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Have you heard about Luminar? #1
Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 10, 2016 - 12:53am

Hi folks,

I realized I’ve been derelict in my duties to report current Macphun news here - shame on me!  A week ago we announced Luminar, a new all-in-one photo editor that’s perfect for all levels of photographers. You can start off easy - with a gorgeously simple UI - and gradually work up to accessing advanced filter controls, Workspaces, layers and ridiculous masking, and so much more. Read about it, and pre-order for a great price and bonuses here. $49 for anyone who owns a Macphun app or $59 for others. But don’t be fooled by the price - there’s a ton of power under the hood! 

I know Joseph’s going to do a review soon, and I hope to participate in another live show as well.  

Take care! Kevin (from Macphun)

 

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Luc Desaulniers's picture
by Luc Desaulniers
November 12, 2016 - 3:24am

Already preordered it. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Macphun products. Already own Aurora HDR (don’t use it a lot but I like it), Tonality (use the crap out of it) and Snapheal.

Ever since I switched from Aperture to Lightroom I’ve been looking for an alternative as Lr jus does not cut it for me. Luminar looks really good so I decided to take the risk and preordered it. I must say that I am a bit worried that it does not have a DAM module at launch but I plan to use Aperture for the moment to manage my content. ONE THING that I know will bug me is the export feature. It is just too simple. I guess I will once again be using Aperture’s for this.

Anyway, November 17 can’t come fast enough! :)

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 12, 2016 - 4:55pm

Hi Luc - thanks for your trust and faith that you’ll enjoy using Luminar!  Sounds like you’ll use it as a plug-in to Aperture for the time being. We’ve been hearing  a lot of people asking about that aspect and are *listening*. We’ve built a quasi-DAM before with our old SnapSelect app, so it’s not a mystery. ;)

Re: the export feature. Can you tell me what you like / what you’d like to see in an enhanced export feature? We recently added sharpen and resize to the export (first appeared in Aurora HDR 2017) and have announced we’ll add batch processing in the next version of Luminar - similar also to the way Aurora HDR does it. Just want to get your take on what’s needed.  Thanks! Kevin (from Macphun)

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Luc Desaulniers's picture
by Luc Desaulniers
November 12, 2016 - 6:38pm

Hello Kevin.

First and foremost I want to thank you for being so active pretty much all over the internet. I am seeing you personally replying to comments on various sites. This is one of the aspects that make Macphun so great and also why you guys are my favorite Mac developer. Thank you.

Now, yes for the time being I will be using Aperture to manage my my photos until you guys come up with a DAM module. Which brings me to one question before I answer your own. When I will be sending my photos to Luminar from Aperture, will Luminar be receiving the RAW file or a TIFF file?

About the export module, what I would like to have is mainly two things (which I have in Lightroom) :

1. Be able to manage the pixels during export i.e. specify for exemple that I want the long edge of the picture to not be longer than 2048px or (like Aperture does) specify that the picture must fit within 2048x2048px. I would also like to be able to specify the dpi setting.

2. Automatically put a watermark on the pictures at export.

Thank you again Kevein. 

CANNOT. WAIT. UNTIL. NOVEMBER. 17.   :)

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 13, 2016 - 11:51pm

Hi Luc - thanks for the kind words… ;-)

It’s up to Aperture, but my understanding is that Aperture would send a TIFF to Luminar.

I’m happy to report that Luminar will let you specify the size and quality of images now during export. Exactly like Aurora HDR 2017 does. Also…if you choose TIFF as your export format, you’ll be able to set resolution.

Re: watermarking -there’s definitely a cool workaround to it for single images (using an image layer), but I know exactly what you mean as far as LR does it… I like that feature too! ;)

Cheers, Kevin

 

 

 

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

jmerk1's picture
by jmerk1
November 17, 2016 - 6:44pm

KEVIN - I’ve just downloaded the trail version. Looking forward to exploring, based on the recent Live overview here. Currently am sticking with 10.10.5, since Aperture works great in that OS. However it’s the only program that keeps me from moving to 10.12. I’d love to leave but I need to keep my photo’s organized. When will Luminar get it’s CMS together? Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks - John

John Merkler

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 17, 2016 - 6:48pm

Hi John - we’re definitely committed to adding photo management, though we have a few other engineering priorities ahead of it. I’m guessing mid-year 2017.  In the meantime, Luminar will work great as a plug-in to Aperture. Thanks, Kevin

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Luc Desaulniers's picture
by Luc Desaulniers
November 19, 2016 - 4:35am

I have begun using it. I had a portraiture shooting the day of release so I decided to edit my whole shoot with Luminar.

