# Luminar AI



## Alex Mac (Dec 28, 2020)

Hi guys,

I am not 100% sure this is the right place to ask, but I wondered if anyone had any experience/views of Luminar AI?
After reading about it in a photo magazine, I had a look at the website and it looks very quick and easy to use.

Thanks for any views or opinions.

Cheers Alex


----------



## hanoman (Dec 28, 2020)

Photoshop is better in exchanging a sky. In a roundtrip LR -> AI -> LR the rating is lost. In some aspects it is a step backwards against Luminar 4, no photo management, no layers, and so on.
Hannes


----------



## Colin Grant (Dec 28, 2020)

Well having tried it I can say that it does not stand up as a Lr alternative and certainly not as an alternative to Ps. As mentioned above Ps does sky replacement far better if that is your thing. If Instagram type photography is your thing then maybe it's for you.  I do not even see it as a Lr plugin personally. If you are interested then I understand there is a free trial available.


----------



## Alex Mac (Dec 29, 2020)

Hi guys, thanks for that.
I was half thinking of switching from LR due to cost, and having "intelligent" pre sets.
I know a lot of people enjoy all the editing and control, I am a quick and easy type guy 

I was a bit half and half, but that has helped make up my mind to stay with LR , which I enjoy and think is very good.
Thanks for taking the time to get back to me.
Cheers Alex


----------



## Colin Grant (Dec 29, 2020)

The intelligent presets are not really intelligent at all.  They are not that great either imo.


----------



## joistguy (Dec 30, 2020)

I'm a little late to the thread but thought I put my two cents in. I've been using Luminar 4 for about a year. Much of what Luminar does can be accomplished in Lr but they both work a bit differently. If you have been using Lr for editing then you may not like Luminar simply because you are used to a certain style of workflow.  But I find Luminar to be far easier to use than Lr. I have Luminar 4 and AI and currently I prefer 4 and can't really see any pluses in AI. Where Lr is a clear winner is the DAM if you use it properly. Luminar's DAM is very basic. As for sky replacement I can not agree with the comments above. I believe that Luminar does a much better job of masking the foreground than Pscc. If Skylum comes up with some of the additions that I have asked them for in the new year then it may be a different story. Skylum has a very good and responsive support team and that is important.


----------



## Colin Grant (Dec 30, 2020)

No point talking about L4, it is dead.  12 months support and that's it. Was not that great imo anyway. It is what you cannot achieve in L4 that is the issue - no range masking, no edge aware technology. Indeed selective editing is pathetic at best. Layers were not great either as they just slowed the thing down to a crawl (or a crash) and the app does not use the gpu. Lr also has its partner  Ps and the two together just blow L4 out of the water. Luminar Ai is even worse, no layers, no blending and no ability to use the same filter twice on any one image, and the dam has all but been removed intentionally. Sorry but sky replacement is superior in Ps (as supported by the reviews I have read and my experience) if only because it gives you access to the layers thus enabling further adjustments to the mask and colours using Ps controls.  Ps' masking is probably best of breed now so it would be useful to understand why you believe Ps foreground masking in sky replacement is inferior, especially as  having access to the sky replacement mask allows one to correct the inevitable vagaries that will arise via artificial intelligence.

Good that you think Skylum has a good support team - many will disagree with that.  So to conclude - to properly compare L4 to Adobe you need to compare it to the Lr/Ps combination and then the focus falls on all the things Adobe can do that Luminar cannot.  But then they are not meant to be comparable are they?  Luminar is designed for a very specific audience (as described by the Skylum CEO) and if you fall in that group, as you clearly do, you have every right to be happy with what you have. Most of us here are happy with what we have and there is, imo, no need for the paths to cross on this forum, except maybe when it is used as an Adobe plugin where it can be useful.


----------



## barman58 (Dec 30, 2020)

I use Luminar AI & also Have Luminar 4 - I use both as Plugins for Lightroom.

