Luminar photo editing application is the most recent contender to try to knock Adobe’s crown askew.But contrary to Affinity Photo and Photoshop,Luminar isn’t curious in per-pixel editing.It has no text controls,marquee selection tool, for example, so its nearest rival is Lightroom. By default,modifications are applied to the whole image.
The interface is excellent: a very simple collection of sliders that reward experimentation for newbies without dumbing down for the more experienced.That means if you are coming from Lightroom you’ll discover familiar sliders to control exposure, vibrance,saturation and so on.Every group of sliders (exposure and contrast are arranged into Tone) is dubbed a filter,and the number of them available numbers in the minimal 60s.
Luminar’s press materials place great emphasis on its adaptive User Interface for different skill
ranges;this translates to selecting different groups of filters depending on the kind of
image you’re editing. Select the Landscape workplace and you get a group of filters including radiance, top and bottom lighting and vignetting, as well as the slightly specious
foliage increaser,which in reality boosts the
saturation of everything green in your image(selective colour saturation,totally absent,
might have been preferable).Select the Portrait workspace and the filter list changes to include Soft Glow and High Key solutions.
It’s like Photoshop’s Workspaces feature,albeit implemented with a little bit more grace.
Luminar’s ‘non-destructive’ editing isn’t quite as it looks either. In reality this basically
means you can’t save a file over itself.Click Save and you instead make a new file in
Luminar’s own file format.It’s not as graceful as Lightroom or Aperture’s non-destructive
editing, where the software edits an invisibly created working preview prior to export.
There are simply no set editing tools, which will be a deal-breaker if you’re used to the batch keywording abilities of software such as Bridge or Lightroom. Luminar really does install as an extension to Apple’s Photos, though,
and round-tripping images out of Photos,editing them and then coming back is both
easy and better fulfils Luminar’s claim of being a non-destructive editor,even if the
non-destructiveness is courtesy of Apple.
Over 35 custom filters help you enhance and change the look of your photos in all possible ways. And the range is impressive: from classic Tone & Exposure, to Bi-Color, Photo Filter Emulation, Cross-Processing and dozens of others.Each filter offers a set of precise & easy to use controls,and includes built-in visual tips to help you out.
There are extras in other places, not least of which is Luminar’s layer tool,which can be
deployed either typically or by creating different adjustment layers. It’s a powerful,useful feature that comprehensively outdoes both Aperture and Lightroom.
Luminar takes the fight to Lightroom convincingly well and is capable of excellent final results.Advantages who shoot tons of images may find it under-powered for their needs,
but if you’re a amateur this is a quality piece
of well-made software if you don’t need high-end organisational tools and just want to
edit your photos with simplicity.
