Apple Photo's with Luminar 3
Just bought Luminar 3 and Aurora HDR 2019. I use Apple Photo's because it's a good program to manage my photo's and keep everything in sync between my iMac, Laptop, iPad and iPhone. I'd like to use Luminar and Aurora HDR to edit. I see I can use the plug ins, but that is timely. I'd like to be able to just use Luminar to edit multiple photo's at once and have the edits show up in Apple Photos. Is this not possible?
I added my Apple Photo's folder to Luminar 3 and can edit them, but the edits dont show up in Photos. I'm assuming it's a one way deal?
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You can use Luminar and Aurora as extensions. You can edit only single photos in the extension.
- Make sure Photos is closed.
- Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen and select System Preferences.
- In the window that opens click Extensions.
- Select Photos Editing from the list on the left.
- Make sure that the checkbox in front of Luminar 3 and Aurora HDR 2019 is ticked in the list on the right.
- Launch Photos and double-click on a photo you wish to edit.
- Click Edit in the upper right corner.
- Click on the Extensions button (looks like three dots in a circle) in the upper right.
- Select Luminar 3 / Aurora HDR 2019.
- When Luminar 3 / Aurora HDR 2019 loads perform the necessary edits in it, and then click Save Changes in the upper right.
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Alternative, since you imported your photographs into Luminar, from the Photos app, once you’re done editing them in Luminar you can export (share?) the edited versions back into Photos. But you’ll then end up with two versions of the same photo, the original or edited version.
I know that Photos makes the managing and syncing of images across multiple devices easy. But it gets awafully awkward when your library gets too large. Also, Apple has a record of abandoning earlier versions of its photo management software (e.g., iPhoto, Aperture and now Photos). The Apple apps all use a database to store the photos. Will these databases still be accessible in future releases of the macOS/iOS? I’m afraid that in the future will be running into problems accessing our photos, just like the problems we ran into when floppy disks (and now DVDs) became obsolete.
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@ Korey
"I added my Apple Photo's folder to Luminar 3 and can edit them, but the edits dont show up in Photos. I'm assuming it's a one way deal?"
That seems to be correct. There is no real round-tripping possible with Luminar when you use it as an external app. (never has been in the past either). I assume that you added the "master-folder" within the Photos-library to the Luminar-library. I was experimenting my self to achieve this as well, but the edits in Luminar (on my RAW-files) where not edited in the Photos library, which on the other hand makes sense to. Nice though is that Luminar keeps track of the edits made with Luminar, however modifying Files in Photo's show up modified in Luminar as Luminar only picks-up jpeg, thus modifications are "backed-in"
Working with edits in both will end-up in a mess I guess.
Philip indicates the procedure with extensions, which is a poor proces as well, as Luminar doesn't "flatten the images" So they are not directly written back to Photo's, you will need the export procedure or the "open in Photo's" command, but in both occasions you will end up with two versions and using the "open with" will change the date of the pictures on top of that.
Apps with extensions that do flatten are directly applied/visible in Photo's, There are even some apps/extensions that keep track of the RAW-edits made with those extensions, so you can pick-up where you left.
I submitted in the past (in the last 2 years) several requests to Skylum, to at least being able to flatten the image in Luminar but so far no results. I think that is a real pity.
Especially when realising that there are Apps with extensions out there that do support that.
My 2 cents
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I don't know about Photos for sure, but in Aperture when sending a photo to Luminar for editing using the Plug-in, Luminar doesn't get the RAW image file; instead it gets a JPG version which I presume Aperture creates and sends it to Luminar (or perhaps that's the fault of the Plug-in). I believe the same thing happens with the Photos app when sending an image to Luminar via the extension.
I was hoping that Luminar 3 would be the program that would free me from using Aperture and Photos, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case--at least for the time being...
Another issue I'm is the fact that the edits remain inside Luminar's catalog. Given that the Sharing options that Luminar 3 makes available are so limited, I suppose we would have to manually export them edited images to different folders... 🤬
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@Ben Bloks, @Phillip Rodokanakis are you using Luminar as an extension in Photos or are you doing the Image > Open In > Luminar 3?
The latter does not invoke L3 as an extension, it starts it in standalone mode, which is also the reason why edits remain in Luminar's catalog, and why images from Photos are sent as JPEGs, and why edits don't get 'baked in' and you have to use export in L3. In my reply to OP I described how to invoke Luminar as an extension.
When you invoke L3 from Photos as an extension, the image is sent in its original format: if you have a RAW in your Photos library, you'll get a RAW in L3 that's running as an extension. When you save edits in the extension, you get a baked TIFF back in Photos which Photos automatically converts to a JPEG for previewing. You can either use the JPEG if you're satisfied with the quality or pull out the TIFF from Photos if you need the lossless image. You can also revert the image back to original, in which case you'll get the original RAW back in Photos. Luminar doesn't handle file transfer and management: it's all controlled by Photos.
