The EASIEST way to EDIT your photos
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 พ.ค. 2024
- Try Luminar Neo l.skylum.com/ND
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NIKON GEAR (Main STILLS camera)
Current landscape camera - Nikon Z7 - geni.us/nikonz7
Awesome telephoto lens - Nikon 70-200m f/2.8 - geni.us/nikon70200
Great ultra-wide angle lens - Nikon 14-30mm f/4 - geni.us/1430mm
Hiking mid lens - Nikon 24-70mm Z f4 - geni.us/nikon2470
Sharpest mid lens - Nikon 24-70mm Z f2.8 geni.us/2470mm28
Very long lens - Nikon 500mm F5.6 - geni.us/nikon500mm
FILM GEAR
AWESOME DRONE - geni.us/dji_mavic3
Nikon Z6 - geni.us/z6nikon
Nikon 20mm Z F1.8 - geni.us/nikon20mmz
Nikon 24mm Z F1.8 - geni.us/nikon24mm
Nikon 50mm Z F1.8 - geni.us/nikon50mmz
Nikon 85mm Z F1.8 - geni.us/nikon85mmz
OTHER PHOTO GEAR
Clever camera strap (peak design) - geni.us/PDstrap
Microfibre Cloths - geni.us/microfibre
Rab Downpour Pants - geni.us/rainpants
Awesome sensor brush - geni.us/brush4sensor
GorillaPod - geni.us/Kb9mV
The great printer I use Canon P1000 - geni.us/cIIc
Great bag for hiking - Tenba 24L - geni.us/orPwh
Great bag for travel (carry on) - Tenba 32L - geni.us/tenba32l
Super light Benro Travel Tripod UK - geni.us/Benrotravel
A must have for tripod (L bracket) - geni.us/myLbracket
Lightweight tripod - Benro Mach3 Carbon Fiber Tripod - geni.us/benromach3
Paper I use for all my prints - Fotospeed - geni.us/fotospeed Use DANSON10 to get 10% off your paper.
00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Why Edit?
03:12 - Luminar Neo Interface
05:56 - Editing in Luminar Neo
09:17 - Enhance AI
10:55 - Additional Tools
11:45 - Mask AI
14:25 - HDR Merge
16:12 - Focus Stacking
17:48 - Panorama Stitching
19:48 - Orton Effect
23:40 - Conclusion
Luminar was brilliant when it was a cheap alternative. The price has rocketed over the years. That might be ok for a professional photographer who earns money from photos. But most (like me) are hobbyists and its not worth paying the price for me.
Black Friday neo offer is pretty good
@@Clearvision21 The Black Friday deal doesn't make business sense to me. Crudely put, get 10 people to buy at normal price, that's circa £6k income, but they will need around 60 people to buy at the BF price to get to the same income levels. Are they really going to generate that much interest? That is unless the original price is so massively inflated that they can still make a reasonable profit hitting relatively modest numbers at the BF price point.
I love that Nigel tells it like it is. If he likes something, he says so. If something isn't very good, he's not afraid to say that either. It makes this channel a trustworthy source of advice when it comes to gear, software etc.
Nigels reviews are always elaborated and thoughtful. He is one of the few content creators on yt I trust without hesitance.
Luminar Neo is a total game changer for me. So much easier, quicker while always being super high quality. I've never been a Lightroom user but it has already replaced almost completely DxO Lab and Topaz AI. Awesome review Nigel, it was funny to see that we have (almost) the exact same Favorites selected :-)
Hi Nigel. Many thanks for the overview. A couple of things. First, when you open a raw file and do edits in Develop Raw, once you close Develop Raw, you're done. So beware, from there, you can only go to Develop, not back to Develop Raw. Second, as for the sky, I just use a Linear Gradient instead of Mask Ai. And, third, while there is a histogram, there is no read out of red, green, and blue values. Which, for me, are crucial for printing.
I'll just say that the title of this video is a little misleading: you should mention that this is a review of a product.
I bought this software on a pre-launch sale several years ago and have used it as a Lightroom plug-in ever since! There are a couple of features that still work well for me! I’ve looked at upgrading to the latest versions, but have trouble justifying the expense! I’ve always been frustrated that there’s not really a good price to upgrade my old version! Thanks for the fair and thoughtful review! I’d love to have access to that simple Orton effect!
