Introduction (00:01)
Welcome to the LumaCast, your premier universe of limitless photo editing. Dive into the galaxy of Luminar software and the dynamic world of AI photo editing. Join us weekly for a burst of creativity and the drive to transform your photos with confidence and skill. Broadcasting directly from Clever Photographer headquarters, it's time to welcome your hosts Jakub Bors and Holly Linton.
Jakub Bors (00:28)
Hello everyone and welcome to our first episode of Lumicast, our brand new podcast focusing on photography, photo editing and Luminar Neo. My name is Jakub Bors. I'm a professional landscape photographer. based in Chichester in UK and I'm also ambassador of Luminar Neo. But more importantly, on the side of me, virtually,
is incredible photographer and one of the biggest fans of Lumina Neo in the United States, Holly Linton. Hello Holly!
Holly Linton (01:02)
Hi Jakub, how are you today?
Jakub Bors (01:04)
I am great, really excited for this one. So what we're to be doing during the Lumicast, the idea is that we're going to be producing this weekly podcast, which first of all, supposed to be a lot of fun. But then we're to be talking about interesting photography topics, invite some exciting guests, and hopefully, alongside, help you moving forward on your photo editing and photography journey.
In the first episode, just to celebrate the third anniversary of Luminar Neo and also of our first episode of the Lumicast, we decided to run a little Oscars of Luminar Neo tools. Now, Holly will introduce the actual awards in a moment and the topics, but before that, the idea is that we both decided which tools in Luminar Neo we like following these categories, and we gonna announce them throughout the podcast episode.
As we announce them, we're going to try to pursue each other which one is better than the other and hopefully at the end come up with eight winners. So, Holly, what are the topics of the awards?
Holly Linton (02:11)
All right, the awards will be going to the best essentials tools, the best landscape, the best creative, the best portrait, the best professional, the best extension, which should include all the generative tools, the forgotten tool, the poor things, and the best tool, overall tool in Luminar Neo.
Jakub Bors (02:36)
Perfect. with the 8th award, we're to wrap it all together to decide what is the best tool in Luminar Neo. Yes. Now, just a question. When you were deciding about these tools, how did you decide? Was it based on which one you use the most or based on which one you like the most?
Holly Linton (02:51)
Probably which one I liked the most. Though of course sometimes it's both. You like it so much that you use it a lot. There were many categories though where there's so many tools that I like that it's hard to pick from.
Jakub Bors (03:08)
There are definitely some categories where there is more than one possible winners. And that's why it's going to be fun. By the way, if you're watching us on a platform where you can leave a comment below, then definitely go ahead and let us know which are your favorite tools in Luminar Neo. But with that, I think we are ready. So we're to start with the first category. And those are the essential tools.
Holly Linton (03:30)
All right, well, like I said before, it's a little difficult to pick just one as I look at what our options are and the essentials. Develop raw is always an important one, I think. Obviously, the first place to start with your edits. Color is in the running because I love using the HSL and just being able to selectively choose which colors you want to alter.
details comes in handy sometimes and I always finish with a vignette. So it really was hard to pick, but for best essentials, the award goes to the Develop RAW because it's the foundation of a good edit. And then specifically within that, my first order of business is usually hitting that J key and letting the highlight alerts show up, which
I guess you don't really want them to show up because that means you didn't really do it right in camera. I just, that's kind of my guide of getting the white and black points adjusted properly. So my award goes to develop.
Jakub Bors (04:39)
Developer, okay, well, let's see what I came up with. Surprisingly, I talk about it with Holly previously. I'm actually not a big fan of Enhance AI tool. I don't use it that much. I like to have just a little bit more control over the edit and especially at the part of the development at the beginning where I think that Enhance AI can do a good job, but you just don't really know what it's doing to the image. So it's a bit more difficult to correct it. So if I would have to talk about some of my favorite cool, cool,
tools in this category, then I also use vignette all the time. My favorite feature of vignette is the fact that you can adjust the center of the vignette as well as add extra light in the center. So you can kind of create the contrast even bigger. I also really like the structure AI and of course, develop tool or developer tool. They are great. But actually, because I had a suspicion that maybe you will go for the developer, I equally as much use the
details tool. And when I open my end robot, we will find out that it does say the details tool. And why I really like it is because for me, the contrast of the sharpness and softer areas is really important. I really like to be quite selective. And in this tool, you can specifically adjust the details of small details, medium details and large details. And I think that makes life of a photographer so much easier.
