Luminar Neo Delivers a Stealth Update With Some Powerful Features

Current Luminar Neo users are in for a treat the next time they open the app, which has quietly hit version 1.8.0. Some of the updates are evolutionary, and there's the usual gaggle of bug fixes, but there are some really nice updates here that will please Neo users.

What's New

First off, with Luminar Neo 1.8.0, the histogram is now available in the Edits tab, and you can sort photos using the raw filter in the Catalog.

Additionally, preview on hover is now available for LUTs in the Mood tool, the Blend Mode in Layers, and Camera Profile in the Develop Raw tool. A big and welcome change is that you can also change the intensity of a preset’s adjustments with a slider, and you can use another slider to view your photo’s before and after states. 

You’ll find performance improvements and support for new cameras, including the Canon EOS R8, Canon EOS R50, and Panasonic DC-S5-ll.

Bug fixes are numerous. For Mac:

• Export a photo in JPEG format with all applied layers visible for previewing in Finder.
• Press and release the Option button without changing the Clone pointer coordinates.
• Use the Crop tool without shifting the controls of the transformed Layer; all controls are displayed according to the image edges.
• Reset the crop adjustment on a zoomed image and see the correct coordinates of the brush feature.
• Enter custom crop values with decimal places, such as 4.2 or 2.3, without experiencing issues.
• In the Lightroom plugin, TIFF images with applied transparency are displayed correctly.
• Revert from Edit mode to the original photo without seeing the Edited icon still on the photo.

For Windows users:

• Close Layer properties without linear and radial gradients still being present.
• After applying transparency masking to a photo in the Luminar Neo plugin, send it back to Photoshop and see the transparent mask applied.
• In the Ghost Reduction settings drop-down menu for the HDR Merge Extension, see Exposure Values displayed correctly.
• Export a TIFF image via the Open source menu and see it in Lightroom as expected after returning from plugin mode.
• In the EXIF block of an image, EXIF data contains the name of the camera manufacturer, as expected.
• While using the Lightroom plugin, TIFF images with transparency are displayed correctly.
• Revert from Edit mode to the original photo without seeing the Edited icon still on the photo.

Checking Out the Update

The added sorting feature in the catalog is nice. Luminar Neo is never going to be a Lightroom or On1 or Peakto competitor in terms of having a powerful catalog, but being able to see only raw files and other sort options is a nice addition.

The histogram always being present is something that should always have been there, but it's good to see it now. The preview on hover feature is very useful. I used it with my own LUTs and also with the camera profile. It's a much slicker and faster way to go. 

The new compare slider feature is a welcome addition to just the quick button to see your original. It works smoothly, and it is something I will likely use a lot. 

I don't really use Neo presets, but now, an intensity slider has been added so you can adjust how much of the preset you get. That's going to make preset users happy. 

Summing Up

This is a solid update that came out with no fanfare at all. Reviewers didn't know it was coming, but it's most welcome. I used version 1.8.0 to edit some drone photos, and everything was smooth with no apparent bugs. Of late, I've had a few crashes with Neo, especially when used as a Photoshop plug-in, but all was calm today with this new version.

Likes and Dislikes

As I said above, this is a solid update, with features that are going to be appreciated by Neo editors. I'd like to see still more power in the catalog and some version displays if I want to see every edit of a raw file. And one of my biggest aggravations with Neo still remains.

When I launch for the first time, Neo pops up promotional material. I don't want to see that in an app I've paid for. Full stop. To make matters worse, there's an option to turn off the feature, which Neo pays no attention to, and when you ask it to stop the endless promotions, it launches a web page with even more promotions. There's no future in aggravating your customers, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth for an otherwise fine app. Adobe does this at times with their menu-bar cloud app, making it look like you have an update, when instead, Adobe is pushing some product or service. It's just a bad way to try to manipulate your customers.