Edit Your Images in Luminar
YOU’LL NEED THIS NOT EVERY IMAGE-EDITING APP has to be by Adobe, and sometimes something comes along from an unexpected source that’s genuinely interesting, and trying to do something new.
One such program is Luminar, from Macphun. The clue is in the developer’s name—this app has been available on fruit-based computers for a while now, and as was the case with Affinity Photo, this means the minimalist architects and latte-drinkers have done the beta testing for us. At the time of writing, Luminar is available for free download as a Windows beta, but by the time you read this guide, it may be available as a full release—the launch date is currently down as the rather nebulous “fall 2017.”
Luminar isn’t Photoshop; it’s more a collection of one-shot fixes and presets, but it has the ability to alter these effects, and layer them on top of one another, to build up sophisticated results, with a before and after slider so you can see precisely what you’ve changed.
1 GET SET As we write, you can get the beta version of Luminar from https://macphun.com, but that will change as soon as the developer presses the big green “Go!” button, and launches the app. Once it’s up and running, you’re offered the choice of working on your own pictures or on a sample image. The sample shots are very good, and provide a playground in which to try out all aspects of the app, but there’s nothing like editing your own work, especially with the trees giving such a fine display of fall color. 2 PLAY WITH YOUR PICTURE Open an image using the folder icon to the top-left of the interface, and after a little processing, you’ll see previews of your image in all the presets along the bottom of the app. Clicking the “Infinity” button to the extreme-right opens up the categories of preset, so you can narrow down your search for a good look. We discover there’s one called “Colors of the Fall,” so apply it to our image, and click the divided rectangle icon at the top-middle of the window to enable a before and after view [ Image A] that can be dragged back and forth to show the effect the adjustment has. The eye button next to it returns your image to its unaltered state for as long as it’s held down, and there are zoom and full-screen controls to the left of the eye. 3 OOPS—TRY AGAIN! With a preset selected, a column of adjustments appears on the right, so you can tweak the parameters of its effects. They’re worth experimenting with, so you can get a handle on what they all do—Luminar offers non-destructive image editing, so no changes are final until you export your work as a new image. There are
also many ways to undo your work, with a “Reset” button appearing above (or below) every slider in the right-hand column, a big singleclick “Undo” arrow at the top of the interface, and a clock icon next to it that drops down a “History” menu [ Image B], so you can go back to a particular stage in your workflow and restart from there.
4 ROLL YOUR OWN One of the more interesting presets is the “Auto Smart Enhancer,” which analyzes your image to decide how best to enhance its tones and contrast [ Image C]. It’s not worth buying an app like this just to use it as a one-click-fix machine, however, but it does provide a good starting point for you to take control and adjust the image manually. Seeing how the ASE has manipulated the sliders in the right-hand column gives you a good idea of how they work, and you can push some of them further or pull them back to create something more in keeping with your own preferences. You can then save your settings as a new custom preset, so you can come back to them when working on subsequent images.
5 ICONOCLASTS Luminar’s layers are one of its strongest features, enabling you to place separate effects on top of one another, and then fade the top one out, so they blend together. The “Layers” palette can be accessed from the icon, top-right, which looks like two overlapping squares, if it’s not visible already—one of the weaknesses of Luminar’s interface is the way icons are spaced out along the top bar, and the lack of explanatory tooltips when you hover your pointer over them. Hopefully, this can be fixed in the final release.
6 LAYERS AND MASKS In addition to layers, you can use masks to apply an effect to only certain areas of an image. Luminar has rectangular and circular gradient masks, and a paintbrush tool that enables you to paint your chosen preset or filter on to your image. This is especially useful when combined with layers, because you can have one set of presets applied to the base layer, with another set painted on to an upper layer, completely changing the look of the parts it affects [ Image D].
7 CROP AND GO When you’ve finished with your editing, there are two steps you can take. There’s a crop tool hidden away on the extreme-right, looking like a pair of scissors. Use this to trim away the edges of your image to change its center point or aspect ratio—you can use it to rotate, too, if you’ve got a tilted horizon, or other lines that should be straighter. Then there’s the “Export” button, at the top-left, looking like a square with an arrow pointing out of it. This enables you to save your work as a file locally, and also share straight to social media or email. You’re not given a huge choice of formats to export to, but a straightforward JPEG is usually all you need.