Now then we have to choose which one is the winner. And on this one, I think I'm going to surrender because I was really heavily thinking about the develop tool anyway. So I think it's the right choice. Talking to other photographers, why would you recommend them to use the develop tool? Why do you think it's so important?
Holly Linton (06:21)
I just feel like it's the foundation. It's like the basics. That's why it's called Essentials. And I guess just from watching videos and learning, I just feel like you could tweak a few things in develop.bra and be done, technically could be done.
Jakub Bors (06:42)
Cool. First tool, first category, the Essentials tool, Hollis Winner, the Develop tool.
Holly Linton (06:49)
I'm glad I think I know what I'm talking about here.
Jakub Bors (06:52)
Well done. Which brings us nicely to the second category, the landscape tools. Okay, landscape tools. Obviously tools that are very handy for landscape editing, but in fact, they can be used for all kinds of photography. I love them and it was really difficult to choose amongst them, but I will explain you why I choose what I choose in a moment just to go through some big tools there. The sunrays.
or SunRace AI or SunRace tool is great for adding sun rays, but also just enhancing sun. I think that can work really well. I wasn't first sure about the Twilight Enhancer AI when they brought it because I just wasn't sure how to use it. But recently I have kind of found a way to really get my head around it and I have used it on some images and I think it can really work really well. And the third...
tool I really like to use is the simple landscape tool and especially inside the golden hour slider. I think that really can help to add that kind of special feel to the image. So sun rays tool, landscape tool and twilight enhancer were my honorable mentions. And then when it comes to the envelope for the landscape tool, my winner for this category has to be the sky AI. I know number of photographers
like real estate photographers and professional photographers who actually use Lumina and Neo just for this one tool. So I think it's great.
Holly Linton (08:21)
For my comments, I don't use sky replacement often, but I could see why you picked that. I love sun rays, Twilight Enhancer, I'm kind of like you. I haven't used it enough, but I'm sure there is a place for it. Atmosphere AI, I think it's pretty cool. if you can add different layers of fog, though I don't have a lot of images that already have fog, for some landscape photographers, I could see that being useful. I do use out of all of these,
the landscape tool the most for the golden hour. And I know you've said in your videos, even if it's not a landscape, you could try to use that to improve upon a different type of picture. And same thing with water enhancer. I try it and I like the results, but it's just not frequently used. So without further ado, the best landscape award goes to...
Sunrays, because the sun makes me happy. Okay, so I say granted you won't use it often, but they add a nice, I think like a spiritual component to your image. And mostly anytime there's an existing sunray already in the picture, I will. That's when I'll definitely use sunrays. You know, if you see light coming through trees or something, it's just kind of a no brainer. Let's add some extra.
boost of sun rays to it.
Jakub Bors (09:51)
Now then. This will be tricky. I'm not giving up the Sky AI.
Holly Linton (09:56)
I'll make it easy for you then I think you win this one because it is quite impressive to be able to do the sky replacement Just because I don't often doesn't mean I don't think it's great
Jakub Bors (10:08)
Talking about conscious coming back to the sunrays tool, I have to say that out of all the tools in the Menar Neo, when I look at some edits from other photographers, I, with this tool, I seen some of the most beautiful edits, but also some of the craziest edits I ever seen. Like some people just go crazy and all that's the sunrays everywhere and sun and you just have to be a little bit careful with these really powerful tools, I think, to keep it a little bit under control because
First, obviously it looks very fake, but then it just can be very overwhelming. know, anytime you add light source to the image, it can be really powerful. So I 100 % agree that it's great, great tool just for the listeners and photographers out there. Just be a little bit more gentle with it because it's very easy to overdo it. well, that brings us to next category, which should be...
Holly Linton (10:57)
Creative. Wow, there are a lot of tools in the creative panel. Hard to pick the winner. But as I'm looking through the list here, the mood tool I use a lot because if you're doing layers and you want to kind of make everything cohesive, you've always instructed us to use a LUT. I find that the mood tool is very useful. Mystical.
