How Does Luminar AI Compare to Lightroom Classic in 2021?

I wanted to see how Luminar AI works when compared to Lightroom in 2021, and to do so I took one image -- a photo of a lavender field in the south of France -- and processed it in both.

First, let’s start with Lightroom. I chose to do some basic development to get the exposure right using the highlights, shadows, exposure, basic white balance, white points, and black points.

On that note, I like to use the option key feature in Lightroom while using the black and white points sliders because I can see how many percents of 100% black points or white points are in my picture which is helpful when it comes to printing.

Now, with some basic Lightroom tools such as graduated filters, I added some blue back into the sky.

I think it would look more powerful as a panorama, so I cropped it to a 2×1 ratio and use the rule of thirds to create a more dynamic composition:

I then worked a bit to recreate the colors as they were by using the hue, contrast, and exposure:

So this is the Lightroom version. Now I will do basically the same steps in Lumiar, though it is obviously a little bit of a different workflow, the concept is the same.

I started with the sky enhancer and did the same panorama crop as I did in the Lightroom version:

Now It was just a matter of setting up the right exposure. Unfortunately, in Luminar you don’t have the option key feature with the black and white point which I think is missing here. So for now, I just eyeballed it and then set the white balance:

I then needed to correct the colors, which I did using the HSL panel:

Luminar AI has some pretty crazy amazing features such as sky replacement and some cool details that it allows you to add. Just to give you an example, here I added a very dramatic sky and you can even flip the sky so the sun is facing the right way:

And just for the fun of it, and to show more of the features Luminar has, I added some birds in the sky:

This software is becoming more and more similar, and I think Luminar has improved a lot recently. It's more stable than it ever has been and right now it never crashes, which used to be a major problem. Luminar has a lot of crazy features that go beyond just basic photo editing, so that's something to bear in mind. When you compare the image I edited in Lightroom to the one I edited in Luminar, you can see a big difference. I think which you choose is going to come down to personal preference. Picking between the two might be hard, so if you're like me you might use both depending on your needs.

What is important though is that I think Luminar is getting close to feature parity with Lightroom. That's good to see, as proper competition in the market is always beneficial to customers.

_About the author: Serge Ramelli is a landscape and fine art photographer who has published numerous books on the subject. His fine art photography has been sold in one of the largest gallery networks in the world. Ramelli hosts a YouTube Channel where he teaches photography and editing techniques which you can subscribe to here. _

#educational #software #editing #landscapeediting #landscapephotography #landscapes #lightroom #luminar #luminarai #sergeramelli #skylumluminar #tips

Landscape Photo Editing: Why You Need a Plan

When I started my journey in photography, one aspect that fascinated me the most -- and this extends even to today -- was photo editing. I remember my first edits. I was so delighted to see how my images changed drastically by just moving a few sliders in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Those changes were not necessarily in a good direction either.

It was so fun to play with tone sliders, colors, local adjustments, masks, and any fancy filter, but what I rapidly discovered was that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, and more importantly, why I was doing it. After a few months, and then a couple of years, I looked back through some of my old images and I was very frustrated: My editing totally sucked!

I definitely missed something during the editing process and it was not the lack of a specific technical skill or the wrong software. What I was missing was the overall vision of what I was doing -- such as editing to create some kind of meaning in the image -- which was the result of the fact that I didn't have any pre-planning -- or previsualization, if you want -- before I started to tweak sliders and curves.

This issue I had is one that I see frequently among beginner photographers since they don’t have enough experience to understand where to start or why specific adjustments are important. It’s easy to lose ourselves between random adjustments here and there when you go into an image with no plan.

There are no rules when it comes to editing images. All we have to go on is our taste, sensibility, and personal style. Editing is not quite as simple as it sounds.

In this video, I want to share with you what I amusingly named the “ACDC System.”

ACDC: A - Analyze | C - Cropping | D - Distractions | C - Colors & Tones

This system is basically a photo-development process that I use on a daily basis with my photos. To discuss the process, I will use an example image I captured in the Lofoten Islands, and show you the process I used to bring the photo from its original RAW version to a finished and polished product.

For this shot, I used the Fujifilm GFX 50R with the Fujinon GF32-64mm f/4 zoom lens. It’s a standard wide-angle shot, with a full-frame equivalent focal length of 27mm:

I usually start analyzing the overall image and try to define which are its characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses by going over the key aspects of a photo below, which I use to form my editing plan.

What is the focal point? What should the aspect ratio of the image be? How is the exposure? How is the quality of light?

Should I apply global or local contrast? What are the colors I want to highlight?

Are there any distractions?

What’s my goal for the image, and the outcome I’m aiming for?

