Luminar beginner tutorial: RAW edits, AI tools and masks

Anthony Turnham explains a beginner photo editing workflow in Luminar, described in the video as the platform that began as Luminar Neo. He starts with its catalog: importing folders, navigating subfolders, rating photos and filtering by favorites or camera. Edits remain separate from the original image, and virtual copies let him try different treatments without duplicating the source file.

The first landscape edit uses Develop RAW to adjust exposure, highlights, shadows and color temperature. Turnham explains the histogram and compares saturation with vibrance on a portrait. He cautions that strong noise reduction can remove detail and that excessive shadow recovery can flatten contrast.

For a quicker starting point, he demonstrates Accent AI within Enhance AI. Luminar's AI Assistant produces three edit options in his example; he then opens the edit stack to inspect and change the adjustments behind a result.

A second landscape shows how Structure AI affects detail and how brush masks restrict an adjustment to selected areas. Linear gradients and separate Develop instances control brightness in different parts of the scene. Turnham also demonstrates Light Depth, which he says uses a generated 3D depth map for relighting. He finishes with JPEG export, recommending sRGB and roughly 75% to 90% quality to balance file size and image quality.