Sun Rays is a new filter to Luminar 2018 and is easily the most impressive standalone upgrade. But there are certainly a few amazing features with which Luminar really hits it out of the park. And for the most part, you really do get the same features, which begs the question: why not just stick with Luminar for a one-time $69 purchase? Well, of course, there are bigger differences. But to try and distill these differences quantitatively - that’s just not going to happen here. And of course, each company has better algorithms for certain things and worse ones for others. A lot of people will scoff at that statement. Overall, the editing features in all of these programs really do the same thing. Starting out with the "Professional" workspace is a great way to get to a Lightroom-like basic editing experience with the click of a button. After this, you can still add other individual filters that suit your editing workflow. Lightroom switchers might want to try the workspace drop-downs “Professional” or “Essentials” for a good starting point with the filters they would most use. Thankfully, you don’t have to worry too much about the setup of your workspace if you don’t want to. But I imagine users would find their favorites and stick to that. Even once you try them all, it’s not always clear which creative filter would be the best for a particular situation. It takes a moment, for example, to try out Brilliance/Warmth, Golden Hour, Image Radiance, Orton Effect, Soft Glow, and more to understand what each really does relative to the other. My own gripe with this section is that some of the names for these filters are relatively arbitrary. Lightroom only lets you make certain adjustments with these masks.Ĭlicking on “Add Filter” brings up an additional Filters Catalog sidebar with around 50 options from Develop (essentially akin to Lightroom’s Basic editing section with exposure, contrast, highlight/shadow/white/black, and clarity adjustments) to lens correction or special effects filters. But also note that every filter limited in its application by Brush, Radial, Gradient, or Luminosity masks. The Filters Catalog will probably only be out at certain times once you get everything set up the way you like it. So Luminar naturally takes a few minutes of setup to get just right for your own use. Essentially, imagine Lightroom’s Develop module without any of the sliders - just blank. Additionally, there are no filters in the sidebar by default. But this is easy to hide (and if you have your own presets built into it down the road, I could see this being something one might want to start with on a regular basis). Something I don’t particularly prefer is the presets panel that is open by default. It feels like an Apple-designed application in its simplicity. Upon first opening Luminar, Mac users especially will immediately be familiar with the app design. Personally, I prefer to think of Luminar as a sort of “Lightroom with layers support.” On the other hand, there isn’t a single destructive edit available in Luminar, and all of the various types of edits (“Filters”) feature extremely user-intuitive sliders that create a very Lightroom-esque experience… if it’s set up properly. Luminar opens each image in a different editing window. This makes it more comparable to Photoshop. You can save edits as a preset to use on other images, but each image is opened and edited in its own, separate editing window. In its current form, at least, it’s also a single image editor. Most notably, Luminar has support for layers. Luminar has a significantly different layout compared to Lightroom. But can Luminar really be a replacement? Understanding Luminar It’s hard to imagine what would make someone not switch from Lightroom or Photoshop at those prices. Luminar 2018 is now available on both Windows and MacOS platforms completely subscription free at $69. But pushing out their first all-in-one editor with Luminar wasn’t the only major shift: Macphun’s name change to Skylum, which will take place early next year, is indicative of the fact that their software is no longer Mac-only. Macphun (soon to be Skylum) first introduced Luminar just over a year ago after having previously only concentrated on standalone products for specific uses such as Aurora HDR, this year’s version of which just won Apple’s App of the Year.
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