Luminar 4 anyone ?

[Jeff15]

I have just been looking at this amazing software, does anyone use it and what are your views on it...?

 

[407370]

I use it a lot.

Awesome bit of kit.

Interface is a bit weird to begin with. Effortless sky changes and cloning suits my style perfectly. I dont process a lot of pics at one time so Lightroom is not suited to me.

PSP 7 + Photomatix 6 + Luminar 4 = Happy me!

 

[Space Face]

Looks funky for portraits and landscapes especially.

 

[407370]

I have just been looking at this amazing software, does anyone use it and what are your views on it...?

Could not resist a bit of before and after. All done with Limunar4:

 

[Jeff15]

Great piece of software, I have spent the morning looking through all the complicated horizons in my back catalog.......

 

[ronlane]

I have it and use it for portraits. It is so much faster to do that than a frequency separation in Photoshop. I love the slider that helps with shiny spots on the skin.

I really don't use it much for anything else. I have done a sky replacement but mostly just to play with it. I've only had one that I really liked and made it look natural.

Here are examples of each. To me it is a good tool to have for certain situations. I don't know that I'd want to use it my only editing software.

Portrait before.



After. Notice the forehead and how it muted the shiny spot that I always have.



Lake dam before.



After sky replacement.

 

[Jeff15]

This shot did have a washed-out very pale sky

 

[Ysarex]

I have it. It's advertised as a bag of tricks and it sold as a parametric raw processor. As a bag of tricks its OK but as a parametric raw processor it sucks. One of the advantages that a parametric raw processor is supposed to provide is non-destructive editing. Luminar 4 fails to meet that expectation as aspects of its editing workflow are destructive.

Joe

 

[Jeff15]

Looks good enough for me............

 

[Ysarex]

Looks good enough for me............

Eventually it'll bite you. Try using it's erase/cloning/healing tools and then try something simple like deciding you want to tweak the WB.

Joe

 

[JBPhotog]

IMO, learn Photoshop and forget plugins,(caveat as long as you have PS).

The features all the third party plugins implement are available in PhotoShop and with the plethora of youboob and subscription services available one can learn to roll your own. There are very few occasions where a plugin can do something better than a somewhat skilled PS user can. The benefit of learning PS are many, including all plugins feed you updates @ every 12 months or less enticing you to extract hard earned money from your wallet.

 

[Jeff15]

There are very few occasions where a plugin can do something better than a somewhat skilled PS user can..?

We will have to disagree on this one.......

 

[407370]

IMO, learn Photoshop and forget plugins,(caveat as long as you have PS).
.

I dont have Photoshop or Lightroom and never will. Luminar is not a plugin for PS.

Lots of software specialises in certain processes with an interface that is infinitely more efficient than PS or LR. My world does not revolve around ADOBE and I have to be very careful with my limited budget for software. Monthly subscriptions for software is just a rip off.

I would be happy to challenge anyone to find something useful that Photoshop can do that my collection of PSP 7.1 ( over 20 years old), Photomatix 5 (3 years old) and Luminar 4 cant do just as well. The only things that PS can do is one of the bits of bloatware that gets used once in a blue moon.

I realise that lots of people use PS / LR and are happy with their choice. Personally I would not touch ADOBE software with a barge pole.

 

[Joseph Hanna]

I have Lightroom (although I won’t renew) Luminar and Capture 1. If in fact one is shooting RAW, and at least for me, nothing consistently creates better images than Capture One. Honestly (and again for me) by a long shot. The RAW conversion is the best both for my Sony and my FujiFilm. Always my hope is I took a good enough photo that post processing can be fairly limited. In the end that’s my goal.

On the flip side I see these magical images that Albert Dros creates, and he at least infers that some of his editing is done in Luminar, of which are simple spectacular. They’re both good but you’d have to push me pretty hard to abandon Capture One as my main editor.

 

[crf8]

Capture One gives me nothing but new and assorted error messages. That and messages trying to sell me the upgrade, what a joke.


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