Once I define the overall editing plan, I’ll start applying all the adjustments I need in Lightroom (or Photoshop, if needed).

I do not mean this process to be a bunch of shortcuts, not at all -- there are no shortcuts, in general. I believe that the idea of shortcuts will never get you where you really want to go. My goal is to give you, like in my previous video about the composition framework, some guidelines and suggestions to see photo editing from a slightly different perspective, and therefore help you to improve your confidence and vision on how to map a more robust and repeatable mind approach to define the direction of your post-processing workflow. You can do this by discussing the how-tos as much as the whys.

My finished edit.

As I said, there are no shortcuts and I can’t guarantee your photos will always be amazing. Actually, post-processing is not everything and there are a lot of other aspects to consider along the creative process. But I’m pretty sure you’ll find some of these concepts useful to shape your own vision and your approach to photo editing.

_About the author: Andrea Livieri is a Venice-based professional photographer, educator, musician, and spirited adventurer. He started exploring the photography medium by capturing images of fellow musicians, their families, and other friends and acquaintances in the music industry. As he continued honing his craft, he merged his love for photography and exploring the outdoors, enabling him to amass lots of photographic work of delightful scenery, rugged mountainscapes, and exhilarating terrain. He also lead photography courses, workshops, and tours to teach other photographers his methods and help them to bring out their own vision.

For more from Livieri, you can follow him on Instagram and subscribe to his YouTube Channel. _

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Five Beginner Lightroom Editing Tips to Dramatically Improve Your Photos

Want to get the best out of your photos this year? Using one photo as an example -- a photo I took in Paris with a Canon 5D Mark II to prove it can be done with a camera of nearly any age -- I will show five easy tips that will make dramatic differences in your images.

Correct the exposure for the story you want to tell

To me, one of the best ways to get great results in landscape photography is to take three exposures instead of relying on one: a normal exposure, one that is overexposed to draw out more shadow detail, and one that is underexposed to allow highlights to have better detaili. Together, the three photos can work as a sort of "super RAW" file to play with. This technique is often either referred to as HDR photography or bracketing.

Here I want to tell a simple message: a nice, simple sunset. I like the idea of having the statue as a silhouette effect in the foreground element, as I think it is really contributing to the aesthetic of the photo.

Adjust the white balance for aesthetic

Depending on the software you are using to develop your photo, you can use presets for white balance and you can start with those. However, I really advise you to manually set the white balance with the right temperature and tint so that you can recreate the feeling and emotion you had while taking the photo. To me, doing this is key to staying realistic and using the correct colors so as not to distract your viewer from your visual message.

Don’t overuse clarity and saturation

I used to commit this mistake a lot and oversaturated my photos with lots of clarity. I thought that doing so would make my photos spectacular but what ended up happening is that people noticed that I was “good at Photoshop” instead of focusing on the photo, which was my intention.

Now instead of boosting the Clarity slider, I tend to do some minus clarity on the overall photo, and maybe with a brush I will boost a little bit of clarity on some parts, but that’s it. The same goes for saturation: you need to make sure that your viewer can fully experience the colors and be as captivated as you were when you took the photo.

Adjust Hue sliders to your liking

Using hue sliders is key when you want to nail the color and really tailor your photo so that you recreate the colors that were there when you hit that shutter button. Cameras continue to get better at capturing true-to-life colors and exposure, but they are still far from matching the human eye and many times, the photo just doesn't quite have the visual impact that looking at a scene in person did. The goal is to try and get your photo to look as close to your memory of the scene as possible.

I advise you to not go over 40 on the Hue slider because it can create some weird colors, but otherwise, you can enhance some magenta or orange if you are developing a sunset shot.

Use the local tools to guide the eyes of the viewer

To me, this is the most important point. When done correctly, it makes a huge difference between an "okay" shot to a real, fine art photograph.

Use gradients to close your photo so the eyes of your viewer are drawn into your main subject. You can use a radial circle to enhance the sun itself and with a brush, you can bring back some light and details of some parts of your photo and hide some other parts of the photo.

Bonus Tip

One thing you can do is once you are happy with the retouching of your photo is that you can copy your settings and paste them onto your underexposed photo (depending on the look you are going for) and with some very basic retouching you can also get a great result, sometimes with less noise as well.

I hope those tips were useful to you and that you will be able to implement them in your retouching workflow!

_About the author: Serge Ramelli is a landscape and fine art photographer who has published numerous books on the subject. His fine art photography has been sold in one of the largest gallery networks in the world. Ramelli hosts a YouTube Channel where he teaches photography and editing techniques which you can subscribe to here. _

#educational #tips #tutorials #editingtips #landscapeediting #landscapephotography #photographytips #sergeramelli