The Photographer's Guide to Luminar 4. Jeff Carlson

in the Filmstrip side panel with the Edit panel active.

      Time to split a few hairs. Although I’m making it sound like the single-image approach is separate from the library, the photo actually does show up there. When you switch to the Library panel, you’ll see a new Single Image Edits entry under Shortcuts, and when editing one of the images, all of the single images appear in the Filmstrip (Figure 2-2). Luminar handles the image just like any other in the library, including letting you apply ratings and flags.

      FIGURE 2-2: Single image edits have their own shortcut (top) and appear in the Filmstrip (bottom).

      There are two key differences, though:

       •Luminar leaves the image file where it was originally located. The image file won’t appear in any of the source folders.

       •The original file isn’t affected when you make edits. Luminar holds onto that editing information since it takes up very little storage to record it in the catalog. At any point you can choose Image > Show in Finder/Explorer to reveal the file on disk.

      The benefit to this organization scheme is that if you want to return to editing a photo, you can easily find it in the All Photos, Recently Added, Recently Edited, and Single Image Edits shortcuts.

      When you’re finished editing the photo, use the Export or Share features to save a new version of the image.

      That also means, however, there’s no capability to export the original with its associated edits; many apps store that information in a separate sidecar text file. See Chapter 11 for more on sharing and exporting photos.

       Remove a Single Image Edit from Luminar

      To remove the image from your library, select it in the Filmstrip side panel and choose Image > Remove from Single Image Edits (or press the Delete button on a Mac). The image is removed from Luminar, but the file remains on disk where it always was.

      However, the edits you made are also removed. If you open the original file again, it arrives in its original, unedited state.

       Add a Single Image Edit to Your Library

      If, on the other hand, you want to make the image a permanent member of your library, that’s easy, too.

      Open the Library panel, and drag the image’s thumbnail from the Filmstrip to one of your folders (Figure 2-3). Keep in mind that doing so moves the file on disk from its previous location to the folder you specified.

      FIGURE 2-3: Add a single image edit to the library proper by dragging it to a source folder.

       Opening Luminar Files from Older Versions

      Luminar 2 and earlier versions saved edited images as .lmnr files, which included the original image and all the information about how it had been edited. Luminar 4 can still read those older formats by opening them as single images, though it no longer uses the .lmnr file format.

       Edit a Photo from Another Application

      Most photographers are not wedded to a single editing tool. Some of your photos may be stored in folders, while your mobile photos might be in Lightroom or Apple’s Photos app. Or perhaps Luminar has a feature that Photoshop or another program doesn’t, such as AI Structure or AI Sky Replacement.

      In those cases, it’s okay to use all the tools at your disposal. Luminar can install plug-ins for many popular applications that enable you to pop into Luminar’s editing environment, make the adjustments you want, and then return to the first app.

      Prior to Luminar 4, this ability was handled in Luminar 3 and also Luminar Flex, which was a separate product for people who had no interest in incorporating the Luminar Library. Now, it’s all been rolled into Luminar 4.

      Supported applications include Lightroom Classic (but not the newer, cloud-focused Lightroom), Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photos for macOS. (There’s also a plug-in for Aperture, but Aperture no longer runs as of macOS 10.15 Catalina.)

       Install Luminar plug-ins

      During the installation process, Luminar may have installed plug-ins for other software on your computer. To make sure they’re set up, or to install new ones, make sure the other apps are not running and do the following:

      1 1. Choose Luminar 4 > Install Plugins (macOS) or File > Install Plugins (Windows).

      2 2. Click the Install buttons for apps in the list that are on your computer (Figure 2-4).

      FIGURE 2-4: Install the Luminar plug-in in available applications.

      1 3. Click Done.

      The plug-in for Photos for macOS is activated in a different way:

      1 1. Choose > System Preferences.

      2 2. Click the Extensions preference pane.

      3 3. Select Photos Editing in the column at left (Figure 2-5).

      FIGURE 2-5: Enable Luminar as a Photos extension in the macOS System Preferences.

      1 4. Click the checkbox next to Luminar 4 to enable the plug-in.

       Edit a Photo from Lightroom Classic

      Before you send a photo from Lightroom Classic, choose one of two options for doing so. If it’s an unedited raw file, the fastest, easiest route is to transfer it to Luminar. If it’s a JPEG or other format, or you’ve already applied edits in Lightroom, then you’ll want to edit in Luminar.

      The difference between the two involves just what is passed between the two applications. With the transfer option, the original file is simply picked up by Luminar for editing; when you’re done, Luminar hands back an edited TIFF file (which is in the photo’s original color space, a topic I’ll get to shortly).

      In the case of the second option, a copy of the image in TIFF format is sent, and Luminar performs edits on that. It seems like a small difference, but in some situations one method works better than the other.

       Transfer to Luminar 4

      Select a photo in the Library module, or open it in the Develop module, and then choose File > Plug-in Extras > Transfer to Luminar 4.

      Luminar opens in a special mode where you’re working on just that image; the Library is disabled, and the toolbar gains an Apply button and a Cancel button