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@DenisK, as I mentioned I wasn't sure about Photos. In Aperture which uses the Luminar Plug-in (that's with Luminar 2018, I have not tried this with Luminar 3), when you send a photo to Luminar via the Plug-in you do not get a RAW image in Luminar (for example, the RAW Develop filter is NOT available). When you save an image in Aperture that's been edited in Luminar, you also get a TIFF image.
I have no idea what the difference is between an Extension and a Plug-in and whether Extensions work better than plug-ins; Is it possible that the Photos extension sends a RAW image to Luminar, but the Aperture plug-in only sends a JPG?
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@Denis,
I am experimenting with both to find a good solution for using the benefits of Luminar as stand-alone app and my Photo's library as my preferred DAM with all the benefits. So I would like tot do a Real round-tripping, including picking up my edits where I left when re-opening in Luminar
The description you gave about the behaviour Luminar stand-alone vs extension is quite right
As I mentioned some apps, that you can use as extension or stand-alone using the "edith with" do (when saving) write the modifications back to Photo's
Just one question though, What do you mean by "pull out" the TIFF. is that exporting as TIFF from Photo's?
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>When you invoke L3 from Photos as an extension, the image is sent in its original format: if you have a RAW in your Photos library, you'll get a RAW in L3 that's running as an extension. When you save edits in the extension, you get a baked TIFF back in Photos which Photos automatically converts to a JPEG for previewing. You can either use the JPEG if you're satisfied with the quality or pull out the TIFF from Photos if you need the lossless image. You can also revert the image back to original, in which case you'll get the original RAW back in Photos. Luminar doesn't handle file transfer and management: it's all controlled by Photos.<
@Denis Kotsee. Sorry but I do not believe the above to be true at all times. I just selected a raw file in Photos and sent it to the L3 extension where it arrived as a jpeg. I believe it is a jpeg that is being edited as the develop filter was not the raw develop it was the standard develop. I hasten to add that this was when editing a previously edited raw. However it seems L3 sent an edited raw back to Photos. When editing an unedited raw file the process was as you describe in that a raw was sent to L3 and the raw develop filter was available. Upon completion however L3 sent an edited raw back to Photos, not a tiff or jpeg.
I really do wish we could get a full understanding of just how L3 and Photos work. I actually like the Photos dam, it is fast and allows for more than one catalogue. If L3 interacted with it in a way that did not compromise image quality then Photos and L3 extension would be a brilliant solution for some.
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@Colin - For what it's worth, if you've shot RAW+JPEG, you need to tell Photos to "Use RAW as Original" from the Image menu after you've selected the Edit button. I only get a JPEG in Luminar if I either right-click the photo and choose "Edit With" or click the Edit button, the ellipsis button (to choose Luminar 3), without first choosing Use RAW as Original.
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Yes I understand that but I do not shoot raw and jpeg, just raw. What I have recited above is how it works as confirmed by Skylum in a separate post. The fact is that you can only edit a raw once. After the first edit the file is converted to jpeg and all subsequent edits will be to that jpeg and derivatives thereof. You can revert to original which takes you back to the base raw but you will lose all previous edits. I am talking about editing via extension.
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@Collin and Justin,
If you already made some adjustments in Photo's it will always sent a jpeg. Photo's only sent RAW's when no modifications have been made yet, and Luinar never sent back a RAW. If you re-open that edited photo via extension again in Luminar you will get a jpeg, without history of the edits, just the edited picture.
In Photo's you will in the info pane of a picture see the original format (RAW) but that is that for two reasons:
a.on export you can choose to export original (RAW) or the modified one (jpeg/Tiff,PNG)
b. In edit mode you can restore to the original RAW-format.
Oeps we crossed our comments
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Exactly so any re-edit from within Photos compromises picture quality as yet another jpeg is created as a replacement. This is why I only use Photos to maintain my final versions. You can get round this by exporting the original raw to desktop and then edit that but then you will then have two edited versions of the picture. So currently my raws are in lr and finished images in Photos.
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This thread started out appearing as a helpful one but by the time I finished I feel like my head is about to explode.
I know Luminar developers are busy with many issues at the moment and that must take some priority but I do wish that someone would put some guide together for dealing with Apple's current Photos app(s) and Photos' iCloud constraints/ramifications/behavior with Luminar 3 [and Aurora HDR 2019 for that matter!] It could leave LR out of the conversation as I am not interested in subscription software no matter how wonderful and any discussion of Aperture could be left out as it is deprecated. I owned it and mourn its loss still but I had to give up HyperCard when it was abandoned by Apple as well.[ Poop happens...]
If there is a website, book, or YouTube channel that will answer this need I, and I am sure others, would love to know about them.
Thanks in advance & Happy New Year & Best of Luck to the Team at Skylum.
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Just got this from the Apple Forum. I think that could well help with the workflow
Apple Photos (Mojave) If you want to save the edited copy of a photo before "revert to original" or adding further edits, duplicate the current version with ⌘D, then edit the copy.
For more control, about the image format when using an external editor, you could call the editor using the External Editors extension. It lets you select the file format . You can pass the files as RAW, TIFF, or JPEg, and save the edited version as a lossless format.