It is a new software so it needs some getting used to but that is absolutely normal.

I find that Luminar’s brush is insanely faster then Lr’s on my 2012 MBP. I like that. Although I am missing the “Detect edges” feature from Aperture and Lr. I have tried using it in standalone mode, as an Aperture/Lr plugin and as a Photos extension. All work very well.

What I do miss the most right now is batch processing i.e. applying a photo’s adjustments to a series of photos. Editing a whole shoot and applying adjustments to 10-12 photos manually is quite a chore. This is coming in december right? If so I will be curious to see how to pull that off with no DAM module… 

I am thoroughly enjoying Luminar which I purchased in the hopes I could cancel my Adobe CC subscription. So far it’s looking like I could get there. I THINK I could do so even without a DAM module as using Luminar as a plugin does seem to be working very well. However no batch processing is definitely a showstopper for me right now.

As always, Macphun IMO has delivered a great piece of software! Thank you!

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 19, 2016 - 4:24pm

Hi Luc - thanks for the “real world” feedback - very much appreciated! Batch processing *will* be coming soon and we have some additional features as well. Here’s a preliminary features/comparison chart that shares some additional features details. Point of fact, PhotoJoseph helped us put together! 

Have a great day - glad you’re enjoying Luminar! Kevin

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 19, 2016 - 11:48pm

Hi Kevin,

I purchased Luminar (I already have Creative Kit) and have spent a short amount of time exploring it. So far I am pretty happy with it. I especially like Workspaces and the UI. Having all the editing tools I need in one app is extremely desirable. If DAM capability on par with Aperture is added I will be an extremely happy camper.

Andrew

Stuart's picture
by Stuart
November 19, 2016 - 7:40pm

I received my copy of Luminar Wednesday and only have tried it with a few images. Opened image (via Lightroom CC) with Luminar took nearly 25.15 seconds. After doing some editing (3 layers) via Luminar and clicking on apply to send back to Lightroom took 44.25 seconds. Images where from a Sony A7RM2 (42mb). Results were good, but for me the overall performance is a little slow. Also noticed that some other Forums and YouTube reviews are stating the same thing when using Luminar as a plugin via Lightroom. On another note I hope MacPhun will be adding Batch Processing sooner then later as this is a much needed feature.  Also it will nice when they add Lens Correction. I am well aware this is version 1.0 and I am sure that updates will be coming soon as more consumers report issues and bugs. 

Current Computer system:
macOS Sierra Version: 10.12.1
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

 

Cheers!

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 20, 2016 - 10:37pm

Hi Stuart - I’m sure we’ll do our best to speed up the Lightroom plug-in performance. Do you have a benchmark speed of opening and sending back that you’re accustomed to?

Re: batch processing. Noted.  Cheers, Kevin

 

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Stuart's picture
by Stuart
November 21, 2016 - 6:00pm

Hi Kevin,

I do hope in time speed (performance) will increase for the better.  Just for an example opening a Sony Raw (42MB converted to Tiff) from Lightroom to Nix Color Efex Pro 4 takes 14.2 seconds vs 25.15 seconds to Luminar. After applying edits (return to Lightroom) with Nix Color Efex takes 22.23 seconds vs 44.25 seconds from Luminar.  I do understand these speeds can very depending on specs of the computer system you are using.  I do like the results you can get with Luminar. Also as mentioned Batch Processing is a feature many would like to see sooner then later. 

Cheers!

Magnus von Brömsen's picture
by Magnus von Brömsen
November 20, 2016 - 10:02am

I pre-ordered and are so far very impressed with the possibilities with Luminar.

