Skylum announces new AI-driven photo editor, Luminar Neo

Skylum has announced the next version of its Luminar photo editing software, Luminar Neo. The upcoming photo editor utilizes AI to power many of its photo editing tools, but is built upon a new image editing engine, promising improved performance.

‘As the latest member of the Luminar family, we designed Luminar Neo to allow artists to take on more challenging image creation work and achieve results which often seem unattainable,’ said Dima Sytnik, Skylum co-founder and CPO.

In terms of new photo editing features, Luminar Neo includes new image relighting options. The software analyzes each image to recognize the depth and subject in a scene, which Skylum says gives the user precise control over exposure and tone.

Using AI tools, Luminar Neo automatically ‘recognizes and removes artifacts caused by a dirty camera sensor or lens.’ Additional new tools also make it easier than ever to remove unwanted elements from your photo.

If you want an all-new background, you can do that too. Similar in spirit to Luminar’s existing sky-replacement technology, Luminar Neo has new background replacement functionality. Skylum writes, ‘Take full control of the background for portrait photos by quickly replacing it with an all-new image or background.’ This new function adds more tools for editing portraits, joining Portrait AI, Skin AI and Bokeh AI tools.

Alongside Luminar Neo, Skylum will release a new companion mobile app. This will let photographers quickly move photos captured with their smartphones into Luminar Neo on their computer for editing. Finished files can then be quickly sent back to your phone for sharing on social media.

Additional workflow improvements include the option to save photos and presets for reuse, total control over each editing step in a non-destructive workflow and a minimalist user interface. Luminar Neo is designed to reduce as much friction as possible, allowing photographers to spend more time on enjoyable tasks and less time on tedious editing steps. The inclusion of AI is a big part of Skylum’s solution to repetitive, boring tasks.

Speaking of AI, Luminar Neo includes AI-powered compositing tools. AI creates masks to isolate individual elements in images, which can then be added to different layers. AI-guided blending modes are available, too.

‘ The goal of Luminar has always been to help everyone create images they truly love. With Luminar Neo, we empower even more artists and photographers to achieve their full creative vision,’ said Ivan Kutanin, CEO of Skylum. ‘With new tools and a flexible editing workflow, they’ll find powerful new ways to create while being inspired to explore new ways to do so. We can’t wait to see what our creative community comes up with.’

Luminar Neo is available for preorder now with special early bird pricing. The software will ship this winter. For additional information and to stay up to date with Luminar Neo, visit Skylum.