Luminar 3

Pros

• Smart, always connected library
• Comes with seven workstation tamplates
• Wide array of photo editing tools

Cons

• Artificial intelligence falls a little flat
• Library UI is a little weak

Luminar 3 provides a professional solution for managing and editing photos in one simple package. While Luminar has been proving a challenge to the venerable Adobe Lightroom, the latest edition does an even better job of tightening that gap. That's largely thanks to the inclusion of a new asset-management system.

Functionally, Luminar is positioned somewhere between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom - pairing together relatively versatile photo editing tools with an image organization system. It offers far more tools than what you'd find in Lightbox and data management completely absent from vanilla Photoshop. For some photographers, it will be able to serve as a full replacement for both platforms. For others, it will be a viable all-in-one tool for plenty of day-to-day work. Masks and layers are supported, so you can get rather sophisticated in your editing without ever having to change programs.

That new assessment management system takes the form of libraries, and it's smartly designed to integrate your photos across every device and storage method. All of your folders and subfolders are automatically synced, and that holds true whether they're on cloud-based storage or a more traditional hard drive. These files are then held in a catalog so you can access them from anywhere and not have to move them back and forth between different devices. And all of your files will be saved as thumbnails that you can see at a glance, whether or not they're actually accessible to your computer.

Photographers and photo editors have a tendency to like their workstations highly specific, and that extends to their software interface as well. Fortunately, Luminar gives you full, modular control over your desktop layout. All of your toolbars can be adjusted per your needs, but if you don't know where to start, you'll find a wide selection of template workspaces as well. There are enough of these templates to cover the main subgenres of photography as well as many other situations. Seven templates are available out-of-the-box, but there are much more available for free or a price online. There are even one-click presets that can quickly touch up your photos so you can handle them in batches or just focus on the fine detail work.

The big selling point of this edition of Luminar is the inclusion of new artificial intelligence features. These take the form of an AI sky enhancer and an AI filter. Both use a slider and analyze the environment to suggest a potentially large combination of effects and filters. If you aren't sure where to start editing your composition, either of these tools can be a great jumping-off point. But while the AI is a nice touch, it's not exactly the kind of addition that should be justifying your purchase on its own.

And if you like to experiment with your photo edits, you don't have to worry about them getting lost when you use Luminar. It saves all of your edits as separate files, so you can always revert back to an earlier state if you find yourself dissatisfied with the results. That level of thoughtfulness is extended to the payment plans. Unlike Adobe Creative Cloud, there is no subscription required for Luminar. You can just buy it once and continue to have access to it for the rest of your life.

Luminar 3 is a versatile combination of photo management and photo editing tools that carve a niche out for itself distinct from the near-monopoly that Adobe has held over this type of creative software for years. If you have even a passing interest in photo editing, Luminar is well worth your time.

Pros

• Smart, always connected library
• Comes with seven workstation tamplates
• Wide array of photo editing tools

Cons

• Artificial intelligence falls a little flat
• Library UI is a little weak