Great review Nigel. Honest and very instructional
Also, in ON1, each tool or effect has masking integrated.
So glad that you have done this video, I use Luminar and find it really great as a beginner and it’s helped me get better at editing without overwhelming me and my very basic knowledge of computers 😂. I think it’s a great tool and would love more videos from people (especially yourself as I love your paintily (is that a word?) style) thanks again ❤
Wow! Out of curiosity I just had a look at their latest pricing model. The monthly sub for Neo is actually more than I pay for the photographers sub with Adobe!!!
They often off the 2 year subscription for $99 and you can stack his discount code on top of it. Do the free trial and they will keep offering promo deals. Even cancel at the end of the deal usually.
Back when I shot film and slides those costs were higher monthly than say a $10 monthly subscription in 2023 dollars / pounds, just saying.
Thnx Nigel great honest review and as a user i think its a very under rated piece of software
Thanks for this. Very helpful to make a buying decision ~ particularly with the extra 10%. I am still quite a novice Lightroom user (and photo editor). I also do not have the time to spend at the moment with lots of (at times to me) complicated edits. Yet I do want decent results. Looks like Luminar Neo may fit my needs. I really hope they come out with a version that can run on iPad as I prefer to edit on that rather than my Mac Mini, particularly on the move.
I love Luminar Neo. I use it and it's so easy to use.
Great review, thanks Nigel. I have been "playing" with Neo for a while now. I find the navigation around the program not at all intuitive but I'll stick with it for a while longer. I do like the some of the Extras such as Stacking and Remove Power Lines, they are a great time saver. What are your thoughts on "saving" an image after working on it? I was initially totally frustrated at not being able to drop down a menu and click Save As.
Newish to editing. Bought Luminar Neo as it can be simple to use. There are things that can be improved but Skyrim seem to be more interested in adding gimmicks. Not happy with the pricing structure. Used to be a one off purchase, part of the reason to avoid LR, but now they are pushing for you to subscribe. No. Printing module is as basic as it can get and needs work urgently but no doubt we’ll get another gimmick pushed at us. On the pano there seemed to be a quite obvious ‘edge to the dark section of cloud near the top and slightly right. I’ve noticed this on a few of my Scotland shots and you need to look at the skies carefully as it’s not a one-off. As they can’t sort the pricing I’m likely to go to Capture One as a one-off purchase.
Fair and Honest Review Nigel. Had Neo for a bit now. It does some things well, others not so much. It can also be used as a plugin or filter in Photoshop or Affinity Photo. Few of the features I like: Straighten in Crop AI, Structure, Relight, and Mystical. Over time it has become part of my editing workflow.
Nigel, Can i ask what computer monitor stand product you are using there, along with the mat under the key board? They look sharp. (I’m currently putting my iMac on three text books). Thanks
Enjoyed the video as usual Nigel.
I like your honesty about the likes and what you don't like about it.
I have got luminar neo and lightroom.
Like you say it is so easy to edit your image's and like you i love the accent ai tool.
Next try ACDsee photo studio ultimate. I would like to see what you think.
For me, the company’s decision to completely drop support for a product after 1-2 years, in order to make you buy the newer version of the same product with 1-2 new features… It really turned me off. I won’t be giving them any more money.
Capture One drops support after about 3 months on a perpetual license so 1 or 2 years on a perpetual license is pretty good.
@@barryj7478 I would be okay if it was just an upgrade like what dxo does, but they completely drop products. Their HDR program, the nik replacement they worked on (was it the creative kit?). Then there is luminar 1-4, ai, neo, and then now this new one with all the “addon packages” that were just the older products.
Thank you, Nigel for the demonstration. For me, the simplest way to process an image without UI ballast, is to run Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) that can be triggered from Adobe's alternative image file browser "Bridge". Merely because we know ACR functionality from Lightroom Classic (LrC) and Photoshop that run ACR as a plugin.
Next would be the "free" Nikon NX Studio, albeit their UI is different than all others and this requires some time to get used to.
Most important to me is that the "raw processor" is able to extract the inherent qualities out of my 45MP images from my Nikon's raw files. Adobe Camera Raw has struggled with that for along time and now the addition of "AI Denoise" to me seems a fix for that.
