DIGITAL PHOTO MENTOR

Photography tips, tutorials and guides for Beginner and Intermediate Photographers.

Luminar4 how to open images featured 1200px

Video Tutorial – How to Open Images in Luminar 4

by

Updated:

In this tutorial, you will learn how to get images into Luminar 4. Whether you are using Luminar as a stand-alone image editor, or as a plugin for Lightroom or Photoshop (or something else) this will help you get started.

If you are participating in the Photo Editing challenge this month but are stuck at the gate, this is for you. Watch the video and give yourself a jump start to get going.

There are a few ways that you could be using Luminar 4:

  • As a single image editor
  • As your primary photo editor and image organizer
  • As a plugin for other software such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Elements, Apple Photos or Aperture.

Pick your Luminar 4 workflow

Watch the video below and jump to the part that is most applicable to your own workflow.

  • If you only use Luminar, just start at the beginning of the video and stop it when I get to the Lightroom part.
  • For using Luminar as a plugin for Lightroom, start the video at the 5:30 mark.
  • If you want to use Luminar inside of Photoshop as a Smart Object or Smart Filter, see how to do that starting at the 12:00 minute mark of the video.

Note: Skylum is about to release their newest image editing software Luminar Neo, with a release date of early 2022, possibly even March. Read my review of Luminar Neo here, and keep up to date with all the details. I’m also developing a Luminar Neo course to get new users up to speed as soon as possible. Is Luminar AI dead? Do you need both Luminar AI and the new Luminar Neo? Is it a replacement for Photoshop? Watch my initial run-through of the latest “technical build” and my thoughts on who Luminar Neo is FOR and who it’s NOT for.

Once you’ve got some images added to Luminar (or opened from Lightroom or Photoshop) you’ll be ready to get to work processing them. Here are some other videos to help you:

Here are the three versions of the image I processed in the video so you can see what I created in just a couple of minutes.

Luminar 4 open images 02
The Lightroom edited version.
Luminar 4 open images 01
Lightroom edits + Luminar 4 edits.
Luminar 4 open images 03
Another Luminar 4 version from the Raw unedited file (exported from Lightroom to Luminar).
Luminar 4 open images 04
BEFORE – raw file, unedited. It was a really dull gloomy day in Hong Kong, as you can see.
Luminar 4 open images 05
I decided to see how far I could take this one and did a sky replacement.

Your turn

Okay over to you. You can do this, it’s not as hard as it may seem at first. I have confidence in you, just go for it!

Cheers,

Darlene Hildebrandt photographer DPM