My Favorite AI Tools in Luminar Neo
Luminar has long been at the forefront of bringing AI-powered tools into photo editing - well before the “AI gold rush” we’re now seeing across nearly every part of daily life. In recent years, that pace has only accelerated, and today Luminar includes a wide range of AI-driven features, with more almost certainly on the way.
To be clear, the tools I’m discussing here are simply the ones I use most often and find most helpful for my own shooting and editing style - primarily landscapes, cityscapes, and street photography. That doesn’t mean the other AI tools aren’t good; I just don’t reach for them nearly as often as I do the ones on this list.
Note: This list does not include Luminar’s AI tools for portraits. They work very well, but since I rarely shoot portraits, they didn’t make the cut. When I do edit portraits, I absolutely use those tools.
Let’s get into it—and no, these aren’t ranked, just a list.
Light Depth - my new favorite tool, it uses AI to create a depth map and then you can adjust the light based on the depth in the image - it’s truly incredible and is already in my top 3 most used tools
Accent AI - one of the original and frankly still one of the best, this single slider does the work of up to a dozen other adjustments - it couldn’t be easier or more powerful, and I love it and use it all the time (but mostly with a mask)
Structure AI - I use this in nearly every edit, because it’s a dual threat: you can increase the appearance of detail, or smooth it out, and I often do both for different areas on the same image (again, with masking)
Twilight Enhancer AI - I’ve long enjoyed shooting at twilight, and this tool just gives me such power to bring those images to life, quickly and easily, even when the scene was lacking a twilight feel
Noiseless AI - having this built into my main editor is a huge time saver and it’s great at what it does - especially for my handheld city shots in low light, this one saves me a lot of time and frustration
Sky AI - the original sky replacement, and likely still the best, this tool was the first “oh wow” sort of AI tool that I can remember coming out (in any app) and it caused both Adobe and On1 to respond
Atmosphere AI - who doesn’t like a little moodiness in their images? This tool is so great at that.
Water Enhancer AI - automatic masks and a couple of sliders? Yes please! There’s nothing worse than brown ugly water, and this tool fixes that so quickly. Before this tool existed, adjusting water used to take me multiple tools and masks, not to mention a fair amount of time.
Magic Light AI - city lights with a starburst effect are just so interesting and beautiful
When you step back and think about it, for a product that’s only been around for a few years, Luminar Neo has added a lot of AI capability - much of it building on tools that existed in earlier versions of Luminar before Neo was introduced.
I find these tools (along with several others) incredibly helpful, whether it’s automating tasks that would otherwise be difficult or simply speeding up my workflow - and often it’s doing both at the same time.
Just as important, I consistently get strong, natural-looking results from these tools. So it’s not only about simplifying or speeding up my editing process - it’s also about getting the job done well.
What are your favorite AI tools in Luminar?
