The Photographer's Guide to Luminar 4. Jeff Carlson

some backwater alternate to Adobe’s tools. It’s a comprehensive image editor and library manager, but it also has ambition. Skylum saw a future where it could deliver the tools and quality that photographers of all stripes demand—on the company’s own terms.

      I’ve worked with people from both Adobe and Skylum, and they’re all focused on making great tools for photographers, resolving the pain points that disrupt workflows, and doing what they can to help you enjoy your images.

      There are a few essential ingredients wrapped up in that statement. Skylum has invested heavily in building AI (artificial intelligence) tools that understand the content of a photo to best apply edits to specific areas. The application also includes the Luminar Libraries feature, a long–wished-for component that adds library management to the application. I can’t stress enough how convenient it is to have editing and organizing under the same roof. You end up spending more time and focus on enjoying and working with your images, instead of managing files on disk and between applications. If you already use something like Lightroom or Apple Photos to organize your photo collection, Luminar also works as a full-featured plug-in that lets you make round-trip edits without disrupting your current organization scheme.

      Whether you’re here as a result of Adobe’s subscription model, or you were drawn to Luminar’s many photographer-focused features, this book will help you coax (or sometimes prod) the best versions of your photos to appear.

       How to Read This Book

      Editing photos is rarely a linear process. Some images demand tonal corrections before you can think about adjusting color, while others need the opposite approach. Adding a vignette could prompt you to boost saturation a bit or bring up the shadows to compensate for the darker edges of the frame. There’s not a single editing path to follow.

      Luminar’s many tools and controls are also non-linear. That’s a creative advantage! However, it also leads to situations where features overlap, an especially annoying trait when someone like me is putting it all in a linear medium such as a book.

      Don’t be surprised to find yourself skipping around between sections, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, in Chapter 5 I cover Luminar’s many editing controls. As you work, however, you may want to edit on adjustment layers, which are covered in Chapter 8, and apply masks, which are covered in Chapter 9. In fact, you may prefer to start with Chapters 8 and 9, and then refer back to Chapter 5 to learn how to use specific tools. (If you’re thinking you’ve stepped into a time-bending Christopher Nolan movie, stick with me here.)

      I do retain some linearity in terms of complexity. To wit:

       •In Chapter 1, I share what I think are the most important controls and features that demand your attention right away.

       •Chapter 2 details the variety of ways to get photos into Luminar, from importing them directly to using Luminar as a plug-in for other applications such as Lightroom Classic or Apple Photos.

       •Chapters 3 and 4 walk you through editing a landscape and two portrait photos to give you an overview of a typical Luminar workflow. If you’d like to download the images and follow along in Luminar, go to https://rockynook.com/luminar/walkthrough/.

       •Chapters 5 and 6 build a foundation to understand how the editing and canvas tools work.

       •Chapter 7 jumps into applying the presets that the software calls Luminar Looks. Technically, Looks are much easier to understand than individual tools, but knowing how a Look manipulates the tools’ controls gives you more power over adjusting those settings.

       •After all that, you’ll be in a better position to understand the sometimes unique ways Luminar uses layers in Chapter 8.

       •And then, in Chapter 9, I cover masks, blend modes, and other advanced editing topics.

       •Chapter 10 is devoted to the Luminar Library, detailing how to organize photos, create albums, and work with files on disk.

       •Chapter 11 is probably the most logically placed section, because when you’re done editing, it’s natural that you’d want to learn how to share your awesome creations.

      So, what I’m saying is that you don’t need—and I’m not expecting you—to read the book front-to-back, but there is some progression to be found as you encounter the topics. Besides, I fully expect you to read a little, edit some photos in Luminar, refer back to the book for details, and edit some more. The whole point of this book, and Luminar in general, is to help you develop your images into the photos you want them to be.

       1 The Luminar Studio

      In a lot of books, this is the chapter you’re likely to skim over, or outright skip, so you can jump right to editing. I’m not judging! I’ve done the same thing. Touring an application’s interface sometimes feels like getting stuck behind a slow driver on an expressway.

      That said, think of Luminar as a photo studio (or your photo bag when you’re in the field): when you know where everything is, you can easily grab the lens or filter you need and get the shot you want. If you’re fumbling around trying to locate the right piece of equipment, you can get frustrated and lose focus on the image you’re capturing or editing.

      As you’ll soon discover, Luminar has a lot of working parts, such as the Library, which organizes your photo collection, and tools for making edits. Many of those parts aren’t visible at times.

      Instead, let’s take a slightly different approach. I’m going to point out the essential tools and areas that will soon become second nature to you, in what I believe to be their order of importance.

      If you’ve used Lightroom, Photoshop, or most other image-editing applications in the past, you should feel immediately comfortable with Luminar. When viewing or editing, the image is nice and large in the frame, with editing tools in a sidebar to the right, and a toolbar up top. The Looks panel runs along the bottom, offering pre-made, one-click looks.

       The Sidebar

      “Sidebar” seems like a bland moniker for the portion of Luminar that will get most of your focus, but I appreciate that Skylum didn’t try to jazz it up for crazy marketing reasons. In addition to the Library panel, the sidebar includes the Edit panel, with all the tools for adjusting a photo, the Layers controls, and the all-important Histogram (Figure 1-1). The sidebar also includes the Info View.