Luminar 4 as both Plug-In and Standalone?

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B Czarnik

Considering an upgrade from Flex and Luminar 3 to Luminar 4, but have a question.

  1. Can you use Luminar 4 as both a Plug-In at times when you want to do so, and at other times, as a Standalone?
  2. Is it either one or the other for one installed instance of Luminar 4?
  3. Can you have two installed instances to use one as Plug-In and the other as Standalone?
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    Anna V

    Hi,

    1. Yes, you can.

    You will be able to use Luminar 4 as:

    • A photo editor. An easy to use tool for opening individual photographs and editing them to perfection.
    • A plugin and extension. The ability to add Luminar to your favorite Adobe and Apple applications.
    • A photo library. The ability to import, browse, rate, and view your entire photo library easily.

    2. You will have Luminar 4 installed once on your computer and you will be able to use it in different ways. 

    3. See point 2. 

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    Howard Lebowitz

    Anna,

    Has Skylum decided to enable Affinity Photo as a host for the Luminar 4 plug-in? Many of us have left the Adobe ecosystem and want subscription free software...

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    Helga Rowles

    Hi Howard, not at the moment, we'll post the list of host applications as we get closer to the release. 

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    David Salyer

    I'm a bit confused by the Luminar Flex product. I already use Luminar as a plug-in and have pre-ordered Luminar 4 upgrade. I see from this thread that the new product can also be used as a plug-in or standalone. Great. But why have the Flex product? Is that a "plug-in only" product? My fear when this product came out was that the standalone would deprecate the plug-in feature. So since I don't have to worry about that, I really have no reason to buy both products, right?

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    Kate Williams

    Hi David,

    Flex is a plug-in only product, that's more optimized for the plugin workflow that Luminar 3. 

    As compared with Luminar 3, Flex has numerous benefits for plugin users:

    • More host application support.
    • A cleaner user interface without the Info and Library tabs.
    • Performance optimized software that’s specifically made to run as a plugin or extension.
    • Multiple benefits for Photoshop users with improved support for Photoshop Smart Objects and Actions.

    Still, Luminar 3 functions as plugin too. If you're comfortable with your current workflow, then there's no need for you to purchase Flex. However, if you use Luminar mostly as a plugin and would like to work with Flex instead, we may simply switch your licenses (Luminar 3 > Luminar Flex). For that, simply drop us a message at https://skylum.com/support

    Also please note that Luminar 4 will incorporate the best features of both Luminar 3 and Luminar Flex and will be a universal solution. 

     

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    Michael Mansfield

    Kate,

    I'm happily using Flex, and have just pre-ordered Luminar 4. Could you tell me if Flex and Luminar 4 can run as separate programs on the same machine, or will Flex be over-written? Thanks.

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    Angela Andrieux

    Hi Michael,

    You'll be able to have Luminar 4 and Luminar Flex installed side-by-side. However, once you get used to Luminar 4 I doubt you'll be using Luminar Flex. :-) Once you're comfortable with the new version you can remove Luminar Flex from your system...or keep it. It's up to you.

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    David Salyer

    Thanks Angela & Kate. I don't have Luminar 3, I have 1.3 and have pre-ordered Luminar 4. I saw something somewhere that stated Luminar 3 would be deprecating plug-in capability for Photos.app and I panicked a little bit thinking that Luminar 4 would suffer the same fate. While I rarely use Luminar in standalone mode, I will still plan to upgrade to the full version when it comes out (hopefully soon) and know that Flex is something I won't be needing then.

    Dave S.

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    Angela Andrieux

    Hi David,

    We're very sorry for any confusion that caused! Luminar Flex was released for those who work exclusively with our software as a plugin and we added some special functionality to Flex that is not available in Luminar 3 to make the plugin workflow better.

    With Luminar 4, it will be a plugin and/or standalone and will have all of the functionality of Luminar Flex plus the new AI tools that we've been previewing.

    Rest assured we won't be abandoning our plugin users! I've been using the Luminar 4 beta as a Lightroom and Photoshop plugin and it works flawlessly. I think you'll like it!

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    Neal Henshaw

    Is there any way to install Luminar 4 as ONLY a plug-in? I do photo editing on a work computer, and they're very touchy about installing new software, but Photoshop is already approved, and I CAN add plug-ins without IT oversight. 

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    Margaret Bright

    Hi Neal,

    Unfortunately, there's no separate plugin version of Luminar 4. The latest plugin version of Luminar was Luminar Flex. The option to install Luminar 4 as a plug-in is presented when you run the installer. Therefore, you can install plugins at the time of the installation of the app and use it as a plugin only, but the app will also be installed as a standalone.

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