lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

I have used Lightroom for photo editing for a long while and am very familiar with it. Last year I downloaded the then current version of Luminar and loved the program. I decided to switch the great majority of my editing to Luminar and didn't regret the decision, until ...

When version 3.1 of Luminar was made available to owners of the program, I had great difficulty getting the program to work. Luminar doesn't allow users to speak with a person, and I have to date been unable to get the program running properly. Email instructions were well intended but just didn't work. I have spent considerable time on this project.

Today I decided to abandon Luminar, much to my regret. The support is inadequate. Should I just go back to Lightroom, try ON1 or maybe something else?

jpgto Loc: North East Tennessee

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

If you know LR, have used LR, and were happy with LR--what's the question?

fourg1b2006 Loc: Long Island New York

I have ON1 for quite awhile and never had a problem with their support group.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

Many on UHH don’t like Adobe’s business practices and don’t like “renting” software from Adobe. My reaction to this sentiment resulted in my shift to Luminar. I am currently comfortable with Lightroom but thinking about potential problems in the future. Perhaps I should worry about the future in the future.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

There is a mistaken notion that when you paid $600 for Photoshop in years past you somehow "owned" the software. This was never true - not for any software (including the OS on your computer or phone). What you paid for is the license that allows you to use that software (perhaps on a limited number of machines and perhaps with other caveats). Since nobody ever reads the EULA (and who can blame them, the software companies make them obfuscatory for a reason) few people know this.

The reason Adobe went to the subscription model has noting whatever to do with "ripping you off" or whatever nonsensical things I have seen written in these forums. It has entirely to do with them wanting to have a more consistent cash flow in order to plan etc. From the users' points of view, $10/month works out to about the same payout you would have if you once paid for PS and had to upgrade (due to many new features or a new OS on your computer or whatever) in 60 months - 5 years - so from that standpoint it's kind of a wash. Meanwhile, upgrades are put out far more frequently which is Adobe's way of keeping the customers happy.

This is not unique to Adobe - it is a trend in the software industry. Microsoft has done the same thing not only with Office but with Dynamics - the multi-million dollar ERP software for businesses (their competitor to SAP and Oracle).

Of course, what grinds some folks' gears is the notion that their cloud version of software has to "phone home" at least every 45 days or so to confirm that the payments are up to date, but LR Classic CC is no different than the original LR in terms of sitting and working on the local computer.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

I use ON1 on a regular basis and like it very much.

Just download and try it for 30 days, see by yourself if you like it too.

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

I also have had problems with the 3.1 version running on a Mac. It seems it doesn't want to play well with images on the iCloud.

I know your frustration. I was a big supporter of this software which I still like but this new version is not ready for prime time.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

I downloaded Luminar 3 (L3) when it was offered to me as a free upgrade to Luminar 2018. I have had lots of problems with L3 running on my PC. Personally, I don't like L3, and continue to use L2018 version. I have emailed Skylum about L3, and their responses, which take about a week to get back to me, are less than helpful.

Last week, I got an email from Skylum which said they haven't seen me in awhile, and were wondering what was wrong since I have not been using L3, or its last update, version 3.1. I emailed them back with my thoughts and observations about L3, and why I wasn't using it. To this point, I have not heard back from them.

I will continue to use L2018 version, and may at some point try L3 again or its updates to see if they have improved it at all. I still use Lightroom too.

sagfgrump

I've been using Luminar for a few months and have generally been impressed with the results, (I was using photo ninja before that) but I have had problems with luminar 3 - the erase tool went bonkers if you rotated an image ans then tried to erase something.

I contacted luminar support and they said it was a known bug and they'd get back to me. That was a couple of months ago and to date I've heard nothing, so I'm still using the old version, generally fairly happily - on an oldish pc with Windows 10. I've found it pretty easy to use and generally pretty good value for money.

I'm a semi novice using a nikon d7200 and I always shoot in RAW and then process.

morkie1891

Try Capture One 12 30 free trial. There is a learning curve but not so bad. Lots of video tutorials.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I’ve used ON1 Photo Raw since 2018 after transitioning from LR5.7. Issues that I had where I contacted ON1 tech support were addressed promptly, within a day or two. They also have a “wish list” area on their support site where users can suggest improvements/features they’d like to see. Some are actually incorporated into future revisions! A buyer can expect two or three free updates a year. Annual major updates are available at discount, usually about 30% off from full retail.

RichardE Loc: California

My luminary 3.1 is so slow loading on my 27" iMac that I hardiy use it. Takes forever to load the photo directory.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

Thanks to all for your comments on this thread. As I read the comments, it appears that the title is inappropriate. The support is not great, but they do respond promptly and appear to sincerely try to help. Maybe the problem is a software rather than a support problem.