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Archive 2016 · Luminar - a first hard use

OntheRez
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Luminar - a first hard use

This a first touch/use of Luminar. It is critical to note that this is NOT a Ps replacement. I don't think it was intended to be. (For a reasonable alternative to Ps, Affinity Photo shows great promise. It is also going cross platform.) This is a Lr challenger.

I just shot the ceremony and fiesta celebrating the centennial of the Catholic church in this small town. It has been a cornerstone of this community particularly as it was open to all people though every other institution was deeply racist. (Most particularly Phelps-Dodge Mining that literally owned everything.)

I had close to 1200 clicks over the course of the 8-hour event. (Ask me how my wrist feels

On top of this I had to cull and deliver ≈ 60 pix for the newspaper between Saturday night and Sunday at 12:00 PM. Maybe 2/3 of the images could be handled by Lr. However, I was shooting at ISO 12800 in the sanctuary, and Luminar was able to handle many things Lr couldn't.

Luminar has layers that work very well. To me this ability huge. Its object removable tools are often superb with much more control than Lr - it’s a brush that can be modified. It's ability to handle wildly varying light was eye opening. It has a "smart tone" somewhat like DXO's remarkable smart lightening. There are a number of useful built in filters. Gradient tool is excellent though it took me a bit to figure out how to work it. There's a very useful brush tool. The big thing for me in this shoot was the sharpening and particularly the noise removal tool. It's clearly from the company's plug in Noiseless. I can't think of any other program as good as this except DXO's Optic Pro.

Understand that this is a V.1 tool, and I didn't have the time to work the key pix with Ps. Remarkably there were only a small number of places where Ps would have been significantly better. I repeat this is not a Ps challenger, but the first extraordinary challenge to Lr since Aperture died.

It is a stand alone program but can be called as a plugin from Lr (where I used it) and from Ps. Given that I was fumbling with the interface and still don't know how some things worked, I've got to say the only thing that keeps it from truly overwhelming Lr is that it has no DAM of any sort. I'll need to keep using Lr for importing and indexing. The company has been mum about its road map though there are hints of significant improvement. The will undoubtedly continue to update.

There's a full featured 30 day demo at Macphun I doubt they will make a Win version though who knows. Anyone running OS X Yosemite and later should give it a careful looking over.

Robert

Nov 21, 2016 at 11:44 AM

Trek_of_Joy
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Luminar - a first hard use

I'm torn between this and Affinity, since Affinity does panos and a few other things Luminar doesn't. I find PS to be overly bloated as I only use a small fraction of its capabilities. These newer offerings are much more streamlined and can do everything I need.

Nov 22, 2016 at 01:58 PM

butchM
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Luminar - a first hard use

OntheRez wrote:
This is a Lr challenger.

In what respect? If Luminar has no catalog or database offering, are you comparing it to Lightroom specifically for image processing?

If so, wouldn't it then be a challenger to the Develop module and ACR?

The reason I ask is that there are near infinite possibilities to replace the Develop module in Lr but none that can replace Lightroom when it comes to simplifying and streamlining a medium to large volume workflow. (At least now that Aperture has left the field) For example, Lr is very adept at exporting via FTP and/or exporting using Publish Services from a single image to collections of thousands of images ... all without creating a mountain of derivative images along the way to accomplish the task.

That is the 'Lr competitor' I am seeking.

Nov 22, 2016 at 02:24 PM

OntheRez
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Luminar - a first hard use

Butch,

You are absolutely correct. Luminar as it stands at V.1, is a vast improvement (at least for me thus far) over Lr's Develop module. (It also has a decent print "module.") It does everything Develop does and many additional things. It can be called from both Lr and Ps. There is no DAM which is why I noted that Lr is still essential to my work flow. As noted, I've been hinted at by Macphun sources that they see this a critical step in the program's development. Nothing official, nothing actually said.

When one considers Lr's "database" I can say without doubt that it is pathetic. It is a flat file only, non-relational tool. The lack of interactivity between variables and the cataloging system would never be used in real business.

Aperture's indexing was based on PostgresSQL which is an Open Source adaptation of Sun's original SQL. I won't dwell on the differences other than to say, it is widely used and remarkably robust and flexible. It is the basic tool of most data facing websites and is widely used by Microsoft, OS X, and Linux. Interestingly enough, Adobe has never embraced it. One can only wonder why.

Will Lumiar evolved in that direction?

No clue, but I'd place a small bet that it will get there.

Robert

Nov 23, 2016 at 11:41 AM

Frogfish
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Luminar - a first hard use

butchM wrote:
In what respect? If Luminar has no catalog or database offering, are you comparing it to Lightroom specifically for image processing?

If so, wouldn't it then be a challenger to the Develop module and ACR?