I have a feeling that that's gonna be your favorite. The blur tool is fun. The glow tool, I do actually try all the time. I may not always use it, but if you need to brighten up an image, I think that can add a nice effect. So it was hard to pick. So let's just see. Best creative goes to color transfer. Like the engineering side of it. I just, the concept of it.
is neat and I've just recently just started trying to find pictures that inspire me to use as the reference selection and the favorite one being Outlander, the movie of series Outlander, the colors from that. And then I found something in a store the other day. It was just a makeup bag that had all these neat colors. It was like all sequins, but I said, wow, I love the color scheme of that.
So I took a picture of it to use as a reference selection. So I think I picked it because I think it will allow us to use our imagination.
Jakub Bors (12:33)
Great, well done. Definitely, think the color transfer tool is very powerful tool in the creative section, which without any doubt is my favorite in the whole application. And I think that's really what maybe together with the landscape tools set aside the application from the traditional tools like Lightroom or Photoshop, you because you can do lots of these edits there too, but it just takes so many tasks and so many...
There was a big combination of different things connected together where here it's just one slider. And I think that's just really, really cool. So from my favorite, I actually also had a color transfer tool on my recommended list or the ones I was thinking about. And the reason is that, again, I think it's one tool which people don't necessarily go to right away, but once you figure out what it's good for, it can be really powerful. I like to use streetlights a lot in my...
photography because I think they add really nice cinematic feel. For some reason, when we see streetlights and cobblestones and old streets, everybody get a little bit emotional and you know, it's like a movie scene. So I really like to add extra touch to the streetlights. I've done it my whole career as a photographer, but in past I had to use little radial filter, you know, and do dodge and burn where the fact that I can just, just take the slider, increase it, maybe brush over the lights I want to add or remove.
is epic and I use it all the time. Like most of my cityscape pictures, if they captured during golden hour or blue hour, I would use the magic light AI. And mood tool is not the most exciting tool out there, definitely, but I think the LUTs are super powerful way to color grade your image, blend things together, just like you mentioned. It's just so easy to apply LUT, increase the slider and create brand new look, get inspired.
just bring things together. I think definitely it's a tool which I wish would be called differently than MoodTool, but I think it works super well. So, where's my envelope? Envelope number three, the creative tools. So my winner, as a surprise for Holly, is the mystical tool. If you follow me a little bit on my videos and tutorials, I pretty much use it in every edit. unless I'm going for super dramatic tool, super dramatic look,
where I would use dramatic tool in contrast to mystical tool. I would use mystical tool. just think it just works. It brings things together. had the glow, the fantasy feel, a little bit of warmth if you want to, a little bit of saturation. I liked and used mystical tool all the way from Luminar 4. I think it was in Luminar 3 as well. So yeah, I think it's super epic and really creative. Cool. So since you...
We're not sure about the color transfer tool to start with. I think it's an easy choice.
Holly Linton (15:32)
I think you're right. Mistful is the winner.
Jakub Bors (15:36)
Now, those were creative tools, and that brings us nicely to portrait tools. Portrait section, self-explanatory, focusing on enhancing portraits, using AI, being able to do a quick edit throughout the different tools there. Six tools, some of them pretty straightforward, some of them a little bit more advanced. When it comes to mentioning the ones I like to use, think skin AI can be really handy and give you a fast way of enhancing the skin on portrait.
Surprisingly, probably for some, I really, really like to use a high key. I think it's quite easy and fast way to add that bright and clean look to the images. You can do that with curves and maybe shadows and whites and exposure in develop tool, but this is just a little bit faster and I really like to use it on that minimalistic look. And until recently, I really wasn't big fan of studio light, but I worked on a project where I was trying to recreate
look from Rembrandt photos on human portraits, on photographic portraits. And the studio light really helped me to do that and enhance that look like so much easier than if I would be doing it with brushes or gradients or stuff like that. So I guess like many of the tools in Luminani, the more you use them, the more you learn to add them to your workflow and maybe they become a little bit closer to you. So I have to say that the studio light can be also really powerful. But when it comes to my
Favorite tool in the portrait section. Let's have a look. My choice for this one was the face AI. Face AI tool, probably the oldest tool in a portrait section in Luminar. If you go into the past, one slide that I use a lot is a face light, but I have to say that one thing that always amaze me and again, one thing that always amaze people I show it to is the eye replacement or
enhancement. Like the fact that it takes three clicks to replace the color of your eyes or just enhance them is incredible and yeah on top of it it has other features but I think the eye feature in the face AI is super cool. Now then what did you choose Holly?
