wds0410 Loc: Nunya

For me, LR is overly complex and on its own without Photoshop not as powerful as Luminar. LR coupled with Photoshop is much more powerful than Luminar but complexity increases exponentially to the point of rivaling a space shuttle launch.

Clearly, all the A level photographers that I follow on YouTube or Instagram use the LR/PS solution.

As an amateur enthusiast, Luminar is all I need. It is easy to learn and as some pretty good features such as layering, color management, sharpening, denoise, dehaze, and a bunch of others as well.

I should mention I'm on Luminar 3 on a MacBook Pro and I agree, subscriptions suck for the most part.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Luminar 4.2 is a parametric editor (LR) as opposed to a raster editor like Photoshop or Affinity. A parametric editor functions by saving an instruction list of what to do (typically a text file) while a raster editor allows you to actually push pixels around. This difference becomes most obvious when you want to do cloning/healing work on an image. The raster editor does a more precise job because of it's pixel level access whereas the parametric editor struggles and often can't do as well.

An advantage of the parametric editor in a raw workflow is that your work, stored as a list of instructions, can be easily changed so that you can work non-destructively and with the ability to surgically alter anything you've done. LR fully supports that goal. Luminar should likewise but doesn't.

For example you decide to make a local change to an image by placing a gradient mask on the image and using that gradient to alter tone or color. You should retain the ability throughout your editing session and if you revisit that edit to be able to tweak the position of that gradient mask. Easily done in LR, Capture One, On1, DarkTable, DXO PL, ACDSee, SilkyPix and more but not in Luminar. Create a gradient mask in Luminar and it's frozen in place. Go back to tweak it's position and you can't. You have to delete it and start over. That sucks.

For example use the cloning/healing function to remove a few stray tree branches from the sky. Luminar can do that but it then freezes that operation so that you can't go back in your edit before that point and make an adjustment and expect that adjustment to update the clone/healing job like it would in LR, Capture One, (see list above). That really sucks because if you make that adjustment that won't update the clone/healing job you have to delete the clone/healing job and do it over again. I can't think of another parametric editor so poorly designed.

Joe

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

I would give this a big I don't care, I can live with that limitation versus the overly complex and the forever subscription cost.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

I've often wondered why people have an aversion to subscription services with regards to their photography. It's part of everyday life. The newspaper, magazines, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, annual fees on credit cards, the internet you use to read UHH, even your monthly cell phone service. It's all about value for that service.

To me, since I am an amateur, I see it as entertainment. It's part of the cost of my hobby. $10 is much cheaper than going to the movies once a month, or a ticket to a ballgame.

sthornton9

Skylum does a good job on Mac programming, but falls a like short on Windows. Check their community comments and you will see some of the issues.

TucsonDave Loc: Tucson, Arizona

You might consider Affinity Photo. One time charge (less than $50), free updates, great support, tons of video tutorials, and a capability similar to Photoshop.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

The OP framed the post as LR versus Luminar. But there are other choices. You can avoid the Adobe subscription as well as Luminar's poor design by selecting from basically any other parametric editor of which I listed 1/2 a dozen.

Joe

tomad Loc: North Carolina

I can't imagine what Lightroom can do that Luminar can't, in fact I suspect Luminar can do almost everything covered by both Lightroom and Photoshop. Luminar has more adjustment sliders than any program I've seen including a huge batch of creative and intelligent ones. It does layers and masks easily and can do it globally or for each slider individually. It has cutting edge AI functions and lots of free presets. I own On1, Capture One, Affinity, and most of the Topaz suite among several other lesser know software suites and I find that Luminar is the easiest to use and the most powerful of the bunch.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

I listed two items just above: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-637929-2.html#11060517

Joe

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Affinity Photo is an excellent raster editor at a great price. But in a raw workflow it's forced destructive and lacks basic raw processing functionality like highlight recovery or an HSL adjustment.

Joe

TucsonDave Loc: Tucson, Arizona

True. I just make some basic adjustments in the Develop (raw) personal and than in the Photo Persona make all the non-destructive adjustments, using layers etc. I am not a professional so this approach works well for me. Just an option. However, your information in response to the OP was very informative. That should help him.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Fact. Lightroom/Photoshop are the industry standard. Luminar is fun and I play with it. I also like On1, Affinity, Capture One, and Topaz. When I really need an image to be stellar, I go to Adobe.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Thanks, Joe, for the excellent explanation.

AnthonyBiss Loc: Toronto, Ontario

Well I have them all. I end-up using COREL x-8 and 202 all the time. I am not selling my images or perform pro work.
Dr.Al

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

Until 2 years ago, I used LR5.7 and PSE 11. Despite camera specific issues (then converted to DNG and continued), both did what I wanted. Then.... I purchased ON1 Photo Raw 2018 and found it buggy and resource intensive. Until version 2018.5, I can't tell you how many crashes I had. That continued with 2019, which I also purchased, where upon I upgraded my graphics board to one with substantially more memory, 2gb to 8gb, and saw a definite improvement. And... quite honestly, I still think at times it's a little rusty around the edge, but give them credit, ON1 tech support seems responsive. Now, I'm running ON1 PR 2020.1 but still find myself going back occasionally to LR and PSE 2019 when I want to stay in my comfort zone and not spend time learning. One of the major weakness, IMHO, of ON1 is poor lens and camera support. They rely on a third party to feed them profiles and you'd be surprised what's missing. But... as others have said, give it a try. One last thing, if you upgrade every year to stay up to date, ON1 will run you $80 a year and if you join their Plus program for other goodies, that's another $40-$50 depending on your patience level. So... total of $120-$130, but you obviously don't have to upgrade or be a Plus member every year to use it.