Luminar 4 vs Lightroom Which is BETTER?

In this tutorial, I do a feature by feature comparison of Luminar 4 and Lightroom. Hopefully this comparison will help you decide which post processing application is best for you.

I mentioned in the video, that through Easter 2020, Luminar is on sale. You can grab that sale here:

And use my Promo Code: AM16 to save another $10.

If you're not ready to buy, check out Luminar 4 for free:

At the top of the page, hover over the word "Luminar" - a menu should open and you can download the trial version from there. It is a fully working trial that expires in 15 days.

If you decide to purchase Luminar 4, use my Promo Code:

AM16

If you're interested in Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Stock, and the Creative Cloud, you can find more info here:

For a playlist of all of my comparison videos, click on the link below:

I am an affiliate for Skylum Software and Adobe. I was not paid to do this video but I will make a commission if you purchase either product using the links above. Please read my Code of Ethics Statement here:

I use this software to record my screen and make parts of my screen enlarge and zoom out so you can see it:

Unsure of how to price your photography? Check the 2019 Guide to Pricing Your Photography:

I am an affiliate for all of the companies listed.

Thank you!

[AnthonyMorganti]

In this tutorial, I do a feature by feature comparison of Luminar 4 and Lightroom. Hopefully this comparison will help you decide which post processing application is best for you.

I mentioned in the video, that through Easter 2020, Luminar is on sale. You can grab that sale here:


And use my Promo Code: AM16 to save another $10.

If you're not ready to buy, check out Luminar 4 for free:


At the top of the page, hover over the word "Luminar" - a menu should open and you can download the trial version from there. It is a fully working trial that expires in 15 days.

If you decide to purchase Luminar 4, use my Promo Code:

AM16

If you're interested in Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Stock, and the Creative Cloud, you can find more info here:



I am an affiliate for Skylum Software and Adobe. I was not paid to do this video but I will make a commission if you purchase either product using the links above. Please read my Code of Ethics Statement here:



I use this software to record my screen and make parts of my screen enlarge and zoom out so you can see it:


Unsure of how to price your photography? Check the 2019 Guide to Pricing Your Photography:



I am an affiliate for all of the companies listed.

Thank you!

I love when people like you that really knows about these topics, share video with such great content. Excelent video and contribution Anthony. Stunning as always.

[tinplater]

For me the power of Lightroom as a searchable database makes it essential for my needs and nearly 100, 000 images in catalog.

[byronalpers]

Hi Anthony. In your video comparing Lightroom and Luminar, you mentioned that it's possible to edit images in Luminar without having to import them. How would I do that? Thanks. Byron Alpers

[genesly]

Thank you. I feel that using both gives me the best results . I use Luminar-4 as a plugin for Lightroom.

[jerryfaircloth]

Been wanting a comparison like this Anthony, perfect timing too. Thanks!

[andyhughes]

Luminar 4 is really only viable when used as a plug-in to Lightroom. As a standalone I have found Luminar's embarrassingly basic Library module and its general poor performance and stability to be a major issue. As a plug-in, for me, it performs much better. If you want to compare apples to apples, you should be comparing something like ON1 Photo RAW to Lightroom, not Luminar.

[stevevarga]

I got luminar before Lightroom and I am frustrated when exporting with luminar takes to long I find Lightroom much much better and thanks you are the first person to
Acknowledge how slow is luminar when exporting

[ryanhostudio]

just tried the luminar 4 trial, its library loading files and exporting is embarassingly slow. Doesnt really use GPU at all, its performance is quite abysmal even if the tools it provides are good. Applying adjustments also takes forever

[rickewilde]

As a person considering embarking on a career of freelance property photography and keeping costs down is of importance, would luminar be good software to begin my journey without subscriptions.

[gmeeuwissen]

I like Luminar a as a plugin. It has nowhere the asset management, export and printing capabilities as in Lightroom, so it is a bit too pretentious to call Luminar a standalone application !
As for importing in Lightroom: once you have a folder structure and a catalog in Lightroom, you don't have to import any pictures anymore, just go to a folder in the Library module and right click on "synchronize" to add any pictures/subfolders to the catalog that you have moved and renamed outside of Lightroom with file explorer, finder or Faststone. Works much faster than the tedious import process. Thanks, Anthony, for all of your video's.

[kwomack]

Luminar has a one time cost (less than Adobe's annual cost) and can be licensed on 2 PCs as long as only one is used at a time. Adobe charges per year or month and I'm not sure if they allow a license to be installed on 2 PCs. Does anyone know? I have 2 workstations and need to be able to edit images on both.

[curtishenrickson]

In your last video you referred to Luminar as a good lightroom plug in. To me that is an essential point

[rhodabender]

Is there any way to send over pictures as a group to Luminar that were already edited in Lightroom, then open them singly, do additional work on them and send them back to Lightroom?

[turdboman]

Dear Anthony, I sub to LR and own LR 6 stand alone. I have Luminar 4 but just starting with it, I have used LR since LR 1 but am no expert. the one thing I miss in LR6 is the dehaze slider.Does Luminar have anything like dehaze ? I want to cut the subscription and use my LR6 maybe in conjunction with Luminar 4, do you have any advice along these lines ?

[philipzwick]

Now that you have compared both Luminar and On1 Raw to Lightroom, perhaps you can do a comparison between Luminar and On1 Raw. As others have stated, I find Luminar to be useful mainly as a plugin for the unique AI features it offers. While On1 Raw, which I am now using, IMO can replace Lightroom almost completely and also do a lot of what one goes from Lightroom to Photoshop to do, I question if Luminar can do the same. Can you address this question?

[JCouv]

Any idea why we are being charged 20% VAT, and whu via a UK selling site. Was under the impression VAT did not apply to foreign countries? Perhaps I am wromg?

[gerardmurtagh]

can you have luminar on your Desktop PC and laptop as well

[timoteiafanasie]

There is, also, a very important difference: as both are non distructiv and your raw files are not modified, if you want to use the raw file into another program with the adjustments done in Lightroom you can, as Lightroom write a sidecar file, but Luminar don't do this, the adjustments done in Luminar are just in Luminar's library. So you have to export your file as .jpeg and further process it like that.

[avnerbenzvi]

i am using usually Lumnar 4 as Lightroom / Photoshop plugin the erase working in Luminar better the Lightroom when i need to erase in place of moving to Photoshop i go to Luminar it's faster and easier. thanks