This workflow is actually incredibly powerful, and allows you to ignore each softwares inherent weaknesses, and instead, make the most of their huge strengths instead.
From here, you can carry on editing, move the file, add it to a Collection, print it, export it… basically do anything you normally would, just as if the file had only been edited in Lightroom.
The best bit? Once you’re done editing in Luminar, you simply save the file for it to return straight back in to the Lightroom window.
#Adobe lightroom classic cc 2019 software
If you own both pieces of software, you can easily continue using Lightroom as your main image editing software and/or file management software, then choose ‘Edit In > Edit in Luminar 4’ to take advantage of the most powerful AI editing features available in 2022. The purpose of this article is to pit Luminar vs Lightroom, but this assumes that you’ll be choosing one software app over the other.įor existing Lightroom users who are happy to pay each month for the privilege of using what it, and probably always will be, the industry-standard image editing software, Luminar 4 actually interacts very well with the existing Lr workflow. All Luminar edits are saved to a duplicate image, which will then return straight to your Lr catalog. You can easily open and edit any Lightroom image in Luminar 4 with a couple of mouse clicks. I also prefer Lightroom’s sharpening, vignette and lens corrections to Luminar’s. The most important to me of these is the healing tool, which I find to be far superior both in performance and final results than Luminar’s erase tool. I’d much rather use Photoshop paired with Lightroom for these.Īs far as Lightroom is concerned, there are a number of tools that Lightroom has that I think perform better than Luminar’s. I tend to need precise selections and having to draw in my masks and/or use radial or gradient masks takes too much time for me. That being said, I haven’t found the layers function to be of much use in my own work. Yet if you’re hoping for an all-in-one program, Luminar’s layer ability is a huge plus. Of course, since the standard Adobe photographer’s subscription bundle includes both Lightroom and Photoshop, that’s not a huge deal. One key feature that Luminar 4 has that Lightroom lacks is layers. Used sparingly, however, they can add a wow factor that would take much longer to achieve in Lightroom or Photoshop.Ī light use of Luminar’s Orton effect can really add a neat look to your landscapes. Luminar 4 also has a number of powerful AI filters that add unique effects. The crown jewel of these is AI Sky Replacement, which allows you do literally that – replace entire skies in your photos just with one-click.Įvery time I use the tool, my jaw is left on the floor – it really is that good. Luminar’s intention has always been to speed up workflow, primarily for the casual photographer.Īs a result, they put considerable time into developing their AI filters. This is similar to most other major photo editing software such as Exposure X5, reviewed here.įrom there, though, the two programs diverge a bit. are all easily available in both programs. Adjustments such as tone, contrast, HSL, vibrance, white balance, etc. Luminar’s AI Sky Replacement tool is frankly astounding.Īs I mentioned before, both Luminar 4 and Lightroom Classic have both basic and advanced photo editing tools. Lastly, I don’t think I could live without being able to search via metadata – I use it all the time. On top of that, most serious photographers need both keywords and more advanced metadata. It also has smart collections and metadata import presets.īasically, Lightroom Classic makes it exceptionally easy to organize and tag your photos any way you want. (I’ve needed this feature more than once!) Not only can you set star ratings, pick/reject, create custom tags, etc., you can also filter your entire library based on almost any characteristic available in the EXIF and IPTC metadata. It takes a bit of learning to get started with it, but once you know it, it does just about everything. Lightroom, on the other hand, has a robust cataloging and organization system. This will eventually get fixed in a future update, but for now, the only way to tag your images is to use ratings, flags and color labels. That is a major no-go for those planning on doing stock photography, adding copyrights, or who like to search for images via text. One thing Luminar 4 doesn’t yet have is the ability to work with keywords or IPTC metadata. It also allows for Albums, but the only way to create them is to drag and drop and that doesn’t really work out so well for those of us with large collections.