Page 98 - Photoshop User January 2017

REVIEWS › ›
Macphun Luminar
Powerful, Bargain-Priced Image Editor
Review by Steve Baczewski
Macphun has produced an inexpensive ($69), yet extraordinarily comprehensive image editor called Luminar, and it warrants attention from beginners to seasoned professionals. Currently, it’s exclusively for Macs running at least OS 10.10.5 and it works as a standalone or as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and Elements. You can also launch it as an extension from inside Apple’s Photo application.
If you’ve used any of Macphun’s other applications, such as Aurora HDR, Luminar’s interface will be familiar; but just in case, Macphun has posted 63 video tutorials, a user’s guide, and a comparison chart stacking Luminar up against Photoshop and Lightroom. Macphun’s commitment to Luminar’s development is both reassuring and impressive. Since launch, Macphun has added batch processing, Touch Bar support for new Mac laptops, and dehaze and golden-hour filters—the latter adds a warm- tone sunlight effect that’s just beautifully nuanced. Also coming up is a DAM (digital asset management) feature.
Working with Luminar as a standalone, you can navigate to a folder or simply drag-and-drop a file on the splash screen. Luminar quickly opens JPEGs, TIFFs, and every major proprietary RAW file. Its clear-cut interface has a large image window with most of its editing features along the window’s right side. On top is a toolbar and, with the standalone version, you
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Company: Macphun
Price: $69
Rating: 5
Hot: Powerful,inexpensiveimageeditor; customizable
Not:
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