Holly Linton (17:53)
Well, I agree with you on the eye enhancement for sure. Studio light I've experimented with, but not a lot, but I agree it's pretty cool what it could do. Portrait bokeh has its place. You know, if you didn't have the right lens with you at the time and you wanted to blur your background out. And high key I've used before too, but not too often. Again, they're all pretty cool. I would say out of all the body AI is the one.
I don't use much. So let's see what I picked for best portrait. Best portrait award goes to Skin AI. I love that you can pull the amount slider so far to the right and your subject still looks natural. Shine removal. Usually most people have a little bit of shine. And when you pull that slider a lot to the right, it really does help mattify everything. Like you've put dabbed powder on our face. And then when it comes to
profile pictures and selfies. It's a tool no woman could be without. would say, I like to say I won't need a facelift for a really long time. I could just use the Skin AI tool in Luminar Neo. So, and you can also mask it off a man's face so that, you you fellas could look a little more rugged versus, you know, looking pretty or whatever. So that's,
The Skin AI
Jakub Bors (19:24)
If you would have to pick up just two tools from the portrait section, which you would use all the time, it would be the face AI and skin AI anyway, right? Yes. So then really looking at it from the point of view, which one you would use more often, I would agree with you. It's probably the skin AI. right. Whenever I do portraits, I use the shine removal pretty much all the time because I'm just really not a big fan of that kind of hotspot on a face. And you're 100 % right that the result from the amount slider
Holly Linton (19:40)
You are.
Jakub Bors (19:54)
even when you really bring it up is quite incredible because it still looks quite natural. That depends of course on the subject and the light and everything, but it's super cool. So I will agree with you on skin AI on this one. Well, on that note, that I think brings us nicely to our little break. We are halfway through. We have gone through four categories and we're going to take a short break. Don't go away because when we come back, we have four more tools for you with two.
really cool ones we're be looking at the forgotten tools as well as the best Luminar tool ever. you're listening to the LumaCast podcast then we share something in common we love editing photos and we love Luminar it's almost breathtaking what this amazing tech can do for you on our website you'll find countless different things to help you be more creative than you ever thought imaginable
From our photo manipulation masterclass to our power bundle with 986 elements, our essential preset bundle, editing software and extensions to our tutorials, harness the power at the website at www.cleverphotographer.com slash luminar. Again, that's cleverphotographer.com slash luminar. Now back to Lumacast.
back with the second part of our Lumicast podcast, where we're gonna be looking at the second half of our awards. We're gonna start with the professional tools, extensions, forgotten tools, and then the best tool in Luminar Neo. Saying that, we're gonna start with the professional tool category, and it's Holly's turn.
Holly Linton (21:39)
All right, well, this is a little easier since there's only four to choose from. Dodge and burn I use sometimes. Clone I'm horrible at using. So I can already tell you I didn't pick that one. But let's just see what I picked. The best professional award goes to super contrast. I always give this a go in each edit just to see if it's doing anything worthwhile. You never know what little bit of tweaking
to the highlights, midtones, and shadows contrast can do to make your edit a little bit better. And I typically use this instead of the contrast in the develop or develop raw tool because I know I'm gonna wanna use this one instead. I don't know if that's appropriate practice or whatever, but so super contrast is my winner.
