saintsrest44

Lately I've been receiving ads for Luminar. Right now I only use iPhoto even though I have Lightroom and Photoshop (and do NOT understand how to use them - even after many attempts, tutorials and videos). I'm a rank amateur with over 50 years experience taking "pictures" with everything from the Pentax K1000, Canon A-1, and Nikon FA film cameras, various point and shoot digitals and finally graduating to the Nikon D90 and now the D7000 which I love. I know I'm missing out by not using adobe stuff, but they are just too much for this old Luddite. I really don't want to keep paying for something I don't seem to use enough to learn properly. I don't sell photos and only share with friends and subjects (usually of my granddaughter's softball teammates in action), but I'd like to up the quality of what I do without a "too steep" learning curve or a program that changes often or drastically.
If you have experience with Luminar, I'd really like to have your input concerning the quality, ease of use, and effectiveness of the program. It - or something similar perhaps - will be my last editing purchase, so I would be committed to learning how to use it. Any and all input would be welcome, but I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who actually use Luminar regularly.

saintsrest44

I see that topic is in today's list on the main photography section. Sorry for the duplication, but I'll leave this here anyway just to see what happens
and read replies on the other post as well.

HOT Texas Loc: From the Heart of Texas

I use it, it's easy too use, you can see some pictures Here

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-497253-1.html

and I told a little about it here

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-497085-1.html

saintsrest44

Thank you. The butterfly photos are certainly eye-catching. Hope - if I decide to buy Luminar -I will be able to produce images of the same quality!

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Macphun aka Skylum will be having a black friday sale starting on 11/21. I posted a link here..
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-497641-1.html

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Macphun aka Skylum will be having a black friday sale starting on 11/21. I posted a link here..

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-497641-1.html

CRoy

I use Luminar in addition to I Photo for post processing. I find Luminar to be a bit slow but I do like all the options available. I simply need to learn how to use it better. Paid a one time fee of $69.

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

I've been using Luminar regularly for about a year and find pretty easy to use. That being said, I did spend a fair amount of time watching YouTube videos on the topic (check Jim Nix and Serge Ramilli for example) to familiarize myself with its capabilities (I should preface this by saying I had zero experience with any post processing software at that point so I would have spent the same amount of time on any post processing software). I chose Luminar because it runs on MAC and it received good reviews and wasn't that expensive ($69 was what I think I spent), I also did not want anything to do with Adobe which I have found over time to produce very buggy software.

Luminar does everything I ask for, its fast, easy to use, easy to go back it you don't like the way an edit turned out. Overall, two thumbs up.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Luminar and Aurora are now available for both Mac & PC. It does have a few bugs but they are updating and fixing constantly. They are changing the name from Macphun to Skylum since the programs will be available on both.

HOT Texas Loc: From the Heart of Texas

Wonder when you will be able to resize on windows? Mac already has resize.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

I have been ematiling that the versions are a bit different. They tell me their goal is to have them be the same, they are working on it. It is very frustrating to watch a video, which tells you to push a button only to find out there is no button in the windows version.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

Thanks for the link to the Black Friday sale.

jcwall396 Loc: Roswell, GA

I've used the MacPhun products for a couple of years and am extremely impressed with what the new Aurora HDR 2018 and Luminar 2018 can do. I've all but abandoned Photoshop as Luminar is easier. There are many tutorials available, and you can step through them a few at a time as you're ready. Compared to Photoshop, it's very intuitive, and many different presets are available for free and purchase if you want to use them to start with. Excellent software and I've had no problems with either so far.

saintsrest44

Thanks so much for the link! Your posts on the "Luminar 2018" thread yesterday were also quite helpful. I've just about decided based on:
1. Having a MAC
2. Comments on the "Luminar 2018" thread
3. Positive comments on this thread; especially from wds0410 and jcwall396.

I will continue to look for responses here and on The "Luminar 2018" thread. A BIG shout out to the Uglyhedgehog community for your thoughtful responses, both positive and negative. It really does help!

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

Glad I could help. I should add I liked Luminar so much that I recently purchased their Aurora HDR software. It also has performed well.