March 19, 2024

Almost a year ago to the day, we had done a test of the 2017 version of Luminar, a photo editor that had convinced us rather. Skylum (formerly MacPhun), who developed the photo editing software, continued to work on its program and delivered us a new version for the year 2018. We had the opportunity to test it in preview and we give you our opinion.

Esthetics above all!

It’s been a year since we tested Luminar and yet the interface has evolved. And, let’s be honest, it’s important especially for photo editing software. The 2018 version of Luminar has made further progress: the different menus fit even better into the dark interface of the program and new tools have appeared. Similarly, filters are organized into categories and it is even possible to create a favorites list. You can do what you want to do!

New tools for new version

The Luminar focused on the RAW format, which is very popular with photographers. This format simplifies editing and makes it much easier to edit an image which is ideal when applying the filters of the software. Indeed, Luminar integrates a true image cataloger similar to that of its competitor.

The RAW Luminar 2018 file processing software receives an update 1.2 which brings a gain in speed of processing and many functions including batch processing for the Windows version. This update helps narrow the gap between Mac and Windows versions. Here are the main improvements and new features.

Faster and more efficient on Mac and Windows

Skylum is one of the publishers who decided to compete with Lightroom by offering a modern and powerful software available in perpetual license without subscription. Luminar 2018 builds on Skylum’s experience in photo software development; Luminar 2017 had already been talked about. The 2018 version is more modern, more powerful but had the disadvantage of not being available for Windows. It’s been done for a few months and this PC version now covers more than half of downloads.

Luminar 2018 is still far from catching up with Lightroom in terms of functional richness. Several major features such as managing photos in a central catalog, mobile applications and gallery and website services, or advanced export features with the addition of watermarks are missing. But, this update fills some gaps and, above all, brings the speed that was missing from the Windows version since its release.

The publisher plans to gradually enrich its software to reach the height of competitors while making the difference with a very advantageous price. DxO does not do better with the evolution of Photolab and has a longer development cycle. It is a safe bet that Luminar 2018 takes the lead in this race. The Skylum has everything to create victory.

This update brings several global improvements:

– Easier in processing performance of RAW files (Mac, Windows),
– Improvement of the RAW development engine (Mac, Windows),
– Batch processing, smooth free transformations, rotation and image switching (Windows, already present on Mac).

The RAW development engine has been completely redesigned to provide more accurate color rendering and better digital noise reduction. These advantages bring Skylum into a glaring run.

Significantly more responsive

For the rest, Luminar is always very pleasant to use. On our test device, the 2018 version has been significantly more responsive than the 2017 version. Obviously, it all depends on the amount of filters and settings you apply. Exactly, some new filters are of the part whose results are variable. For example, Sunrays that adds sun rays can very well adapt to one photo and give an unrealistic result on another. As always, filters do not work miracles and everything depends on how you use them. Broadly speaking, this software really is one level above its competitors. Hopefully this article can help you in understanding what you might do with this great software.

Blake Aldrich

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