I’m a long time Aperture user, but with Luminar, I open the RAW files using Photo Mechanic (poor man’s DAM) - because I don’t want to loose the flexibilities with RAW. Here are a few things I miss (except the whole DAM tool):

- An eye picker tool for setting the white balance
- Smaller file sizes when saving in Luminar native format (I do that so I can go back and make adjustments later)
- Lift & Stamp settings between images

Regards,
Magnus

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 20, 2016 - 10:35pm

Hi Magnus - great suggestions. I’ve added to our features “wishlist” document. Got the “Z” key shortcut too…  Cheers, Kevin

 

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Magnus von Brömsen's picture
by Magnus von Brömsen
November 20, 2016 - 10:06am

Forget one thing:

- Use the Z key to zoom between 100% and fit to window.

/ Magnus

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 23, 2016 - 6:39am

Hi Magnus,

Great suggestions. I hope they are implemented in a Luminar update. Hopefully the White Balance tool will include Skin Tone, Neutral Grey, and White options.

Andrew

Luc Desaulniers's picture
by Luc Desaulniers
November 21, 2016 - 3:27am

Continuing to use it. Still VERY happy with my purchase.

Apart from the upcoming features (batch processing & DAM module), I must say that the absence of a “detect edges” option when using the brush is really irritating me. Is such a thing planned to be added on a later date?

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 24, 2016 - 6:57pm

+1 for edge detection.

A featureI I find useful in Tonality that is not provided with Luminar is the ability to highlight exposure zones on the image using zone numbers at the bottom of the histogram. I would like to see this added in a future update.

Andrew

jollyllama's picture
by jollyllama
November 21, 2016 - 5:06am

My two cents: When you say that you’re “guessing mid-year 2017” for DAM features, keep this in mind: Assuming that every MacOS upgrade runs the risk of breaking Aperture (and already has for some of us), there are many of us that assume that any given September MacOS release might force us to abandon Aperture. I can say, for my part, that I’d really rather go with Luminar than Lr, but that if Aperture breaks and there’s no alternative, I’m gonna switch to Lr and probably stay there forever, since I really don’t want to switch once. In other words, keep the info flowing (which y’all are awesome at) and try to beat the next MacOS release!

Anyway, thanks for being awesome.

jollyllama's picture
by jollyllama
November 21, 2016 - 5:08am

Sorry, by “switch once” I meant “switch twice.”

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 21, 2016 - 6:51am

Good point and makes a lot of sense!  Kevin

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

kwaphoto's picture
by kwaphoto
November 21, 2016 - 11:32pm

I am going to try the trial version.  I really miss Aperture for it’s DAM.  Enjoy LR for it’s editing and enjoy Photos for it’s integration into the system and ability to share via iCloud (which I have many family members using).  I would LOVE Luminar when it has a workable DAM. I really don’t like working in LR at all.  The problem with Photos is the lack of management over the location and folder structure of files and limited editing.  

I may just reinstall Aperture and try Luminar as an editing plugin to see how it works with a limited test library.  If I could get back to Aperture for a while, until Luminar has a DAM, that may work. 

 

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 22, 2016 - 2:12am

Aperture + Luminar should do the trick. Let us know how it goes!  Kevin

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

kwaphoto's picture
by kwaphoto
November 22, 2016 - 6:05am

I just downloaded it and re-installing Aperture now :-) 

~Ken

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 23, 2016 - 10:06pm

I did a brief comparison between the Erase tools in Luminar and SnapHeal, removing some sensor dust spots on a clear blue sky. SnapHeal allows different parameters for erasing, and I found it did a better job using the “Dynamic”  and “Highest precision” settings than the results I got with Luminar.

Since I would prefer to have Luminar completely replace Creative Kit, without the need to process images in multiple apps, I am hoping that a future update will incorporate the erasing options found in SnapHeal.

 

Andrew

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 25, 2016 - 8:06am

I’m glad you compared those (I hadn’t gotten round to it!). I passed your comment on to the lead engineers and they hinted at future improvements in the healing algorithms in Luminar. We’d love to create “one algorithm to rule them all.” ;)  Thanks for the suggestion!  