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I Love the External Editors extension. Just one pity though that, when you use that to open up Luminar and make some changes, Luminar doesn't save back to this extension either. Simply because Luminar doesn't flatten the adjustment into a standard format and saves only in its own file-format. So again you have to export and reimport.There is a work-around as explained on the website of Karsten Burns (the programmer of this extension) If you drag the exported image into the still open window of External Editors, it will overwrite the image in Photo's. You will find this extension in the Appstore here
Filed several request to Luminar to make it possible to "flatten" like Affinity and Photoshop enable you to do. It would easy round-tripping make possible.
Update: here is the tutorial.
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Well, for me just partly.
The open in only opens in the system-library of Photo's and I do have multiple Photo-Libraries.
Secondly the date of the photo that is sent back is altered to the date of sending back and the file-number s changing too
Thirdly you can't change to the original so it will double your number of Photo's, and you will loose track if you search for that specific Photo, unless you add it to an album, or already on import give it keywords and/or description (I did'n ckeck if they will be kept after editing in Luminar and sending to Photo's
So for me if only Skylim would make this one adjustment (as I mentioned earlier) it would be ideal.
Thanks though for thinking with me -;) (is that correct English ?)
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You might mean - thank you for thinking OF me. But your English is excellent.
On the image I just sent in that way - the file name of the image stayed the same, it started as DSC233.tiff and was the same when it arrived in Photos. Also the date the photo was originally created remained the same. I then tried to Open In again on the same image. I was told it was a duplicate and offered an option to either import or not. -
By the way I just discoverd that when opening a RAW-file from Photo’s with Extenal Editors in Luminar, and sent it as tiff to Luminar I wasn’t able to export from Luminar to what ever destination I choose. I saw the export window made, my choice on format and quality, hit export. The export activity then just flashed for a second and nothing happend. Choosing another way (not using Extenal Editors) worked fine.
I will need to dig in what happens if I set Extrnal Editors to export as RAW or Jpeg.
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I've just installed Luminar 3 and it's asking for the location of my photos.
I use MacOS Photos as my library and do NOT want to complicate matters.I bought Luminar specifically because it works as a plug-in.
I cannot see any reason to use Luminar's library features, either now or in the future*.
Should I tell Luminar 3 to use the default (empty) Pictures folder, or my MacOS Photos folder?
*Feel free to suggest reasons why I might want to!
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It’s best to point it to your “empty” pictures folder. (Perhaps you can even ignore it ?)
You even cannot point it to your Photo’s library folder, unless you use a trick to point it to your masters-folder within the Photo’s library. But by doing so you need to be aware that whatever changes you make from Luminar to your “masters” won’t be updated to the Photo’s library.
Deletes from Luminar might even delete the photo’s from your Photo’s library. Definetly not a route you want to go I guess. Also it’s unknownhow how future Photo's updates will effect the hiearchie of the Photo’s database. It’s a general recommandation not to mess up via Finder with your Photo’s library, which is exactly what Lumnar might be doing if you let it interfere directly with the Photo’s database.
My advice is in your case to just use the extension functionallity. It’s save and when that was te reason for bying/using Luminar you’r good.
At this point of time there is no reason to use Luminar as your Library, it has less functionality and will complicate things.
my 2 cents
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@ Collin,
Tried the round-tripping with Photo's as you described earlier. Opened a RAW--file from Photo's 4.0 using the "edit with"option. This opened as a jpeg in Luminar, with the same file-number, made some edits and used "open in Photo's". Miracle happened, it was indeed sent back as a tiff with the same file-number, and Photo's used apparently the exif date of the photo. This was different from Photo's 3, where only the imported date was used to position the photo in the Library-overview of year-date etc.
So now with Photo's 4 it shows up just next to the original RAW as a tiff with the same file-number (Only the GPS-data is lost)
Great finding and pointing that out to me.
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Yes I understand, and already noticed what you are mentioning. It even gets more Interesting : when you open with the Photo extension to Luminar, the RAW stays a RAW and the tiff stays a tiff. When applying the adjustments using the extension it is saved back as a jpeg. Photo's will stil tell you it is a RAW (which makes sense), but when you re-open it in Luminar via the extension again it shows up as a jpeg in Luminar
However I am starting to better understand the possibilities of round-tripping and what workflow is best to use, depending on my needs for a specific Photo.
Given some other problems with Luminar (the "in camera-crop" of my RAW-photo's is not taken into account by Luminar, while other RAW-editors do) I think I will seldom use it.
For the moment I am disappointed and had hoped for better functionality.
Well this was an interesting journey. Learned again a lot of the world of digital photography sofytware:-)
Cheers
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Certainly on-side there, Ben. An interesting discussion indeed. I am back using DxO PhotoLab2 as my main editor. It hands off to everything pretty well, even Photos. Not really sure how much more time can be spent waiting for the never arriving Luminar and DAM. I just want to take and process my photos :-)
Happy New Year.
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