xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Thx for being clear you are not interested in cataloging. I am a photo enthusiast and not a pro. I do like Luminar 2018 and am sure I will switch over fully to it once the DAM is added. It is fast, extremely simple, intuitive, ahs great learning support and is fun to use. I have fought with PS/LR combo and On1 over the years and to be truthful, I really do not require the type of editing these "professional" packages offer. It is a steep learning curve, at least for me. Luminar on the other hand is providing me with excellent results that are so easy to attain and still maintain full control if required. For me, the price of Luminar 2018 is worth considering vs. a cloud-based rental program such as PS/LR. In the end, I love it because it is inexpensive, fast, and actually fun to use. On1 is great for immediate raw conversion, etc. Their settings seem to get it right in the first instance. It is a pro package that does not offer some of the things I use daily, however. I still have it on my desktop, bit with Luminar 2018, I rarely use it. I am sorry I have not tried Affinity yet. Having said all this, all of these programs are great! Choosing one for me has mee measuring how much do I really want to be editing? Not a lot, so a speedy and simple to use program that can duke it out with the some of the pro software is good for me. Hope this helps.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

I have all 3 of the programs and I like all of them. I run Windows so Luminar isn't quite caught up to the MAC version yet but I do really like it. If you are wanting something as a replacement for Photoshop, you may find that "Affinity Photo" or "ON1 Photo RAW 2018" is closer to Photoshop and if you want cataloging, right now, "ON1 Photo RAW 2018" would be the way to go. I believe that "Luminar" is going to have the cataloging added in a January update. All three do a great job so you can't really go wrong with any of them and there are lots of video tutorials available for all them too.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

My two cents.. I use both On1 Raw 2018 and Luminar 2018. Each has its strengths and weaknesses so it really depends on what you are looking for. I tried Affinity but found it to be difficult to use only because it was so different from Aperture then Lightroom which replaced it for me. I do need a DAM so On1 Raw 2018 is quickly becoming my go to for that function. Then I use others as plugins as necessary. So in no particular order here are my thoughts on each:

1. On1 Raw 2018 -

Pros - overall - fastest app I use. A more expensive than Luminar. Has all the modules. Creates sidecars for the edits so is very good on not creating monster 1/2 GB images like Lightroom and Luminar can do. Very few bugs in latest release on Mac. 1. Easy to use DAM that doesn’t lose location like LightRoom always did for me. Put all your images in a folder and point On1 Raw 2018 at that folder. Create version, work on it and it is stored in that folder. That easy. 2. Some of the best masking tools I've seen especially the perfect brush. Look at some of their videos to see that in action. 3. Develop - very good Raw processor with all the normal bells and whistles. Also had built-in HDR and Pano which work quite well for me (thought Lightroom is a bit better at this point). 4. Effects - very good set of style filters - some of which are excellent like dynamic contrast. Also can do both overall and local adjustments very well. 5. Layers - easy to use and understand layering function. 6. Resize - something others don’t do as well. Great module for changing the size of images easily. Printing is probably 4 out of 5 (Lightroom better in my opinion). Lastly great support and videos.

Cons - expensive, doesn’t have some of the artistic filters others have for what I would call special effects (this is where Luminar and Nik shines).

2. Luminar 2018 - overall - inexpensive unless you need to do HDR which causes you to purchase their other product. Slower than On1 Raw 2018. Not quite as refined as On1 Raw 2018 but is easy to learn for about 75% of it. It has great creative filters - some not available in others like the Artificial Intelligence filter, Sunray, top-bottom, etc. Had more filters than any other app I know. Fun to play with BUT This actually could be the one downfall I see and it is user based. I find Luminar is too easy to create over the top images. You might want to go on Facebook and join both of their photo groups. Then look at the images being shown. I for one am getting tired of seeing over grunged old cars, cathedrals and sun rays out of every orifice (you will see what I mean if you look).

Cons - no DAM, no pano, no HDR - still a bit buggy - can create huge files if you save the work in their proprietary code (you can turn this off and only save the history file (which by the way is pretty cool. If you open an image you have worked on before the entire history step by step is available and since this is nondestructive you can go back in time.) and probably the worst con is their support which is a nightmare as they fostered beta releases out on the owners and releases. On their Facebook page they finally had to separate their photo page from their support page because of the negative comments. They are having massive problems with getting the PC version up to snuff which is kinda of affecting their Mac version because of lack of resources especially in support. On their support page they were deleting comments then denying them. Bottom line - it has been my experience of over 35+ years selling software that this is a sign of serious internal issues at the company. It would not surprise me to see them acquired for their technology or just fade away. I will say On1 Raw 2018 had some of those issues as well especially in transitioning from 2017 to 2018 but they finally got it right. Their president even formally apologized, gave us a way to contact him which I did. They did everything they could to appease their users then delivered with 2018.

