Luminar Neo tutorial: matte tones and vintage film edits

This Luminar Neo tutorial compares a quick Matte tool edit with a curves approach for creating a vintage film look. The speaker starts by setting white and black points in Develop RAW. He recommends this tonal starting point when preparing photos for a reusable preset, even though the later edit lifts the blacks.

The Matte workflow adjusts faded blacks, contrast, vividness and tint. For finer control, he demonstrates how applying another tool lets him open a fresh Develop instance while retaining the initial RAW adjustments. He then raises the black point, lowers the brightest tones and restores contrast within the curve. Separate color channels add subtle blue shadows and yellow highlights, followed by reduced saturation.

The finishing steps include a bright vignette to fade the edges, flare layers for light leaks and tilt-shift blur positioned to keep the model's face sharp. A wrong-layer mistake shows why an adjustment may appear to do nothing. For grain, he uses a luminosity mask to concentrate the effect in shadows and taper it toward highlights, rather than accept the tool's uniform coverage. He removes the light leak at the end because its magenta color competes with the grade. The speaker presents the broader editing approach as usable in other photo editors.