Just announced (Mac Only)
Here’s a link to grab Luminar.
What is Luminar?
It’s a new program that is a very powerful photo editor. It’s from the same team that brought you Aurora HDR (I collaborated with them on this), so you know it’s gonna be good.
Luminar is an extremely powerful and fast photo editor that can do not only the most basic adjustments, but literally millions of “looks” for your photo. It’s extremely easy and fun to use and designed for all skill levels.
Better than Lightroom?
That’s the big question you’re wondering, right? Well, YES, it is better in many ways. Remember, this currently is only a way to edit your photos — not to organize them. As of the time of writing this, I’m still using Lightroom to organize my photos.
You’ll find the controls in Luminar are much more powerful than the ones in Lightroom. I’d also wager to say that Luminar has 5-7x as many control options as Lightroom.
Screenshots and commentary
Here’s a great example of some of the power you can’t get in Lightroom alone. You can see I’ve chosen the “Orton Effect” filter. It’s extremely fast and this is a “look” you just can’t get in Lightroom because it involves a blending of layers (all of which is automatic in Luminar).
Yes, Luminar has layers, but you can see how much you can do with a single layer. Here, I’ve made use of a really cool filter called “Foliage Enhancer.”
You may notice that each screenshot has different controls over on the side. This is because you can organize your workspace however you wish, with whatever filters you wish. In this case, I wanted more details, so I pulled up the appropriate filters. You can even save your workspaces to your liking.
Naturally, there are many vintage-feels to the filters as well. There are a ton of presets if you’re feeling lazy or just in a hurry!
I was also impressed how it is quite easy to get an “HDR Look” by using many of the filters.
I’m a big fan of cross-processing, and Luminar comes with a variety of tools that help you to give these a more special look. Here I’ve used both Cross-Processing and Bi-Color Toning.
