Lightroom v Luminar: I'm not a fan of subscriptions and was interested in some comments about Luminar. I'm not an Adobe hater or have any angst about them. I have seen and heard...

fitzfirst

I'm not a fan of subscriptions and was interested in some comments about Luminar. I'm not an Adobe hater or have any angst about them. I have seen and heard terrific things about Lightroom. I just don't want to do a subscription. Any thoughts? I'm sure there are plenty.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Google Lightroom competitive software and rankings. Download one at a time from the ranking results, they'll have a week or so trial period, and see what you think before the trial period ends and you move onto the next trial period and product.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Lightroom is excellent software. It's the industry leader for a reason.
Luminar sucks by comparison. It is poorly designed software.
If you want to avoid the Adobe subscription and are looking for an LR alternative consider Capture One or On1.

Joe

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

fitzfirst wrote:

I'm not a fan of subscriptions and was interested in some comments about Luminar. I'm not an Adobe hater or have any angst about them. I have seen and heard terrific things about Lightroom. I just don't want to do a subscription. Any thoughts? I'm sure there are plenty.

Lightroom is pro level software, Luminar is not. Luminar may be a lot easier to use than Lightroom with a shorter learning curve and lots of automatic and semiautomatic features. It can be a lot of fun to use, but its not my cup of tea. I want my raw processor to do more. To be fare, I'm no longer a Lightroom user either, but that is only because I found something I prefer using two years ago. I won't mention what it is because I don't want to hijack this thread.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

fitzfirst wrote:

I'm not a fan of subscriptions and was interested in some comments about Luminar. I'm not an Adobe hater or have any angst about them. I have seen and heard terrific things about Lightroom. I just don't want to do a subscription. Any thoughts? I'm sure there are plenty.

Get over it and do the subscription. If you don't like paying monthly then pay annually. Make believe it is like On1, Capture One, DXO Photoplan, Photoshop Elements - every year they come out with a new upgrade and you pay them once a year to stay current. The payment method should not dictate your choice of software. Adobe provides the best maintained software products on the planet. Luminar does not.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Ysarex wrote:

Lightroom is excellent software. It's the industry leader for a reason.
Luminar sucks by comparison. It is poorly designed software.
If you want to avoid the Adobe subscription and are looking for an LR alternative consider Capture One or On1.

Joe

"One man's trash is another man's treasure." LR is great, even the older LR3 that I bought years ago and don't have to keep paying for. On the other hand, I am finding Luminar4 to be very useful, easy to learn, and often as much software as I need.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I've been using Photoshop since CS3, and if I could only choose one piece of software that's what I would pick. But everyone has different needs and preferences. Luminar is a fine program, easy to learn, and you can get excellent results with it. Photoshop Elements is also good, and starts you out in the Adobe universe which is helpful if you ever decide to subscribe to full-fledged Photoshop.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

My main programs are LR/PS. I use Luminar for special effects

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

I have several different sizes and shape of screwdriver in my tool box. I use them for different situations. Same is true for software.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

I enjoy ON1 and have received several free updates over the past 2 years.

sthornton9

lwerthe1mer wrote:

I enjoy ON1 and have received several free updates over the past 2 years.

Luminar 4.2 for Windows has some graphics problems, which they have not fixed. Time will tell if they are going to be a player or not.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

CHG_CANON wrote:

Google Lightroom competitive software and rankings. Download one at a time from the ranking results, they'll have a week or so trial period, and see what you think before the trial period ends and you move onto the next trial period and product.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

sthornton9 wrote:

Luminar 4.2 for Windows has some graphics problems, which they have not fixed. Time will tell if they are going to be a player or not.

So what should I/we be on the lookout for re: Luminar 4.2?

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi fitzfirst,
I used the subscription software for a number of years and loved it (them). During that time, I found I used LR much more than PS. After retiring from my job as a magazine editor, I decided to cut a couple of hundred dollars of "subscription stuff" out of my monthly expenses; Adobe CC was one of those. Today I'm using Bridge 2020 (free from Adobe) and PSE 15 supplemented with a program called Elements + ($12.00 one time charge). Yes, I had to change my workflow because Bridge does not have the same capabilities as LR but I find I'm still able to do my work with ease AFTER learning to do in PSE (with E+) what I used to do in LR & PS. Is my software combination as good as PS CC? No, it's not but I've found I can do everything I was used to doing, I just had to learn the new workflow. AND I'm now saving toward my next goal, a D850. Take care & ...

dbaird2495

I left LR a couple years ago and went to ON1 Photo Raw. Does everything I need in one piece of software. Before I was using LR, PS, Topaz and NIK. What a pain that was.