Quitting Adobe - Can I switch from Lightroom to Luminar 4?

Continuing my series of finding single-purchase alternatives to Adobe's subscription-only products, this time I try to find a good substitute for Lightroom. Being the main recommendation from the internet, and at a quite friendly price (£69), Skylum Luminar 4 has popped up on my radar. I go on a photoshoot with a friend, and then edit some of those pictures in a similar way that I would with Lightroom, and see if the results are as good.

Thanks to Olya for modelling for these pictures, you can find her on Instagram at: @olya_lo

And thanks to my film crew Svitlana and Katty for the extra footage.

0:00 Intro
0:51 Olya's Instagram
1:12 Photoshoot
2:25 First Impressions
3:13 Example Edit
5:43 Healing Brush
6:41 AI Portrait Features
9:10 Gradients
11:07 Conclusions
12:21 Price Comparison
13:12 Outro

Equipment Used:

Sony A7iii with 24-70mm GMaster and 55mm f1.8 lenses
Sony ZV-1
Rode Wireless Go
Rode Videomicro
Rode Videomic Pro+

[woodydroneson]

Great Video :) I've recently purchased Luminar 4 and agree there are some performance issues especially if the file gets big like the Panoramas I have created recently with a Mavic Mini, I have had some great results and am really happy with it apart from the lag in processing. I do not use Lightroom or any editing software to sort through my photos for processing. This is what I do and it works for Me: After a holiday I usually have around 4000 photos, I would break these into days and places visited (in your case photoshoots) and back up all to 3 separate hard disc drives before reformatting the camera card. I then create another temporary copy on my desktop or somewhere else and open the images and scroll through all 4000 or so and if I find an image I like I actually delete to the bin! note I do not delete images that I do not like only the ones I like, once I have gone through the 4000 photos I then drag the deleted files back out into another folder called Holiday edit me for example, I then delete the 3900 images I did not want and run the same process on the 100 images left until I have the images I want to work on, I've still got the original images on 3 other drives and Luminar or Lightroom are not needed to view and select keepers or binners, I am also seeing the images full size as I scroll through them as I Delete To Keep :) Maybe Boris should use that "Delete To Keep" ;)

[chesterjohnson]

Nice video. I am using Luminar 4 as a plug in, just really getting started with that program along with LR6 and Aurora 2018. I am not a professional photographer but a serious hobbyist. I have no issues with the programs working together and I am happy so far with my results. LR Classic CC I am interested in but I too do not want to have to pay a monthly subscription. I have been using LR for over 10 years it seems. I enjoy the LR catalog but not the Luminar 4 DAM. I am still on the fence.

[austinh]

My workflow involves First Lightroom for basic global edits, then Luminar for sky replacement and sun center placement, then back to Lightroom for precise masking and color correction, then photoshop for placing signatures and making final tweaks.

[easytorememberuser]

Would like to know HOW to switch too! Exporting the edits etc do I need to save my edited raw files as PNG?

[gbarr]

Because I refuse to pay a subscription for light room, I find luminar 4 does a fantastic job as a stand alone editor. I do have LR5 but hardly use it now.

[chiuyuenkwan]

Luminar is not professional enough to be used as a standalone program because its DAM is non-professional and its masking is not precise. But, I use it as a plug-in to Lightroom CS6 which combines the advantages of both programs

[soumen]

For fast culling, try fast raw viewer. So, cull using FRV, then edit in luminar.

[georgedemetriou]

David, I notice one option suggested by your viewers is to use Luminar 4 as a plugin for Lightroom. I guess that way you end up paying for both but it may be a way of getting the best of both worlds. However when you send a raw file which has had some edits in Lightroom over to Luminar, the files gets converted to a Tiff format so you lose a lot of the editing flexibility of the raw file when you start editing in Luminar. Would you see that as a problem?

[medwayboy]

Lightroom presets are huge at the moment.. I believe luminar isn't compatible with them ?

[DanielDante]

If you are looking for an alternativ for Photoshop you should check out Affinity Photo. Affinity also got alternativs like Affinity Design and Affinity Publisher...

[lawrence_SoCal]

I also purchase Luminar 4 as I refuse to get Adobe subscription. However, the Windows version is a mess (and per the forums Skylum has had a quality problem with their Windows versions for years, and don’t seem to be making good progress on resolving). Further, it is unconscionable to have the catalog not be upgradeable to new version of LuminarAI. Without catalog, can’t maintain layers of edits, edit history, etc. Skylum’s suggestion to save every edited image as a TIFF is laughable.
I wish Skylum well, but their products aren’t viable as main editor/catalog at this point. I wish they would put more effort into improving their code than incentivizing ambassadors.

[GregWallis]

DigiKam, as an image management solution, and Luminar for editing. Trust me, this is so much easier. Also, take a look at Exposure X5, which, if you want an all in one solution, is the best there is. (I've got both.)

[varunamaro]

Have been using lightroom for years - means there's tons of post-processed pictures in my catalog. Unfortunately i would loose all of it if I switch to luminar, wouldnt I? Or why is there no single useful video that shows how to migrate the LR-catalog to Luminar? Did u do that? To me its a must-feature till I'm willing to switch... And I think for professionals also, but to me it seems as nobody ever really switched for real and not just talking...

[raylander]

Populating with images, if you open a whole bunch at once is slow, but you should use a program like Photo Mechanic to cull. YOu only keep AND OPEN what you like, and you get SPEED. Also consider DXO PL 4. I never liked Lightroom, and although I have their newest upgrade, 2021, as soon as renewal time comes I will cancel. NICE VIDEO

[Ronbc]

David, YT has plenty Luminar 4 tutorials to acquaint you. Anthony Turnham's series are good value. 🎥 👍

[leelemon]

The new luminar ai is subscription too

[ariruishalme]

Luminar 4 is lacking but very great editing software.. affinity is for more complicated editing like Photoshop.. and only 55e/$ ...

I'm using Luminar 4 for quick edits.. and affinity for art look photos