royden Loc: Decatur, GA

I read many posts from folks here who like these programs. Are you still loving them? I want to get one or the other. I've been watching YouTube videos too. Still undecided. Your comments are appreciated.
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gtwhogger Loc: Lawton

I’m Still using Affinity, and am pleased with it.

HOT Texas Loc: From the Heart of Texas

I'm using Luminar and Topaz Studio, between the two I can do just about anything. I did not like Affinity, Seamed like the old way of doing things like Corel PSP.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

I've been using Affinity on a Windows PC for about 3 months and really love it. I have been amazed at the things it can do. There are also dozens of training videos accessible from the Affinity web site. Affinity has exceeded my expectations.

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

I have just purchased Luminar 2018, so far I am pleased with it, but to
early to offer you anything constructive at this point.
I will say they offer good support and their training videos very helpful.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have Affinity, and it seems to work well, but I haven't really gotten into it. Reviewers seem to like it.

cmcaroffino Loc: Sebring, FL

I have both Affinity and Luminar 18. I find it easier to work with Luminar. Received an update yesterday that resolved some issues I was having. Affinity is a good program with lots of tutorials but I don't use it much.

fotobyferg

Lots of grumbling on the Skylum Facebook support page regarding Luminar for Windows...Mac users not so much.
So far, I like the Mac version but I am not into seriously editing pictures.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

I have been using Affinity for the past year. The only drawback is the lack of something like Bridge to help me cull my work. Otherwise I love Affinity. Someone suggested ON1 Raw. I just downloaded it and it does have that capability, but I haven't had a chance to see how well it works. However, I will. I will be very happy if it plays well with Affinity. After more than 20 years of Photoshop, I was glad to find Affinity Photo. Much less awkward, better programming, some of the tools work much better (I'm always amazed when I have an old Mexican church facade with a bunch of electric wires marring the image. The in-painting brush just makes them disappear with no artifacts. Much better than the similar tools in PS)

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

I purchased Luminar 2018 for windows over Affinity. I liked the work flow better. Also, I am betting that their up grades scheduled for December and January will add in the features that their Mac version has. Still learning how all of the filters works, and which ones are for me.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Got to admit inpainting is usually the reason behind me using affinity photo, what really rocks for me is affinity designer, i love doing page layouts with it. The simple use of placing a photo within a rectangle and being able to control the scale and positioning to bring out the best in the image. I usually keep a fairly high dpi in the image so you can see the overall image and also zoom in to see the detail without getting pixelated.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I bought Luminar and I am still in the process of learning to use it. It is slow to open and very slow if working with a RAW file. I just sent them an email suggesting that more speed is needed.
It has many useful filters. I am not that impressed with the different Presets many of which appear to have the same effect to me. Layers are useful along with masking. Their Lens corrections appear to be pretty good along with the Transform feature. The Polarizer filter does a pretty good job and they have a feature called Top and Bottom lighting that really works. Please, keep in mind it is too early for me to make any useful comments since I am not yet familiar with Luminar.
If you buy the program you have till December 15 to keep it or get a full refund. They just updated the software but I know that they still need to work a little bit more with it and making it faster is one of the issues that needs their attention.
The price is very reasonable.

saintsrest44

Purchased Luminar 2018 last week and also received the update yesterday. I bought it because I was having so much difficulty with LR and PS learning curve. After only a week I can say that I'm quite happy with the switch. Still a lot to learn, but it seems more intuitive to me that LR. I don't have any experience with Affinity so I can't speak to the difference, but right now I'n definitely enamored with Luminar.

jsktb Loc: Westerly, Rhode Island

I had PS12 for a long time and never really got comfortable with it. After looking at other programs I installed Topaz Glow and Remask and they work fine for their specific purpose. When Luminar came out it looked good and I went for it. It meets all of my needs, is easy to learn and use. I just installed Luminar 2018 on my Mac and the first update came today. I uninstalled PS12 and never said goodbye.

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

Assuming you are a Windows user and not Mac, be mindful that the two versions of Luminar 2018 differ enough that comparing the two is recommended. Also, the majority of online videos are applicable by default applicable to Mac. Morganti has an excellent series but he admitted in a later series that his are on a Mac and he wasn’t aware of the differences. Macphun claims they will address “most” of peoples’ issues with the Windows version by mid January. I would recommend waiting until then. Most, including me because I bought at its introduction, believe Luminar 2018 shouldn’t have released in its present state. To name a couple issues, you can only export an image as not native. So, if you load a raw or even a jpeg, edit the image, then export it, the actual edit history is lost. So, if then you load either the original image or the export, it’s treated by the program as a new file. All edit history is lost when you exit the program or load a new image for editing (can only have one image loaded). Also, the program is a memory hog. I loaded a 25gig raw image; I then checked memory usage and saw that 1.5gig of resources was consumed. I exported an edited file as a jpeg, and usage jumped to almost 3gig, closed the image and usage remained at 3gig until I exited Luminar. There are more issues that I haven’t touched on. That said, it is easy to use and produces nice results. I and others simply don’t think it’s ready for prime time. But, it’s cheap and may be worth the risk. Only you can answer that. Macphun is aware of the problems, tho and appear to be committed to addressing them.