So if I was in your shoes I would think about what I want a pp program to do based on my photography - I.e. do I shoot sports, landscapes, close-ups, portraits, etc. Then how much time to do you have to learn a new program(s)? Then what are you going to do with it? Print or just electronic. All of those should help you decide what you want. And remember software has a tendency to have companies leapfrog with releases. What is best right now , might not be in the next release. I actually loved Aperature but was forced to move from it when Apple put in the fireplace, I loved Nik, then Google bought them and stopped development (still love their - u point tech), I went to Lightroom but then they decided to stop selling perpetual licenses and I wont pay $120 year for just the use of Lightroom as I find PhotoShop way too hard to learn and use) and that lead me to look at On1 Raw 2018, luminar and others to replace it. In my opinion for me who shoots mainly landscapes and some sports it is the best option for me now.

Bill_de Loc: US

Q: Will my Nik Collection plugin to ON1 Photo 2017 (Photo RAW)? How do I launch the Nik plugins?

A: You will be able to send an image from the Browse module of ON1 Photo 2017 (Photo RAW) to any photo editing application on your machine (including the Nik Collection). To do this, simply right-click on an image in Browse and choose "Send to other Application". This feature functions the same way as the Photo 10.5.

Smudgey Loc: Ohio, Calif, Now Arizona

You should also consider Topaz as well.

AndyGarcia

What a great reply. Brilliant. I have ON1, Luminar & Alien Skin. Very helpful.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

I switch from Photoshop to Affinity Photo. Highly recommended.

steve36

I've "trial-ed" ON-1 twice (latest the new 2018 version) and it has a number of terrific features, including the filing system which essentially just locates your files wherever they may be, but lets you add key words and stars and other info to organize them in different categories (I had found LR's cataloging frustrating). It lets you preview and compare images, shows them in thumbnails for easy navigation. The adjustment brush (and especially the "perfect" brush) and gradient "bug" are really efficient selection and masking tools. Several useful "effects" including "dynamic contrast." These are features which I really miss in Affinity. But there are shortcomings too which moved me to reject ON-1 at this time. The clone stamp is sticky slow and clunky and doesn't do the job very well. The app seems still unstable: there were lengthy sequences of "tiling" between views or images, a given adjustment seemed to need a few seconds to take effect, making it difficult to find the right level. Thumbnails refused to scroll. At least once the whole program got stuck. And output on the desktop, in enough cases, didn't actually match what I saw inside the app.
Affinity, which I decided to stick with, has got its own frustrations: no preview (I've been importing and culling in iPhoto!) or navigation system, and extremely slow to load; one is probably better off processing one image at a time. Adjustment sliders in RAW processor not conveniently laid out. Cropping is somewhat inconvenient and apparently not "non-destructive." But in "Development" module adjustment layers are easy to apply; masking and selection (while not as intuitive as ON-1) are pretty easy. Bottom line for me (I'm really only scratching the surface with both apps) is that I've got better far results with Affinity. I'm hoping ON-1 improves.
Along the way I downloaded "Snapheal" from Macphun and have not been impressed with its ability to remove objects, so have not been tempted to try Luminar; but from the comments above it sounds worth a try.

wicook Loc: Alberta, Canada

The new Photos app in High Sierra looks like a reasonably good DAM with a fair number of editing tools built in. I have both Affinity and Luminar 2018 and both of them link into Photos as external editors and Affinity will also operate as a variety of plug-ins.

HeyYou Loc: SE Michigan

referring to which of the 3 ?

Stevea57

I have Affinty and am just learning to use it. I purchased the book which has been helpful. I like the fact that all future updates are free and included for the original cost of $49.00.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

I have On1, Luminar, PS, and Aperture. I like the Apple product because it is so intuitive and easy to use. My go-to is Luminar 2018 in conjunction with Aperture. Luminar is fast, easy and a joy to use. No more hours in post. It frees me up to take photos and has re-ignited my interest post flow. Not certain if I will use the Luminar DAM when it comes, but if it as easy and quick as the rest of Luminar 2018, I likely will. Highly recommended!

One caveat, I am currently using the latest iMac with 4g i7 and 64 GB of Ram which propels me through multi-tasking and post in a NY minute.