The reason I ask is that there are near infinite possibilities to replace the Develop module in Lr but none that can replace Lightroom when it comes to simplifying and streamlining a medium to large volume workflow. (At least now that Aperture has left the field) For example, Lr is very adept at exporting via FTP and/or exporting using Publish Services from a single image to collections...Show more →

LR is an All-in-One solution however if you wanted better indexing and speed then Photo Mechanic is your tool (and of course it's XML files carry-over their categories/ratings into LR if you then need LR for processing).

I'd say then that with PM and MacPhun's CK Suite (or maybe Luminar - I haven't used it and doubt I need it with the CK & Aurora 2017) they represent a better option for speed and flexibility (but they aren't perfect). I love the Luminosity Layers that you can select based on 11 light values from white to black - even PS can't do that can it ?

I currently have Affinity Photo too but have hardly used it due to my CK Suite workflow. The only reason I currently still use LR CC is for copyrighting and signatures plus maybe Print output. I haven't used these in CK and in fact aren't even sure if they exist there at all.

Nov 23, 2016 at 01:35 PM

butchM
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Luminar - a first hard use

Frogfish wrote:
LR is an All-in-One solution however if you wanted better indexing and speed then Photo Mechanic is your tool (and of course it's XML files carry-over their categories/ratings into LR if you then need LR for processing).

I'd say then that with PM and MacPhun's CK Suite (or maybe Luminar - I haven't used it and doubt I need it with the CK & Aurora 2017) they represent a better option for speed and flexibility (but they aren't perfect). I love the Luminosity Layers that you can select based on 11 light values from white to black - even PS...Show more →

I am well aware of what Lr is. I've been using it since the very first pre v1 public Beta and used PM since before that when it was in it's infancy as well.

I don't require more speed in indexing and rendering, Lr is fine with that for my needs. What I need that Lr seems to be the only option that offers my preferred workflow capabilities is as I stated earlier, batch export via FTP and Publish Services along with Virtual Copies that help reduce the necessity of producing a mountain of derivative files that need later housekeeping. Not to mention many other alternatives don't handle syncing of Develop settings and/or IPTC/EXIF metadata across groups of images as well as Lr does.

For example, I may shoot a triathlon with 1,200 to 1,500 participants using a total of four shooters. At the end of the day we may have 6,000 to 8,000 images that need to be uploaded to my online shopping cart. With any other option other than Lr (or Aperture) ... I would have to first export the jpeg files ... then upload them to their respective galleries using a separate FTP client.

With Lr, I can make collections as I need and publish to the server using a Publish service plugin directly in Lr and I don't have to deal with any additional files after the fact. The bonus is I can also update those collection to the server should I choose to perform additional adjustments because Lr keeps track and lets me know automatically when there is a newer version on my system that has nor been updated on the web server.

It's about these specific workflow capabilities ... not the 'all-in-one' aspect. My current established workflow saves me hundreds of hours per year. I need a non-Adobe option for that.

Nov 23, 2016 at 03:02 PM

OntheRez
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Luminar - a first hard use

butchM wrote:
For example, I may shoot a triathlon with 1,200 to 1,500 participants <snip>. With any other option other than Lr (or Aperture) ...

With Lr, I can make collections as I need and publish to the server using a Publish service plugin directly in Lr <snip>

It's about these specific workflow capabilities ... not the 'all-in-one' aspect. My current established workflow saves me hundreds of hours per year. I need a non-Adobe option for that.

When covering back to back basketball games I can generate similar numbers. I'm not pushing to a server for immediate down load by participants so have a bit more time to select, etc. Still I've been hard up against deadlines with a lot to process, chose, adjust.

In this phase of my photo work process is everything and time saved is critical. I don't need all-in-one but pieces that connect together for efficiency and quality under time constraints. Quite bluntly - at least under OS X - this existed in Aperture, but moaning for the dead is useless.

At the moment I can't see away around Lr even with its lame excuse for a database and limited "adjustment on the fly" capabilities. Like Butch, "anything but Adobe" if I can get as good or hopefully better system. I think it's coming, but where, when? Luminar may do it. Waiting to see.

I have an excellent workflow for "art" pix, but then time isn't a critical variable with these images.

Quicker, better, smarter - my old stat prof used to say, "You can't optimize all the variables in any one equation."

Robert

Nov 25, 2016 at 01:48 PM

Peter Macphun
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Luminar - a first hard use

OntheRez wrote:
I doubt they will make a Win version though who knows.

Robert

Well, we did

May 24, 2017 at 08:16 AM

OntheRez
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Luminar - a first hard use

Peter Macphun wrote:
Well, we did

Luminar and Aurora HDR will soon be available on Windows.

Moreover, the public beta of Luminar for PC will be available in July - we’d love for you to give Luminar a test drive and help us make it as outstanding as it can possibly be.

Stay in the know: https://macphun.com/pc

Congratulations. I know how much bigger the PC market is, so it makes sense. I only hope that you don't go down the path that so many originally Mac developers have gone, where they slowly abandon the Mac.

Would be sad as I like and recommend your products. (Might be a little odd with a name like "Macphun" in the Win world.

)
Robert

May 24, 2017 at 11:12 AM


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