That does not mean that ACR is perfect now. It's detail loss to digital artefacts is serious and other applications like Topaz's Gigapixel AI do not suffer from that (as per last time I compared).
Some of this is only visible at 100% (pixel peeping) but plays out when you print large, for example as lack of sharpness.
The quality of the raw processing of the 45MP images also depends on the style of the image. Low contrast, foggy, blurry zones, and the darker zones (called "Shadows" in ACR) may get rendered with too much grain because of failed raw processing (when the absence of the OLPF was not compensated enough in the AI). Somewhere i there we also get generation of digital artefacts from naive deBayerisation that got insufficient repair in the demosaicking phase of raw processing.
I feel that Nikon's in-camera raw processing that generates SOOC JPEG does a very good job in all these respects. It handles gradation, grain, sharpness, colour, really well. The apps we use in post all differ significantly. And how well they do will depends on the kind of subjects we shoot - because the use of AI that went through a learning phase implies that what was learned determines how good it will be in your images.
So, you see, in the past there was a good and well defined reason for me to invest in Topaz for it being a lot better in noise and detail than ACR. But we still need Photoshop and have to take ACR and LrC in the deal. I keep telling Adobe, when they ask if I would recommend their software to other people, "No, not as long as I need to buy other products to get really good results in what should be fundamental in your products." They finally added AI Denoise as a band-aid.
Really interesting video, thank you for explaining so much (good and bad points) in such a relatively short time. I liked the fact you tried it on merging several images together, without practicing it first, off screen. It gave authenticity to the result (which was really good and really quick on doing it too). All in all it looks very good peice of software, for a fairly reasonable price. I’m definitely interested in trying it out. Thank you Nigel.
I bought it on the black Friday deal. Lifetime was $149 USD. I want to see which is better for focus stacking, Luminar or Photoshop.
Hi Nigel; what about Affinity? It’s British!
Brilliant software and a one off price.
I bought into Neo when it first came out but I don't use it as my normal toolset (I'm a DxO/Affinity/Nik man) but I do jump into it for sky replacements, HDR, dust spot removal and reducing camera shake. Its AI extensions are good but not great, they cost about 1/3 to 1/2 of the Topaz tools and deliver about 1/2-2/3 of the results. The sharpen tool in particular tends to be overzealous and their "face enhancement" AI features do some really bizarre things, but not an issue for landscapes. But for a beginner, I think Neo is an easier starting point than Photoshop (or even Elements) because its tools are designed for "editing with intent" rather than "editing the pixels".
The big BUT however is the cost. The basic tool is OK but once you start adding all the extensions it gets expensive quite quickly.
I've had the past 4 pieces of software from them and they have their weird ways of doing things Neo annoys me with no proper way to handle layers. However to be able to stack effects and adjustments in no time at all, the masking is nice and easy to use if you have an idea on how something should look you should be able to do it with ease
Side note this program loves using up RAM and if you use it all up the program will just crash and you lose the edit I used to have 16gb and was plenty for their old programs and photoshop but I had to upgrade to 32gb in the end to help
Nice rundown. Definite benefits for beginners. Carry on. 👍🥂
Thanks for doing this and being honest about this,
I use it on a daily basis and your video is really good and accurate good job. Love this 🎉❤
As a matter of fact I am looking to purchase it. I have Luminar 4 and I want to upgrade. This is a video for me that makes it or brakes it.
One of the biggies is, I want to purchase a copy, absolutely no subscription. Ok now, going back to watch the video ....
Nice overview. How does the handling of the files and edits work in the last version when using it as a plug-in for LrC? In my older version, files are exported and after the edits, back again into LrC - all the edit history is lost. So for important edits I want to use Luminar for, I take notes... Did that change in the latest versions?
I use luminar neo, use it as a main software. Like the review! Thanks Nigel for the tips in the video!
