Luminar vs Topaz?
I have had great customer support and tech support from Skylum. (Luminar)
Skylum has never advertised that it is a replacement for Lightroom / Photoshop.
For my work flow the combination including Topaz Denoise AI and Sharper AI
have made editing easier.
Many good replies about the software packages here - nothing more I want to suggest.
But, I do suggest you add something to your computer. Your 1 TB 'C" drive is probably an SSD (digital storage drive). There is a major weakness to SSDs - When your SSD is over 50% full, performance of your overall computer will suffer. So, #1, never let your SSD capacity exceed 50%. And #2, get an external hard drive like a Seagate 5 TB using a USB 3 connection. Keep all your photos and other data, documents, etc. on the external drive, not the SSD (Drive C).
@PCL92 Customer support is very easy when one needs help with understanding how to use a particular tool and the solution is already well understood so I am glad you had a decent experience for your issues. Like I said there are some good things you can do with Luminar. But when it comes to complex issues that would require a bug fix & timely support, the Skylum team doesn't provide the same level of support that one would expect say from a prime time software provider like Adobe. If you have an issue with an Adobe product, the developers respond very quickly with either a work around and/or a projected long term bug fix for an upcoming release. Skylum doesn't do release scheduling to fix things and that is evident by the myriad of unanswered issues. I have been involved in customer support and software development/releases for over 30 years and I can say that Skylum has the worst ratings for customer support that I have ever seen. I get it that they are a small company but that is still no excuse for bad performance in this area.
I am sorry you have had bad experiences with Skylum.
No I don't work for them but I have found that their marketing manager Vanelli he
has also helped me. I would suggest that you contact him directly, he has
given me solutions to some "bugs"
@PCL92 - Let's be clear, the many bad experiences that a lot of users have had, is undeniable and well documented. I'm also bringing to this forum my own personal experiences with software development so that others can benefit and not waste time with poorly developed code. I can baseline my experiences against complex business and customer friendly software solutions that I have personally managed. Luminar is simply not on par with other software from a support perspective and to make matters worse the Skylum team does not listen to or respond to customer feedback. A typical come back line from them is that the issue "will be referred to the appropriate person". Then nothing further happens. I also have contact with several of the Skylum team and I see them at PhotoPlus every year. I know the US product manager and I've spoken with the management team to no avail. Again, my guess is that the issues you have experienced were resolved for you because the solutions were really easy and more of a question of helping you understand how to use some particular functionality but you probably weren't experiencing a bug. Real problems, simply do not get addressed.
Thank you for your explanation of your issue. Perhaps you are correct and I didn't have a bug but rather not knowing the product and what it is able to do. I do find some functionality of Luminar useful, I do most processing in LR and Photoshop.
@PCL92 Yes, I totally agree with you. There is useful functionality in Luminar. Gun to my head, I recommend the pre-catalog versions though, like Luminar 3. While they will be totally unsupported now, you avoid all the catalog issues and you can still get the best of the "working" edit features. Like I've said many times before, totally unrealized potential simply because they don't know how to manage software development & delivery; and equally important they don't learn from prior experience or customer feedback. So disappointing, it is truly a shame & I honestly wanted the project to succeed.
Do you mind if I tell Vanelli about our conversation?
I did like Luminar 4 better because of the layers that they dropped in the AI version.
I still use 4 at times, the dodge and burn in AI does work well as do some of the newer
quick fixes for a photo.
@PCL92 I have no issue with you taking my comments back. Keep in mind you are speaking with someone who is trying to sell Luminar as much as anything else so I don't hold any hope that the technical issues that have been talked about ad-nauseum with the Skylum team will get any attention at this point.
I use masking (layers) a lot and that is also available in the earlier versions prior to Luminar 4. Actually, that was one of the functions that brought me to Luminar to begin with. Luminar 3 also has dodge/burn but it does not have some of the newer templates (looks) and certainly does not have the sky replacement function of AI. So if sky replacement is important to you and if you use "looks" (which I do not) for simplicity then AI probably is the version for you. I want my photos to have the look and feel of what I saw when I took them and I find that while the templates can increase speed in the work flow, I don't like some of the unnatural effects (like over saturation) that they may cause so I stay away from them and make my own tweaks.
I don't use Luminar sky's, I install my own. I also do my own tweaks and adjustments. I too liked the layers in #4.
AI dumped them and there is no explanation why. Vanelli says use your own, after awhile you get to know Luminar sky's and the photo looses something.
I guess when you are making big bucks you don't listen to the complaints to much.
Be safe , be happy, and hug someone today.
I don't use Luminar sky's, I install my own. I also do my own tweaks and adjustments. I too liked the layers in #4.
AI dumped them and there is no explanation why. Vanelli says use your own, after awhile you get to know Luminar sky's and the photo looses something.
I guess when you are making big bucks you don't listen to the complaints to much.
Be safe , be happy, and hug someone today.
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