Jakub Bors (22:30)
Okay, so professional tools and me. So actually, I'm not a massive fan for personal work of using the dodge and burn tool myself. I like to teach it because I think it's a very easy way to explain people on how to use the dodge and burn technique. And it's really fast and straightforward. You don't get distracted by other sliders. But personally, I much more prefer to use develop tool in combination with masking. So dodge and burn will not be my favorite, but I think it's really handy.
that it's there. Clone tool, I know that when Luminalio was released, it didn't have a clone tool and I know that was a big deal for lots of photographers out there. The possibility of removing object before the arrival of Gen Erase was quite high. So I think the clone tool has its space. And if I would have to guess what would be the most forgotten tool for most photographers out there, I would say it's the color harmony. Anybody I talk to, they say they never really use it. I
actually quite often go into it when I'm lost between color tool and develop tool. So if I can't find the right color there on HSL panel or in develop tool, I sometimes go into color harmony and try to play around with that. But not always, but I use it from time to time. So I almost kind of talk myself into what the result will be anyway, but next develop will be for my all time favorite. And that is also the super contrast tool.
super cool tool allowing us to adjust the contrast separately for highlights, midtones and shadows and just like you, I go and try it on every edit. Exactly as you say, I don't always use it. Like for example, I very rarely use the shadow contrast for some reason because it actually adds brightness, but I think it's super, super cool and definitely one of these tools that set Luminar Neo aside. So the winner is
Holly Linton (24:24)
Super contrast.
Jakub Bors (24:27)
Awesome. Which brings us nicely to extensions. So I think that's my turn then. The very first extension in Luminar Neo was the HDR merge. I remember like today I got the secretive email saying there will be extensions coming and it will be the HDR merge. So we celebrated and then it came with the announcement that the Aurora HDR will be discontinued. I don't know if you used it before, but it was a specific software for HDR photography.
So that caused lots of heartbreak, but moving forward, so now three years, there is a whole list of extensions in the application, which again, made Luminar Neo more of a editing suite rather than just, you know, like a developing tool. The fact that you can merge your HDR pictures, you can do the focus stacking, panorama stitching, you can upscale your photos, you can use the generative tools, you can sharpen the image.
And you can also remove noise all within one application is, I think, incredible. So if I would have to mention some I use often, I do play around with the Gen Erase and Gen Swap. I have to say that for myself personally, I like to use it on smaller areas of the image. I'm not a big fan of, you know, like selecting half of the photo and trying to replace that. But if there are like little parts where I can help with the Gen Swap, or if there are little parts I need to remove with the Gen Erase, I think that is
actually really handy. And the noiseless AI, I think can be also helpful because again, I'm someone who photographed quite often in a low light, know, blue hour, golden hour, and I don't always have a tripod with me. So then this can be a life savior. But if I were to choose out of all these tools I mentioned earlier, the winner would be drum roll, HDR merge.
So the HDR merge, which as I mentioned was the first extension arriving to Luminar Neo. And if you would ask me a few months ago, I would probably say it's almost there, but with the possibility now of doing batch processing HDR where you can just load in 100 HDR images from different shots and it sorts it and merge it for you. I think that makes your life much easier and faster. So yes, HDR merge for me. Oli, what about you?
Holly Linton (26:52)
All right, well, to answer your question about Aurora HDR, I own it, I've never used it. I bought it because Skylum had a great sale on it one day. It was like the lowest price ever. So I got it and then a few months later is when the software changed. So it's like, I never had a reason to use it because of HDR merge. So that answers that. But as far as all the extensions, I'll say,
I don't use pretty much most of them. I've experimented with all of them just from watching your videos and I'm familiar with all of them, but it's still sort of on my list of things to do to try focus stacking and try HDR, know, bracketing my shots and stuff. So, but I could see why you picked that. I'm sure for landscape photographers, there's a lot of extensions that are really, really useful. So having said that,
The best extension, including generative tools, goes to GenSwap. I give this first prize because it makes me laugh and smile. The results are, to me, are hysterical. And you usually have to try a few times before you might get what you're looking for. So I like to use it once in a blue moon just to, just really to be silly.
and just see what's gonna happen. And perfect example of that, you will remember is from your romance bundle, you had a fancy velvet couch background and I added a cow to it and then put a set of red lips on the cow and put a necklace on the cow. So for me, using GenSwap is just jolly good fun. So that's why I would give that first place pretty much because
I don't use any of the other ones.
