So I'm a little disappointed with Skylum. :( Luminar 3, and now Luminar Flex, have been barely out and even though L3 was being promoted as having an extensive roadmap of stuff to come Skylum is now promoting a pre-release order of Luminar 4 which will not be a free upgrade for L3/Flex owners and they've been quietly scrubbing their site of some of the L3 roadmap lists. Considering that the L3 launch was a little rocky with some users still having performance issues and the DAM still not quite up to par with the competitors an L4 product seems a little premature at this point.


I have made a decision not to upgrade anymore, for just this reason. I barely use Luminar at all, anymore, in spite of the $$$ I have spent on it (I've had it since v1, and before that, the Creative Suite which they re doing nothing with, now) VEry disappointed in their behaviour. The DAM as you say is not up to par, and I dont use that at all.
 
Version 3.1.3 is being pushed out. Below is the overview from the Windows version, the details are on the Skylum Blog.

In response to some... unhappy... customers & affiliates they've also updated their roadmap to break out what to expect in L3 versus L4.

Lost Edits Album. No more frustration over unsaved changes. With the latest version of Luminar, your hard editing work won't go to waste even if you can't find your edited photos in the folder you expected. If under creative impulses you rename, move, or change a processed image, simply go to the Lost Edits Album in Shortcuts and locate it there.

Fixed crash issues. Our developers have resolved system crashes so you can enjoy an even smoother experience when browsing through the Gallery, editing, and exporting images.

Can't find a catalog? Create a new one or choose an existing one. If you can't find the catalog you're trying to access, don't let it interfere with your workflow. In case the catalog you are looking for has been deleted, choose Create New Catalog and start editing. And if the catalog you'd like to work with has been renamed or moved to another folder, just hit Choose a Different Catalog.

Faster scrolling in Gallery and Stripe. For this update, we focused on performance improvements. This has resulted in faster and smoother Gallery and Stripe scrolling. Spin the mouse wheel and enjoy a seamless scroll.

Added hotkeys. Working with Luminar on your PC has become faster and more convenient. Now you can access the same hotkeys whether you work on Mac or Windows.

New splash screen by Jeffrey Moreau. In the latest version, when you launch Luminar you get to enjoy stunning images by Jeffrey Moreau, an avid Luminar user and the winner of the Luminar Featured Artist contest.
 
I have made a decision not to upgrade anymore, for just this reason. I barely use Luminar at all, anymore, in spite of the $$$ I have spent on it (I've had it since v1, and before that, the Creative Suite which they re doing nothing with, now) VEry disappointed in their behaviour. The DAM as you say is not up to par, and I dont use that at all.

I've also stopped bothering with Luminar...

I'd rather have a tool that gets the basics right (a good raw conversion with control over color, shadows/highlight recovery, ...) and lets me do targeted tweaks easily - than have a tool that focusses so much on heavy-handed "AI" filters - taking most of the control out of my hands and giving me results to the taste of the programmers...
 
I’ve recently installed the Luminar 3.2 update. I had to create a new catalog, as it decided to create a new copy of each photo every time I opened the program (in the catalog, that is, the photos themselves stayed singular). Once that was fixed, I’m quite impressed with the speed of the software, and it hasn’t crashed yet, which is a big improvement.
Buoyed by this success, I downloaded a trial copy of Luminar 4. I don’t like the new simplified interface (I like the workspaces/filters system in L3). But the AI sky replacement is gobsmackingly good. Here’s an original photo:
980F4B09-49AF-4826-BFDE-583B48F4BCBC.jpeg

I took that into Luminar 4, applied a “bleached drama” look or some such thing, chose one of the dramatic sky variants and increased the “relight scene” slider to about 50.
DSCF2535-Edit.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

You may or may not like the overall look, but the way the new sky has been added in is pretty cool. Of course, you need a good variety of skies or all photos will look the same, but my scepticism about the software has definitely softened quite a way.
 
I like the look Martin. It completes the transformation.

I liked L2018 and was ecstatic when they announced a free upgrade to L3. I had the idea that it could be an all in one solution for me.
Needless to say I reverted back to 2018 and for the most part gave up on Luminar.
I recently saw a video about the sky replacement and decided to try it as well.
I too have a softened skepticism.
 
So... another year, another Luminar product by Skylum. 🤯

I'm really not sure at this point whether Luminar can be considered a viable product for long-term usage. They make a point of touting their products as one-time purchases, versus subscriptions like Adobe, but the Skylum model seems to be predicated on introduce a product, make a bunch of promises, never follow-through on those promises, introduce a new product, discontinue the last product, charge users an 'upgrade' fee, and repeat. Luminar, Luminar Neptune, Luminar 2018, Luminar 3, Luminar Flex, Luminar 4, Luminar AI, Luminar Neo. There was also Aurora HDR and PhotoLemur.

In comparison, the monthly cost for the stability that comes with an Adobe subscription seems a lot more palatable.
 
So... another year, another Luminar product by Skylum. 🤯

I'm really not sure at this point whether Luminar can be considered a viable product for long-term usage.

Agreed. I stopped at Luminar 3, and AuroraHDR 2018. When it first came out, I was impressed. I expected its development trajectory to be on a path which would appeal to serious photographers… it isn’t. Its like a toy. As for its DAM… pffft.

If I wanted a toy, I would have bought it. But I don’t.
 
I have gone through some versions of Luminar and currently have Luminar AI but am not sure that I will bother with Luminar Neo. I mostly use it for the great "erase" tool which I like better than the one in DXO PhotoLab 5, and occasionally will experiment with some of the filters. I would never depend upon it as my only editing program, but it is handy as a second tool when needed. I'm not into swapping skies and faces, nor would I ever alter someone's physical body shape by putzing around with that feature, but Luminar AI does have its uses from time to time.
 
For anybody who wants to check out Luminar 4, you can pick up a free copy.

FYI for anybody interested... after clicking this link you'll be taken to a page asking for your name and an email address. After proving an email address you'll be sent an email with a link to download the installer and, more importantly, the registration key.
 
Back
Top