Luminar 2018 usability issues with layers
I find it very uncomfortable that, selecting lower layers, Luminar automatically hide the higher layers making it impossible to understand the impact of new settings on the entire layers/filters configuration.
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Hi Fede,
Thanks for taking time to outline this idea! I'm not sure it's something we'll be able to add since it contradicts the algorithm of how layers work.
In Luminar each new layer uses the previous layer below as its starting point. In other words, each layer imposes the result of its processing on the previous one. Hence if you come back to the previous layer the adjustments of the new one will be disabled.
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Hi Julia!
I understand the point.. but... (there is a great "but") this is not the way others layer-based photo-manipulation software works: the final result that you see is ever the result of the elaboration of all active layers, regardless of what layer you are working.
I love Luminar 2018 (and I can't wait the new updates and DAM to finally leave LR), but this is a severe usability question if you want to compare (and win) to all the others photoediting software (where user built their experience until now).
I'm also a software developer, I understand algorithms but... usability first ;-)
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You should be able to activate and deactivate layers, and when you are in a layer all active layers should be applied, in order to see the effects of the complete layer active list.
As it is now you cannot imagine how your current adjustments are modified by the other layers above the current one.
Luminar is a great promising software.
But marketing in luminar is too aggresive, they should not blow their whistles so loud, as it creates false expectatives.
There are many and many aspects in Luminar that should be polished before you can assure you have a LR killer.
There is a long path between a plugin collection system and a complete usable and comfortable complete photo suite.
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I would like to second (third?) this suggestion. When editing an image with multiple layers, a way of knowing what the results will look like when changing one of the lower layers seems like a very important function. As it happens, the only way to do that is to tweak the lower layer(s), then click on the top layer to see the result, rinse, repeat. It's very slow and clicky.
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Interestingly I just ran into this limitation and as of the end of November it's still an issue.
Being in the final month of my yearly Adobe subscription, I have been trying to use Luminar as much as I can to determine if it would be a viable replacement once the December release is out. Unfortunately this omission makes that impossible and Luminar will remain no more than a plugin, at least for the foreseeable future. Glad to see, at least, that someone else is aware of this and it's not operator failure on my part.
I suppose there is a reason why no one has created the elusive "LR killer" and how they remain one of the few subscriptions that millions of subscription-adverse users begrudgingly stick with.
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