There's technically nothing wrong with AI tools, although people tend to associate them with things like compositing. But if you look at Adobe's DeNoise AI or Topaz Lab's AI software it isn't really changing the content or the photo so much as it's just using AI to make things like sharpening and noise reduction "smarter" (versus the one-size-fits-all approach that non-AI software tends to have). Now people may be thinking of AI-based generative Fill when they think of AI and that's different. AI removal of objects may be "questionable" although generally with that you're just removing districtions, or things that shouldn't bei n your photo, like garbage or other elements, so that one may depend on WHAT youre doing with it. In one image I had I was using the new Remove tool in Photoshop to remove people from a landscape scene, which I feel is "fine" in that they are not really part of the landscape (they just happened to be there) but I'm not changing the overall scene or the way the scene was necessarily. Swapping a sky may be different because then you're created something that perhaps wasn't there particularly if you add a blue sky with clouds to a scene that was overcast for example, that would probably be more compositing (all sky replacements are more or less compositing). In short I think if you're using AI to remove unwanted elements from a scene that are not naturally there (like garbage or people on a landscape scene) that's totally fine and I wouldn't really consider that to be compositing in any sense, but rather just "clean- up" and removing distractions (that you cannot deal with at the time of capture) which is sort of what sets good photos apart from the "bad" ones.
Thanks Nigel, a fair appraisal I’d say. Two small improvements to help you relate to American viewers : plug INs (not plug ons) and H is spelled Aitch not haitch...
Nigel: I really enjoy your reviews, but please clean the dust off the base of your monitor! Unless you are trying to go for the rugged outdoor look. :)
Thanks Nigel - an interesting review of what looks like a decent editor.
You didn't mention their latest pricing structure, which is where they lost me. Want HDR? Pay extra! Want Focus Stacking? Pay extra! Want Pano Stitching? Pay extra! When you add-up all the extra charges for features that should be included IMHO, I would no longer consider this a "cheap" alternative.
I see your point. After HDR, Pano and Stacking I stopped buying. But I do like what I have with Luminar and in my opinion it is worth the price. With Luminar I do the things I can‘t with DxO. This combination is great. DxO as the best Raw Engine and Luminar for the fun stuff or the stuff that is oddly and unnecessary complicated with other editors.
Its hard to beat LR and PS sub at dirt cheap and toe for toe powerful
The problem with that AI slider is that you don't learn the aspects of the photo that need changing. A video on the Topaz Denoise might be interesting as well. Great video.
On1 so much better on pricing and less gimmicks
I personally use LR just for basic adjustments and then take it to Capture One. Somehow capture one renders the output images from my D850 raws a lot nicer than LR.
AI is a broad discipline and Machine Learning is only one area, although it's getting all the publicity at the moment. When I was at uni' in the 1980s they used to list 5 disciplines in AI and at that time ML was the least advanced. Expert systems, voice and video recognition were most advanced and I can't even remember the 5th! :-)
Luminar is really missing luminosity and color masks…. And the ability to flatten the layers you used. First you have to export your image and then import it again.
Tools and Tool Masking mimics Layers and Layer masking in Photoshop…. Why a lot of landscapers use Photoshop even in a Lightroom workflow.
With Luminar I looked for a program to give a final touch to my images, you know, after finishing with Lightroom, adding that extra touch of contrast etc, but I'm not good at editing 😅
You should have mentioned that it is subscription only and that puts me off straight away.
I just checked the plans and there is the option of a one off lifetime purchase. You have to scroll down on the section.
@@Johnny641 You'll probably find that the one off "lifetime" purchase is just that, a static piece of software that won't receive any further updates. What Skylum have done in the past is run a huge marketing drive for a sale on a version of their products, and then suddenly drop a new version which needs to be bought in order to get the updated features with no means to upgrade the now old version they just sold in the sale.
Took a stance against Skylum a number of years ago and won't buy any of their product again.
It’s waste of money! The new versions are heavy and with a lot of lags. Also you need to pay again and again to take more updates or you will keep the basics! Nowadays you can do most of these with adobe.
I have had this product fora few years and hate it. It’s slow and the interface isn’t very intuitive. I wasted my money
I look forward to your video each Sunday but this one holds zero interest to me. I really dont need another means of draining my bank account.
Wow, another effin’ Luminar ad. 🤮
increase contrast, shadows, dehaze, add saturation, local contrast. no need for the "ai" crap. thank me later
Hey Nigel got to pay the bills just like all of us...
lets be honest, no serious person is using luminar software
Luminar is gross. 🤮
I LIKE YOUR VIDS BUT THIS ONE IS SO MUCH WAFFLE
knew this was a paid video before I even clicked