Review: Luminar 3

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Are you looking for a way to up the way you process your images into a work of art, do it in a short amount of time, use some of the most powerful & intuitive image processing tools on the market? If so this where Luminar 3 by Skylum comes in. Luminar 3 uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to process your images, you can control every aspect of the image including quickly removing unwanted objects from the picture.

Luminar 3 – Features

Luminar 3 (Opens Liminar 4 since Liminar 4 comes out in a few days, You can still find links to Liminar 3.) does it all. Its an All-in-One Editor that has everything a photographer needs to edit their images. Most tools use simple sliders to make adjustments. The App makes easy for user to edit their work and is the perfect editor for those new to editing or mobile users who are used to making quick edits via phone editor apps.

“All though this tool is designed to be easy to use and works great for new users its a full-featured powerful photo editor for Mac and PC. It comes with 300+ tools and features that includes, fast Raw Support, layers, custom brushes for selective editing, masking photo filters, Luminar and more. Plus Liminar 3 uses advanced controls and intelligent filters like Accent AI 2.0 that will figure that can  make  adjustments using one slider. It uses new “human-aware” technology that recognizes people and applies adjustments selectively for more realistic results.

Skylum designed Luminar with a scalable, adaptive user interface…  one that’s responsive and beautiful. In it, you’ll find a powerful set of tools which are easy to use.  We believe it can help all photographers from professionals to new photographers.

• New photographers and mobile shooters will appreciate a simple approach using one-click Luminar Looks and universal tools like cropping, noise reduction, and image healing.
• Casual photographers may start with those same Luminar Looks, but will soon “graduate” to using Luminar’s purpose-built workspaces that offer uniquely tailored tools which achieve great results quickly.
• For passionate enthusiasts and professionals, workspaces and the full gamut of editing tools such as brushes, layers, blending modes, texture overlays, an editing history menu and much more herald a new generation of advanced photo editing possibilities.”  – Information copied directly from the Luminar 3 guides.

Who is Skylum?   

“Skylum is one of the world’s leading developers of consumer and professional photography software, serving over 35 million customers worldwide. Using experience gained over more than 10 years of delivering mobile and desktop software, Luminar is truly a state-of-the-art tool for any photographer seeking to improve their photos.” – Skylum.com

Luminar 3 – The Review

I just finished up using the free 7 day trial of Luminar 3 (second time using the trial) and I will tell you there is a learning curve. If you are new to image editing then Luminar 3 is a great program to learn from. For me, coming from Lightroom/Photoshop, Topaz Labs, and DxO Nik I find it difficult to navigate and use the catalog, and figuring out what each module does and how I use apply them to my images.

Honestly 7 days isn’t enough to learn how well the program works for my needs. But so far I find the program useful and plan to use the program for some features that my other tools can’t do.  For me, I really like the post filter options. These filters add a dramatic feel to the images. Sure I can do that myself through Photoshop but the filters work great and cut down on the guess work for me. Luckily online guides and videos helped a lot.

Once I figured out how to access the editor and get to the professional tools I was able to edit RAW photos with ease. I could do everything as well and easier than using Photoshop for the basics editors. At this point I’m impressed with the tools. The Accent AI 2.0 works great and will clean up an image.

I also found that if the image has some noise in it or is slightly out of focus the filters can fix it. You just need to know what filters do what and when to apply them.

Using the Library

Like the Lightroom setup the library is easy. you setup quick edits and load up a single image or you load by the folder. Its a pretty easy system If you dump a bunch of random images into the catalog,  the library will sort those images by date. I’m still playing with the library, but so far I like it. I think its more attractive and easy to look through than Lightroom at times.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Overall I like Luminar 3. For me, I find the post processing filters to be my favorites and the library is easy enough to navigate and with the right setting you can scroll through all your pictures. This is a great option when I’m looking for a certain image and can’t remember when took the picture.

I still think 7 days isn’t enough time for the trial. But it gave me enough time to edit a hand full image and play with the filters. If you are wanting to get into image processing or looking for an alternative to Lightroom/Photoshop then Luminar 3 is your option. If you wait until November 18th, 2019 Luminar 4 will be released. They are offering a bundled package of both Luminar 3 and Luminar 4 plus extras if you pre order Luminar 4. Once you get your copy make sure to take a look at the tutorials and guides, they will get you familiar with the software.