Jakub Bors (28:51)
I have to agree with you that it's a lot of fun. I was doing a photography talk at Maidenhead Camera Club and it was late at night and people are kind of falling asleep and I was desperately trying to figure out how to get them up and listen to me. So I kind of asked them for their ideas on what to add, you know, so I would type it in and we would try different things. And people are very serious about it until one of the guy asked to add a dragon with the fire from his mouth, you know, like a fantasy thing.
And I typed it in and I thought, oh, this is going to be disaster. know, what can, that cannot work. And I have to say that the result came out was pretty cool. I was that, think, you know, a few people got Luminarium from that presentation and I wonder if they got it because of the, because of the dragon experiment. But at the same time, I agree with you. You again, I think the gen erase, gen swap and gen expand, you really have to be careful for how you use it.
because it can come across very quickly as unrealistic and it can be just too much. So yes, now how are we going to do this?
Holly Linton (30:00)
I'll keep it simple for you. I'll let you be the winner because your tool is more, HDR merge is more what I would just call like legitimate tool.
Jakub Bors (30:11)
That sounds fair. Thank you very much. And that brings us to the final two categories. So obviously we wanted to pick our favorite tool in Luminar Neo. That will be the last category. But we thought it would be also fun to look at the category of tools which we don't use that often. And sometimes they can almost be forgotten. So it's not necessarily that the tool is wrong or there's anything wrong with it. It's just that me or Holly, we just don't use it as often.
Who's turn is it? Holy you!
Holly Linton (30:43)
It is? Okay. The Forgotten Tools. Nobody or no tool wants to be the Forgotten Tool. It's like being in the land of misfit toys. I feel bad picking this category, but rest assured, these Forgotten Tools are not alone because there aren't more than one. So they can commiserate together. I'll just go ahead and tell you what my Forgotten Tool is. The award. This is going to be fun.
The award goes to the mouth tools within the face AI tool. So that's my pick for the Forgotten Tool Award. There are a few more. I'll just mention Horizon Alignment. find I don't use that because it to me never really works. I always have to adjust it. And then you won't like me saying this one, but the owl eyes.
The owl eyes, now I did a fun edit for Halloween and my selfie made myself look like an owl. So I would say the owl eyes are also a contender there to be the forgotten tool.
Jakub Bors (31:53)
Okay, so forgotten tools. While Holly was looking at the specific adjustments, which I think is great. So for me, forgotten tools, underappreciated and rarely used. Sounds terrible. One tool I never use is GenExpand. I just never really got around to it. And I have to be honest, it's not just in Lumina Neo, but we can say Photoshop has a similar feature and I just never really use it. When I photograph something,
It's kind of in a frame and the fact that, you know, like if I'm photographing the cathedral here in Chichester, where I live, like I cannot expand it because people will know that these things don't exist, you know, so it's really tricky for me to try to like add another street because it doesn't exist. So GenExpand, I never used, I made a video about how to use it on YouTube channel and from that on it has a dust and webs and I never click on that. Focus stacking, but that's just because I'm just not
I just don't do that kind of photography. You know, I don't do macro photography or anything like that. So upscale extension is another one. And as I told you, dodge and burn. only use it when I teach how to use it. So I never think about it, never go there. But the winner, winner, in the forgotten tools, the loser in this one is the real light AI shocker, a real light AI. understand the idea.
that you can kind of add or remove brightness from your foreground and background separately. And it's really easy. And I use the 3D mask, but exactly like you and the lips, you know, adjusting the lips, it doesn't really work. I also think this tool doesn't really work. And it's because the mask is never really what I need it to be.
Holly Linton (33:41)
Well, it's funny you just say that because I tried to use it yesterday to brighten up a picture of that I took actually out my front door. It was a rainy day and a bunch of birds on the bird feeder. And I used, tried to use relight and it put a halo like around, it recognized the mask was all the birds in the front. So it did a good job of recognizing what was in the foreground, but it left a.
like a glow around everything. And even though I pulled the, one of the sliders lets you, it's kind of like a de-haloing, I forget the proper term of it. It didn't remove any of it. So I was like, this isn't gonna be a good choice to brighten it. I have to figure something else out.
