truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

I'm at the next step in this learning curve called photography. Software. Since I own a iMac I've chosen Macphun software over Adobe. Trouble is I was set to buy Luminar when I see they have a new product called Aurora. My question for the group is, as someone who is in this for fun and personal enjoyment would Luminar be the logical choice?

A little background. I have a Nikon D3300 and I'm happy with it. I'll never be a professional and really have no interest in becoming one. I've been shooting in JPG and want to start RAW, hence the software. I have the exact opposite of a photographic mind. Unless I do something weekly, I tend to forget how to do it, and while I don't have to start from scratch when I go back to doing something I haven't done in awhile, it does take me awhile to "get it all back."

I'm leaning towards Luminar but I also value the opinions of the Hogs. You have helped in the past and I look forward to seeing your input on this subject.

fourg1b2006 Loc: Long Island New York

As i can't help with advise on the software your looking for, i can relate on not remembering how i did certain things in the past. It gets very frustrating as i'm sure you well know. I just do the best i can lol.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Isn't Aurora a companion product to Luminar? Basically a plugin/add on to deal with HDR adjustments, not basic editing?


FWIW - I looked at Luminar, tried it for a month as a trial, but never felt it did much better than Lightroom/Photoshop.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

You might consider On1 Photo Raw.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Actually Aurora HDR was released before Luminar. I have both, but do not use Aurora much, Luminar is what I use most.
Aurora HDR is mostly for HDR, I suggest you start with Luminar.

leftj Loc: Texas

Exactly right. I too have both but haven't used Aurora yet. At some point I may get more into HDR photography which is what Aurora is all about. I have not been a lightroom or photoshop user so Luminar has been great for me.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

EDIT: Yep, I just looked again at the Macphun site - Lumninar is an image editing tool, Aurora is an HDR tool, but not a plugin, it is a separate product, but geared to HDR blending of bracketed exposures.

Mark Bski Loc: A sleepy little island not far from Seattle

As stated above, Aurora was released over a year before Luminar. I purchased Aurora less than a month after it was released and Luminar a few weeks ago. Aurora specializes in HDR, ~ or photo-merging ~ for exposure. I was in an HDR stage (I took 3-5 images of a scene at different exposures) and have made some wonderful images with Aurora. The layers tool is excellent and allows the user to "develop" or "expose" different areas of a photo with different controls. It's great at lighting foregrounds and smoothing clouds or water. The main shortcoming with the software I've found is noise. It had a hard time depicting wth clouds and the sky without a lot of noise, kinda like a digital graininess. Also, I have seen people get carried away with HDR and make otherwise nice photos look like cartoons.

Luminar so far I have less experience with, I just got it a little over a week ago. The few photos I've developed with it so far have come out quite well, it seems to handle noise a lot better. I haven't gotten as in depth with it yet as I have Aurora.

Both have a lot of presets which can make workflow faster and easier, and the individuals presets can be tweaked with the controls. In Aurora I've made my own adjustments and saved them as custom presets.

Also, there are a lot of video tutorials available. I'm very happy with both systems and highly recommend them. They're more affordable than Lightroom, too.

Mark Bski Loc: A sleepy little island not far from Seattle

This image was a three image exposure merged and adjusted in Aurora.

(Download)

Mark Bski Loc: A sleepy little island not far from Seattle

Single exposure in Luminar using preset.

leftj Loc: Texas

Outstanding!

truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

Yes, you can say that about both pics Mark submitted. Thanks for the information.

Experience is the best teacher ... especially some one else's experience ...

truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

Thanks, Mac. I was leaning toward Luminar, but thought I'd check in here first.

truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

I thank all who answered, your knowledge is invaluable ... Luminar it will be.

photoMark Loc: South Texas

I have both and highly recommend them. Aurora is primarily used for HDR, but you can edit single exposures with it, too. I'll use Aurora for HDR then use Luminar to finish the image in a lot of cases. Both are very easy to use! MacPhun's customer support has been outstanding!