Skylum Luminar 2018

Skylum Luminar 2018 screenshot

 

After releasing a number of award winning iOS apps, Macphun hired a bunch of ex Nik Collection employees, changed its name to Skylum, and released Luminar, a cross platform program that it claims is a Lightroom alternative. So is it? Read on to find out.

Skylum Luminar is a raw image processor with an interface that’s similar to Adobe Lightroom Classic’s Develop module, sans left column. Like Lightroom, its right column contains the editing controls (which, in Luminar, are called ‘filters’). However, instead of this being full to the brim with everything but the kitchen sink filter (that’s the one that magically removes kitchen sinks from any image), it offers a selection of workspaces, which populate this column with a subset of its available filters. These can be customised further by adding/removing filters, naming and saving your workspace.

Removing filters is as simple as clicking on the little x that appears when they are moused over. Adding filters is achieved, uncontroversially, by clicking the ‘add filters’ button and choosing from the resultant drop down list. Mousing over that list provides useful descriptions of what each filter does and an example photo, though not a live preview of your photo. Alternatively you can use the ‘clear workspace’ option to build a workspace from scratch.

Unfortunately, if you switch between workspaces whilst editing a photo, you loose any changes you have made to your photo and have to start again. Notwithstanding that and the aforementioned lack of live previews, we really like this approach and feel it is something that Adobe would do well to adopt as there have been countless times when we have found ourselves scrolling up and down the right column in Lightroom’s Develop module trying to find a specific control.

All of Luminar’s filters do an excellent job. The star though is the ‘Accent AI Filter’ which uses Skylum’s AI technology to optimise everything in your photo; and because it’s a slider, you can use it to dial in everything from a subtle enhancement to in-yer-face pop.

In addition to filters, the right column includes layers. Those who have grown up with Photoshop will appreciate this. Those who have grown up with Lightroom, not so much. For our part we view layers as a retrograde step that is entirely the wrong paradigm for this type of image editing application. However, as they are an unobtrusive addition that most functions do not depend upon, we do not object to their presence per se.

Across the top of the screen are several functions including ‘History’ and ‘tools’ drop downs. The latter consists of just four tools – ‘Crop’, ‘Free Transform’, ‘Clone & Stamp’, and ‘Erase’, which is a bit limiting. There is also a before/after button, which displays your photo as a before/after split screen with a draggable split point. We love this and wish that Lightroom offered something similar.

Across the bottom of the screen is a ‘filmstrip’ offering live previews of the various preset ‘looks’ that are available. Although there are 7 preset categories (‘Basic’, ‘Street’,’Outdoor’, ‘Portrait’, ‘Travel’, ‘Dramatic’ and ‘Aerial’) each contains only a handful of presets. However, you can get more by downloading free and premium looks from inside Luminar, and can create your own.

So is Luminar a Lightroom replacement? In a word, no. Whilst it does an admirable job of replicating and in some ways improving upon Lightroom’s develop module, it lacks some of that module’s functionality, for example, there’s no negative clarity, red eye correction, spot removal tool, or camera profiles. Furthermore it lacks almost all of the functionality found in Lightroom’s other modules and crucially any form of asset management. Consequently (its basic batch mode notwithstanding) you have to open individual images and, when you are done working on them, save them in Luminar’s proprietary file format, remembering to tick the ‘save history’ checkbox, in order to be able to pickup editing where you left off, which is an inefficient use of disc space and a potential asset management headache. This coupled with Luminar’s reliance upon layers for some functions makes it feels like something of a halfway house between Lightroom and Photoshop.

Nevertheless, there’s lots to like about Luminar. It offers an elegant interface, is easy to use, and enables you to achieve excellent results. It is also outstanding value for money. If your photo editing needs are modest, or you are used to a Photoshop workflow, then it may very well suit you. If you are a professional photographer who needs to edit and manage large numbers of photos on a regular basis, we’d suggest sticking with Lightroom or Capture One for now. However, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if, as it matures, Luminar becomes a true Lightroom alternative for all.

 

More info: https://www.skylum.com

© 2018, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

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© 2009 – 2010, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.