Is Luminar AI a really step forward?
Answered
Last week I received my early bird version of Luminar AI and after having play with for a while, I have to say that in my humble opinion this is a significant step back compare to Luminar 4.
1. Launching the program takes forever: on averate 45 to 1 minute (I have a macbook pro with 32 GB ram)
2. Professional tool are essentially reduced to almost nothing, limiting in a significant way the ability to photoediting
3. Layers have also disappeared. I contact Skylum and they told me that this is becasue they were slowing down the process in Luminar 4. I am ok with using the masking tool instead addying layer to an image, but the new Luminar essentially don't let you to add a new image layer so for people doing landscape this is a significant limitation (e.g. you won't be able to blend two images one exposed for the highlights and the other for the shadow)
4. Templates: templates are similar to the LOOKS in the previous version of Luminar. Only, you have now only very few options compared to the previous version of Luminar
5. I hope the development team will review this early version, otherwise I already regret to have spent my money on this
Best
Michele
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I'm with Michele, Elena... I've installed, uninstalled, reinstalled (twice), restarted computer, relaunched and... it still takes nearly a minute (51 seconds) to launch the program. My iMac is more than capable to run the program yet, AI seems to be arrive late to the party every time. I really want this iteration to work; I just need it to cooperate.
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I don't have any image in my catalogue because I use Luminar as plug in for Lightroom. However, it doesn't make any difference if you launch it as lonestanding program or plug in, it takes forever.
I just want to point out again, that this is only part of the problem. The other aspect is that Luminar AI, in its current version, it is pretty much a down step compared to Luminar 4. It is very similar to what happened with Apple when they decided to leave Aperture for Photo. I am sure it is more appealing to a larger group of people, but to the fact the most of all advanced features have disappeared it is a major flaw and this is not what I was expected. So, unless this will change in the future, I already regret I spent my money on this software that is unlikely will be my future choice.
Michele
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Hi Brad,
So in Luminar AI you don't have the ability to add image layers or adjustment layer. Luminar AI has not the option "mask" but this tool is not flexible as it was to have adjustment layers. You can't add image layer that it was a very important "plus" of both Luminar 3 and 4. The help serviced said you can use the "texture" tool, but again this is not the same of adding an image layer. In the professional tool the very useful adjustable gradient tool has disappeared, as well the photo filter too. In Luminar 4 you could create specific mask for each tool, this is completely gone. One great features of LUminar 4 was to have the ability to see a preview of different LOOKS on the image directly (very fast). Now you need to go in templates, then click on the star below the magic wand and the list of your looks appears. However, they don't show an image, so you have to click on them to this the effect and this is slowing down the process. More, I sincerely don't understand why they keep changing names to the same tools (I guess is so we have the impression this is new?).
So I have the impression that if you want to give up the ability to control post processing the images Luminar AI is probably the perfect software. But if you want to have the full control on the post processing, Luminar AI is a significant step back. As mentioned in my previous posts, I don't think this is going to be my future software. Indeed I have asked a refunding for my money.
best wishes
Michele
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I agree with both Michele and Brad.
Templates are similar to looks in Luminar 4.
Launching Luminar AI after install takes a few minutes and 45 seconds for each re-launch!
I am on iMac 27 Mojave 10.14.6.
This is the only photo editing app that takes such a long time to launch!
Very disappointing....will there be a fix for this problem or do we have to live with it?
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Hello, Michele... I'm waiting as well for an update that will speed the launch but, I noticed that you wrote: "...most of all advanced features have disappeared...". I think you'll find most of those when you click on "Edit" at the top of the window; then they're appear at the right. I apologize if I misinterpreted your comment. I hope that this helps, though.
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Ahhhh.... I understand now, Michele. Thank you for the clarification. Maybe a little of PhotoLemur was snuck into this program. :) I'm going to sit back and see if they issue and update in the near future. I'm thinking that they wanted to launch this product before Christmas and may have put the cart before the horse. I'll keep checking back on this forum for news from people like yourself. Thanks again, Michele. Greetings from Alaska.
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