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 25, 2016 - 8:16am

Sounds promising, Thanks Kevin.

Andrew

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 24, 2016 - 10:55pm

When an image is edited and saved in Luminar, the file size is the same or larger than the original Raw or JPEG. I expect (hope) that when library and DAM capabilities are added to Luminar, the files saved in the Luminar library (whether it is a managed or referenced library) will contain only information on the edits applied to the original image. If this is not the case, every version of an image would have a file size at least as large as the original image. That would be unworkable for me.

Andrew

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 25, 2016 - 8:07am

Noted.  Kevin

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

kwaphoto's picture
by kwaphoto
November 27, 2016 - 9:28am

I’ve been using the demo for about a week and am thoroughly enjoying it.  Just purchased. I’ve used with both Photos and Aperture. I’m leaning towards running it with Photos (as a referenced library only) until a DAM (hopefully) is available with Luminar.  It would be a great all in one solution! If not, it’s still a stellar editor for the type of photography I do :-)   THANKS!

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 28, 2016 - 1:10am

Thanks for charing your experience! I’m using it myself in Photos to edit images taken w/ my iPhone - works really well for that Mobile-to-Desktop workflow. ;)

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Luc Desaulniers's picture
by Luc Desaulniers
November 27, 2016 - 10:42pm

I believe Macphun has a winner on its hands. Adobe has been sitting on its behind with Lr for wayyyy too long now. Other devs are seizing the opportunity with varying levels of success. I have tried many other solutions since I switched from Aperture to Lr but none have caught my attention sufficiently enough. When Macphun announced Luminar I was instantly hooked. All the products I bought for them have been extraordinary so I was filled with hope.

I am using Luminar as a plugin to Aperture and so far the tests I’ve made have come back with super-great results. Once batch processing is made available I will be switching permanently from Lr. When the DAM module comes out I will be dropping Aperture and be using Luminar in stand-alone mode.

Great work Macphun! As always.

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 28, 2016 - 1:11am

Thanks so much for the feedback, Luc. I’m glad the Aperture/Luminar workflow is working for you. I’ll pass along your thoughts to others on the team as well. ;)  

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 30, 2016 - 8:53am

I am very pleased with the ease of use of Luminar. Great product, especially for a version 1.0.

One feature I would like to see added is the ability to click a slider value and change it with the keyboard, either by typing a value or with the cursor keys. It would be great if one cursor click gave a change of say 5% of the slider range and holding down the Option key would change this to 1%.

Andrew

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 30, 2016 - 6:30pm

Noted!  I know that some of the tools (crop, transform, etc.) do let you put in numerical values for some inputs, but agree that it would be handy for fine adjustments.  The USX needs to be thought through because now when you click on a readout, you move the value to that point on the scale. So… maybe Option-click on the slider reveals the slider value in an edit mode, and then you could either type a value or the cursor arrow keys would move the value by 1 number. Maybe Right and Left would be 1 number, and Up and Down move by 5… just spitballin’ here…

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

AHolmes's picture
by AHolmes
November 30, 2016 - 7:35pm

Thanks Kevin. Good suggestion. Perhaps an alternative would be to move the readout of the current slider value to the right of the slider so that it can be clicked without moving the slider.

Andrew

Kevin La Rue's picture
by Kevin La Rue
November 30, 2016 - 7:40pm

Yep, that’s how Aurora HDR 2017 works today (but it has a different slider design of course). I like that suggestion.

Kevin La Rue, Skylum

Florian Cortese's picture
by Florian Cortese
December 5, 2016 - 3:18pm

I have been playing with Luminar since it came out and I am very impressed with it so far.  I used to use NIK CEP for a lot of my landscape post-processing and some portraits but Luminar has far surpassed that and is now my go to app.  I’ve been able to set up presets that matched most if not all of my NIK “recipes” and comparing them head to head, Luminar out shines (pardon the pun) them!.  It can also do so much more with its ability to add layers.  With macphun’s plans to add CA & LC and more filters in the future as well as a DAM, it will be very compelling as a near all-in-one system for photo management and processing.  Well done, macphun.

Florian

Florian Cortese
www.fotosbyflorian.com

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