Luminar AI will not do anything that Photoshop will  not do,  but in my experience, it will do it quicker, and a dedicated application for noise control or High dynamic range will take less effort, the results are the same, and I have more time available to do other things 

I also use Photoshop and other 3rd party plugins and software as Plugins to process images,  it's not unheard of for me to use multiple packages on a single image with automatic, or where needed, manual round tripping to get a required result, I start in lightroom then if needed swap to an external program to continue,  _  I usually make final tweaks back in lightroom_ before final output .

When it comes down to it I just use the tool for the job, and I prefer the workflow that that does the job quicker  - I don't like to wast drinking time


----------



## Colin Grant (Dec 30, 2020)

It will not do anything Ps will not do but Ps and Lr  will do loads that Luminar cannot do. That applies to L4 and even more to Ai. Not sure why you would spend time using L4 when Skylum have said it is at end of life, no more updates save for 12 months of maintenance updates. Still, this is a Lr forum so debates about Luminar are to a very large extent off topic. You use the software and workflow that makes you happy. That is freedom of choice. The only issue I'll take with you is that Luminar does not do some things as well - masking is a fine example. Multiple applications of the same tool is another when using Luminar Ai - it cannot do it (layers have gone).

Anyway as I have said, enough is enough. This is an off topic thread to which I personally have unsubscribed.


----------



## joistguy (Dec 30, 2020)

I think Colin has missed the point on several different levels. I don't think that this discussion is off topic at all. The purpose of this particular forum is to discuss Photoshop and *other external editors*. As I noted previously I think Luminar AI is not an improvement to Luminar 4 at least not yet. But L4 will keep working after formal support has ended as long as hardware upgrades do not conflict, it can be had for a song and it can still be a very useful tool to have in your arsenal as a stand alone or as a plugin. Both L4 and LAi have some wonderful tools and I still find that they get the sky replacement better on the first try than PS.  The sky replacement in PS is certainly more versatile with the exposed layers but in Luminar I seldom have to make any changes that the quick and simple masking tool can't handle. L4 or LAi were never meant to be a replacement for Photoshop and the original intent of this discussion was a comparison of Luminar to Lightroom so we should not bring in PS features to beat Luminar over the head with.


----------



## RobOK (Jan 21, 2022)

Hello, 
I wanted to pick up on Luminar AI, and this seemed to be the only thread. I really *want* to add Luminar as an external editor for LR Classic. I don't like how long it takes or that it loses edits unless you do a Photoshop Smart Object which gets unwieldy. Is anyone else using Luminar with LR and if so, what is your workflow. Do you go back and forth or just one time in Luminar?

Thanks,
Rob.


----------



## barman58 (Jan 22, 2022)

The Skylum editors work automatically with LR (Classic),  but they work best for me as a last option rather than use in a multiple edit (back and for), workflow.

All my images are converted to DNG on import and completed edits are usually "published" as JPG 

My basic workflow in lightroom is to do all I can within Lightroom, often this is all that is needed and the result at this time is the finished one - and can be published or used in other ways.

My method would be to get everything as far as I can with LRc and _if I feel more work is needed,_  I will select the "Edit In" option and choose to edit a copy ( Tiff image), with lightroom adjustments  in Luminar AI

As this package is designed to help out the beginner with a lot of auto functions this does lend itself to being an end Process rather than a true Plugin when the processing is finished the Luminar Version is saved and stacked with the Lightroom original DNG image.

Skylum is currently about to release their "Annual new product" in the next month or So, " NEO"  which they sell as a Pro version of Luminar AI, with a lot of features better suited to Pro level editing, fully maskable layers being the standout for those used to Photoshop. For anyone looking at Luminar AI I would suggest that they hold off and take a look at NEO, as the pricing is likely to be similar to Lumina AI. The early Beta that I have does look better for control of edits, and I am expecting my actual release version soon


----------



## Colin Grant (Jan 22, 2022)

Release of Neo is scheduled for Feb. There is a pre-release beta available but it is incomplete and flaky - not surprising give that it is a beta.


----------



## RobOK (Jan 23, 2022)

Thanks, I think you confirmed what I have been thinking, it is an end point after you are "done" in Lightroom, which obviously stops the edit chain.

It also seems like for every photo Luminar AI opens as a program from scratch. It does not "stay open in the background", is that how you experience it too?


----------

