or is it clear that AI was used?

Will you come with me and dive into the wonderful world of making your images come alive? Then let’s go!

luminar neo tutorial | a screenshot of the creative section

Preset & Enhance

I’ll start by answering the first question: Is it possible to make a good-looking photo with AI in just a few clicks?

To do this, we’ll use a photo I recently took in the Monkey Forest in Ubud.

👉 My first step was to go to Presets to see if that would quickly add a sparkle to the image.

I decided on the Clear and Sharp preset from the Scenery Collection. I didn’t adjust the filter strength in this case, but you could if you wanted to.

👉 Then I opened the Edit tab and clicked on Enhance – the one-click way to make your image look better instantly.

You can adjust the strength of the tool. I chose to go all the way and set the slider to around 50%. If there’s a sky in the image, you can enhance the sky separately.

That was it. In just two quick and easy steps, I was able to bring this image to life.

I think that is the power of Luminar Neo. For the photographer who doesn’t need or want to spend hours behind a computer, they provide an excellent and accessible solution.

And as we’ll see next, they also deliver for the photographer who loves to edit and tinker until it’s just right.

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I’ve partnered with the people at Luminar Neo to get you a special deal. When you apply the coupon code PP10NEO at checkout, you’ll get a generous 10% discount!

Old School Dodging & Burning

The next thing I wanted to investigate in this Luminar Neo Tutorial was how it performs without the AI-powered tools. We’ll use a photo of an old Chinese house in Hoi An, Vietnam. It’s a beautiful house with a lot of dark wood carvings that create large contrasts with the lighter areas.

👉 So the main thing I wanted to work on in this image was to reduce the contrast to bring out the details of the wood while keeping the brightness of the room inside.

Aside from the usual tools like Develop, Vignette, and Color, I used Dodge and Burn to bring the two contrasting areas together. And as you can see, it did a great job. You can find the Dodge and Burn tool under the Professional tab if you scroll all the way down.

Dodge & Burn?

💡 And for those of you who have no idea what Dodge and Burn is, let me explain! The Dodge and Burn tool allows you to adjust the exposure of a specific area of the image.

Burn means to make the area darker and Dodge means to make the area brighter.

These are old terms from the darkroom days when we used to dodge and burn with actual pieces of paper or holes we cut out of a piece of cardboard. Now we just move the mouse over an area and it’s done 🙂

Looking at the results of these edits, I’d say Luminar Neo passed this test with flying colors.

The Power of AI

On to the AI-powered tools. There are quite a few, and I won’t cover all of them. Just a few that I think you might find helpful.

The AI tools I’m going to discuss in this Luminar Neo Tutorial fall into 2 categories. Removing stuff and adding stuff.

We’ll start with removing stuff.

The Magic of Erase

The first one is Erase. Now there’s a nifty little tool that I immediately fell in love with.

The main reason is that it can erase all those annoying dust particles that mysteriously ended up in your file with one simple click. How amazing! Do you know how much time this will save you?

💡 Read More: 5 Easy Steps to Quick & Safe Camera Sensor Cleaning

Erase Powerlines

And then there’s Erase Powerlines. Wow. To be honest, this is a tool I didn’t know I needed. I never felt the need to erase the power lines because, well, they were there – remember the authenticity and integrity of the original scene?

👉 But I think there are scenes and situations where it’s perfectly fine to erase a few annoying power lines while still honoring the integrity of the scene.

But as you can see in this image, it’s not always possible without diminishing the entire scene. The power lines distracted from the beauty and serenity of this beautiful rice field in Sidemen, Bali.

So I took the photo with the power lines and later erased them for this Luminar Neo Tutorial.

And Luminar Neo did a perfect job in no time. I only had to adjust a few small areas where it didn’t get the power lines, but that was also done in seconds.

Let’s move on to the next category, adding stuff.

Sky Replacement

The most juicy one is of course adding a completely different sky. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it many times when I was out photographing and the sky was just boring, all gray and flat. No light, no clouds, no detail.

👉 I always try to make the image interesting in a different way, using all the photographic tools at my disposal. And that is usually enough for me. I’m leaning more towards honoring the authentic sense of place when it comes to the big things like the sky. Erasing a few powerlines is already a big step for me 😉

luminar neo tutorial

But you should find your own balance and which way you’re leaning. So if you want to spice up your images by replacing the sky, go for it! Luminar Neo will be your best friend because it does it really well.

You can choose from different moods, times of day, clouds, etc. And you can adjust the position, the light in the other areas, etc.

Remember to make it look as natural as possible. So pay close attention to the foreground and the kind of sky that fits well with the rest of the frame.

Add a Little Sunshine

The next tool is Add Sunrays. For this Luminar Neo Tutorial, I chose a photo that already had part of the sun in the frame so I could place the center of the sun there. I think Luminar Neo does a wonderful job of enlivening this photo and making it look warm and sunny.

👉 By making these adjustments and adding a few rays of sunlight, the photo actually represents the feel, look, and mood of the original scene much better than the raw photo without any edits.

While photographing, I actually made sure that the details in the trees were well exposed. That’s why the sun looks so washed out. I wanted to test the Sunrays tool for my Luminar Neo Tutorial.

Knowing ahead of time that I’d be able to recreate what it looked like without sacrificing detail in the darker areas is actually kind of cool.

Creating Awesome Portraits

The last tool I’d like to discuss is the Portrait section and more specifically the Portrait Bokeh tool.

Here you’ll find a lot of options to enhance your portraits and I invite you to try them all. Yes, even the Body Shape tool. But be brave and use your own body!

👉 The Portrait menu is pretty awesome because it allows you to be quite granular in adjusting the exposure of a face, for example. 

For this Luminar Neo Tutorial, I chose an image that I was partially happy with. I took this photo during Liberation Day in Hanoi, Vietnam.

I really like the expression on the boy’s face but shooting with a 23mm cropped lens I couldn’t get close enough to cut out all the distracting visual noise in the background.

I kept trying, which is why I ended up with the expressive face, but with a very ugly and messy background. The thing that bothers me the most is the woman in the green dress.

💡 Read More 8 Top Tips for Expressive Portrait Photography in the Outdoor

So I gave the file quite a makeover as you can see. I started by cropping the file and then using Portrait Bokeh to blur the background so it would be less distracting.

👉 I converted it to black and white because I thought the purple light was a little distracting. Then I used Relight to shift the contrast between the background and foreground, made some minor adjustments to the face, and used Denoise to get rid of the noise caused by the high ISO.

I really like the end result, it really represents the feeling of the moment and even the whole evening. 

Luminar Neo really came through for this image and it’s a perfect example of what it can do. Pretty amazing.

💡 Read More: Creative Props and Accessories for Indoor Portrait Photography

Final Thoughts

I want to end this Luminar Neo Tutorial with some final thoughts. I think Luminar Neo is a great choice for beginning photographers because of its blend of manual tools and AI-powered features. It gives you both control and flexibility. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible, while its powerful editing options ensure that even complex edits can be achieved.

Did you try one of the AI-powered tools like Add Sunrays or Erase Powerlines? Let us know in the comments!

Check out my in-depth Luminar Neo Review.

When you purchase through the links in this article I earn a small fee at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support 🙂

10% off luminar neo

I’ve partnered with the people at Luminar Neo to get you a special deal. When you apply the coupon code PP10NEO at checkout, you’ll get a generous 10% discount!

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