Jakub Bors (34:28)
Well, I think it's my turn to make it easier for you. That's the one thing. And the second thing is, so I have a tool which at least you use out of two of us, where you have a tool, the mouth part, which I agree I also haven't used for months. So I think it's your turn to take the winner on this one.
Holly Linton (34:46)
All right, math rules of this.
Jakub Bors (34:47)
is the mouth tool it is. And that brings us very nicely to the eighth and final category in our Lumica's tool awards, which will be the best overall tool in Lumina Neo as of second of April, 2025. All right. So final envelope. I have only one envelope left, which sounds about right. You know that I love mystical tool. I talked about it a lot before, so I don't have to drag around it.
Super contrast is another tool I use all the time on pretty much all my photos. Details tool is also one of those which I use all the time, but none of them are the winners. The winner, according to me, I almost thought there is no paper in it, is the sky AI. And the reason again is that not only for me, it makes my life so much easier when I need to do sky replacement. Again, talking to
photographers and users like when they see it after all these years has been in the application since Luminar 4 I think it still adds so much wow to the application itself which brings us to Holly Holly I feel the tension
Holly Linton (35:59)
We'll just get right to it. Look, it even has a smiley face. The best cool and Luminar Neo award goes to develop bra for all the things that we mentioned already. Now there's a Latin phrase. Have you ever heard it? It's called sine qua non. It means without which nothing. So to me, it's the develop bras, the sine qua non of Luminar Neo. It's like without.
You couldn't do anything without it.
Jakub Bors (36:31)
That's your claim for it. Now, when I was thinking about the best tool award and also the essential tools, I was also thinking about the develop tool. And the only reason why I didn't pick it up, I was thinking, well, if I'm going to be sitting in front of somebody who will use other editing software and tell them the develop tool is amazing, they will be like, well, actually, you know what? It doesn't do anything that any other software can do. But to counter-talk that,
If Jim Niggs would be with us, who by the way is amazing, Luminar Neo Educator, and he has a YouTube channel, if he would be here, he would also preach and pray by develop tool. He told me himself that he use it all the time on all the photos. And quite often that's all he used on his edits as well. It's just a question how you look at it, right?
Holly Linton (37:23)
Right, you made a good point because I'm a Luminar Neo only user. I don't use any other software and I didn't think of it that way. You're right. Other people use Lightroom as their first steps and have already done the developing. So you made a good argument there. I I hate to say this. I am gonna let you have the best tool award because...
You could look at it like it's an act. Sky replacement is an actual tool. I mean, I bra is a tool, but it's like a nice feature.
Jakub Bors (38:01)
And for those who are only listening to us and don't watch us on YouTube, Holly looks devastated and she has tears in her eyes.
Holly Linton (38:10)
I gotta go grab a tissue. I'm not sure if I'm
Jakub Bors (38:13)
That is actually bringing us really nicely towards the end of the show and towards the end of the podcast. But I think it's only right that we go through the results again based on what we decided category by category. Holly, can you do that for us?
Holly Linton (38:27)
All right, so the best essentials tool was DevelopRAW. The best landscape is SkyAI. The best creative winner was Mystical. No surprise there. The best portrait was SkinAI. The best professional was SuperContrast. The best extension was HDRMerge. The forgotten tool was the MouthTools. And then the best tool
the best tool overall in Luminar Neo Sky AI. Congratulations and happy anniversary.
Jakub Bors (39:02)
Happy anniversary to Skylum definitely. Not Skylum, Luminarium. As about the results, just to round it up, I won with five and Holly had three, but that's not the point at all. The point is, again, to have a fun and also maybe to discover tools you didn't know about, which I think is the whole point of this. For today's episode at SIDBA, we will be back again next week where we're going to be talking about...
myths and realities when it comes to editing in Luminar Neo. Holly, thank you for being you. It was amazing and we will be back again next week. If you did enjoy the episode, then make sure that you subscribe to us on our YouTube channel or your favorite streaming episode. Thank you again and bye bye. And that's a wrap. Now there's only three things left to do.
Subscribe to this podcast so you never miss a future episode. Visit our website at cleverphotographer.com slash lumacast to see what we have in store next. And stay creative and keep editing your photos no matter what anyone says.
