Early Access Version

 The folks at Skylum Software have released what they call an Early Access Version of Luminar NEO to customers who have advanced-purchased this new software. This decision puts Skylum in the category of software publishers who promote public "beta" testing of forthcoming versions. Serif's Affinity products and Computer Insel's PhotoLine are two apps testing this way for a long time.

Skylum's primary purpose of Early Access is to seek feedback on their Relight AI, Dust Spot Removal AI and Power Lines Removal AI features. In addition, the early access will help quiet criticism of the company for failing to meet the earlier announced release time of last month.

For those of us eager to get our hands on the product, it's a chance to finally see how at least part of the product will work. Early Access is missing layers and numerous other features coming later, but based on my experience with free stock photos and my own raw images shot with Olympus cameras, I am impressed.

On my iMac 2017 with macOS Monterey, Luminar NEO Early Access appears to be much faster than Luminar AI. I could distinguish no improvement in slow starting time, but once loaded the app zipped along very quickly. The tools are organized in a more logical way, eliminating the need to move up and down the tools panel throughout the editing process. This was a major frustration in Luminar AI.

Luminar NEO Early Access was able to quickly bring some pop to this image shot on a dull, sunless day.

I produced the image above from an Olympus ORF raw file with Luminar NEO Early Access. There was no sun, thus little depth in the image. But despite being crippled, Early Access brought some life to the picture.

My test image contains a small amount of sky, and Luminar NEO Early Access failed to recognize it, thus the Sky Replacement feature was inoperable. Hopefully, that will be tweaked before the official release. The final version of NEO will need the addition of strong manual chromatic aberration removal adjustments to fix problems like the blue around the tree limbs shown here. 

Although I couldn't test this feature, the official release of Luminar NEO will run some Photoshop plugins. As a photographer doing a lot of creative work with my images, this ability is extremely important to me.

My tests with Relight AI using what Skylum calls 3D mapping indicate the tool works very well for most situations. Three-D mapping is not really a new concept, however. The Topaz Labs legacy plugin Topaz Lens Effects utilized mapping to fix focus as I recall. I used Luminar NEO Relight AI on a close-up image with shallow depth of field and part of the foreground extending upward through the middle third and into the top third of the shot. The 3D mapping did not work properly there, treating the extension as background.

I am unable to test the Dust Spot Removal AI because I use Olympus cameras, which have their own system for eliminating dust and pollen from the sensor when the camera is turned on. Based on what others have done, this feature seems to work very well.

Of the three features Skylum is seeking feedback, Power Lines Removal AI is the one needing significant engineering attention. The intention is for the tool to remove all or most of the lines, and any remainder is cleaned up with Erase. The promotional material Skylum has released shows this feature working. But a few Luminar affiliates on YouTube found problems. I tested on raw images I shot with power lines through sky and trees and stock images with more complex power and phone line configurations. All of my tests were unsatisfactory. Some shots with longs stretches of power lines running through blue sky had the lines replaced but left blotches of blue revealing an edit had been made. If the latest release date of February is pushed back again, it could be because of this problem, in my opinion.

But Skylum is to be commended for making Luminar NEO Early Access available to buyers. Early Access suggests there's a very powerful and innovative editing tool to come soon.