Photography - Luminar

On Dec 9, 2018, Alfred Molon wrote
(in . com):

I gave a try to Luminar (the 2017 version for Windows; tried to process
some RAW images).

I bought Luminar some years ago, and I have benefitted by free upgrades. They
are soon to release Luminar 3 which includes a DAM. We shall see how that
works out and if they have made any other feature additions, and/or
improvements. However, Luminar is not my primary processing tool, I use, as I
have for years an Adobe Lightroom CCC/Photoshop CC workflow. I fully
understand that is not for everybody, and I also explore many of the
alternatives, and plugins.

It's interesting with all those filters, but I guess you need to know
how to use them, because there are so many options and settings.
By the way, does Luminar automatically apply embedded lens profiles?

The filters are adjustment/correction tools, and all are quite intuitive to
use, and each will spell out their function.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-nRRVKrx/0/dbfe2249/O/i-nRRVKrx.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Xj8XNhD/0/b6e977da/O/i-Xj8XNhD.jpg

When you speak of “embedded lens profiles” are you talking about profiles
contained within the application, or profiles applied in-camera to the RAW
metadata?

There are no specific lens manufacturers profiles which are part of the
software in the way that Adobe provides with ACR, or Lightroom. So for my
Nikon RAW files I get uncorrected images to work on using the manual
correction sliders. Not my favorite thing to do, but you can create presets,
it is just a bit inconvenient. However with my Fujifilm RAF files there is
in-camera lens optimization which does a very good job of applying
corrections for lens distortion, CA and vignette. In Lightroom I can apply
Nikon lens profiles, and my for my Fuji lenses there is note that the
correction has been applied in-camera.

When adjusting the white balance with the slider, Luminar responds with
abrupt changes to minimal slider movements. A bit difficult to precisely
set the white balance like this.

Luminar WB is another of those things I feel needs some refinement, we shall
see what they deliver with Luminar 3.

Then, on this PC with an Intel i7 7700 when you change a setting
(contrast, brightness etc.) it takes a couple of seconds for Luminar to
refresh the preview.

Sorry I am not a Windows user, I am all Mac here.

Is there a way to open a number of RAW files and edit one, applying the
changes to all open RAW files? Would be important, because I process a
lot of panorama sequences.

Create a preset with the adjustments you have made. Then apply the preset to
subsequent images.As a total package Luminar 2018 is lacking many features
such as panorama stitching, focus stacking, or HDR (for HDR it uses its
sister app Aurora HDR) that can be found in Lightroom/Photoshop, On1 Photo
RAW, or AlienSkin Exposure X4. Luminar would not be my first choice for
stitching panoramas.

I feel that photographers looking for affordable processing software without
some of the extras to be found in more costly applications will be more than
happy. If they are looking for more it will prove lacking. That said, there
are times I find it useful to use it as an Adobe plugin for some images as
some adjustment features are implemented differently to the way things are
done with LR/PS.

For now I stick to my Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop workflow with the assistance
of various plugins including Luminar 2018. However, I am going to be
interested to see what changes have been made when they release Luminar 3.

As I said, earlier, I am currently working with the trial of Capture One 12
Pro, and so far I am quite impressed.

--
Regards,
Savageduck