Working with Catalog Files

Remember that edits you make in Luminar Neo are always non-destructive and are saved in your current Catalog. This means you aren’t changing the actual files but rather are capturing instructions in a database. When you’re ready to share or use your files elsewhere, you can export images with your edits applied.

You can back up your photos by exporting them in different formats:

By default, the Luminar Neo Catalog is created in your Pictures folder. Just make sure you don’t include the Catalog folder when adding images to Luminar Neo. Doing so will add all of Luminar Neo’s preview images to your Catalog, resulting in duplicate photos in your Luminar Catalog.

Note: Total backup.
The contents of a Catalog are stored inside a folder. If you’re backing up or moving a Catalog, be sure to back up or move the entire folder.

Luminar Neo creates a default Catalog when you first launch the application. You can use this one Catalog for all your photos or easily create new Catalogs. Luminar Neo Catalogs can be located anywhere on your hard drive. By default, Luminar Neo creates a Catalog in your Pictures folder. A Catalog contains a database of your images and their locations, thumbnails of these images, and a history of all adjustments applied to your images.

Creating a Catalog

To create a new Catalog

1. Choose File > Catalog > New. A dialog box will open, asking you to name your new Catalog and choose where you want to store it.
2. Enter a Catalog name and choose a location. Many users choose their Pictures folder, but any drive and any location will work.
3. When you save the new Catalog, your current Catalog will be closed, and your new Catalog will be opened.

You can now add images as desired.

Switching Catalogs

If you’re working with multiple Catalogs, you can quickly switch between them.

1. To open a previously created Catalog, choose File > Catalog > Open.
2. In the Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) window, navigate to the Catalog you want to work with. It will appear as a folder.
3. Select your Catalog and click Open.
4. Your current Catalog will be closed, and the selected Catalog will be opened.

Luminar Neo constantly backs up its database as you work with it. This ensures your latest edits are stored. However, you may want to manually back up a Catalog in case your hard drive malfunctions. We suggest backing up your Catalog to an external drive or cloud storage.

Backing Up a Luminar Neo Catalog on Windows and macOS

1. With Luminar Neo open, make edits with the Catalog you want to back up.
2. Choose File > Catalog > *Show in Explorer (Windows) / Show in Finder (macOS). This reveals the Catalog file nested inside a folder.
3. Go up one level in the folder structure and back up that entire folder for the complete backup.

To restore a backup, just copy it to your machine and choose File > Catalog > Open to select the Catalog Folder you backed up.

On macOS, you can also use the Backup command to store a backup Catalog:

1. Choose File > Catalog > Backup
2. Luminar Neo will open a Finder window that lets you choose where you want to save your backup file.
3. To restore a backup file, choose File > Catalog > Restore from Backup.

Backing Up Your Photo Edits

You can back up your photos by exporting them. JPEGs are relatively small files that are easy to manage. However, when exporting JPEG files, your images will lose quality due to compression. Saving your photos in the TIFF format creates archival-quality files that will be much larger than JPEGs with no loss of quality.