Luminar :: A perspective of Skylum's AI Journey

The Luminar journey started with Macphun, a company that developed photo editing tools solely for Apple Macintosh computers. They were the original developers of Nik Collection and Snapseed, two of the more popular post-processing tools in the apple market (Mac and IPhone) at the time.

Later, Macphun shifted its focus to the Windows environment as well and started testing new simpler user interfaces. This approach eventually led to the birth of the Luminar suite. The initial versions of Luminar were standalone software that had a photo browser underneath and ran modules similar to the specific style of add-ins they had previously supplied. The software was less expensive and simpler to use, and it was popular with photography enthusiasts rather than professionals.

Macphun, became Skylum, and upgraded the software at an incredible rate compared to Adobe. Some of the upgrades introduced new approaches, which were mainly loved, but incompatibilities across updates were poorly received. The cost and frequency of upgrades meant that owning and maintaining an up-to-date version was becoming expensive. During this time, Macphun/Skylum also developed Aurora HDR in association with Trey Radcliff and included a number of AI-based techniques, specifically being able to recognize different parts of an image, such as the sky, people, buildings, and lakes.

The introduction of Luminar 4 was a significant rethink of the way photo editing was undertaken. Unfortunately, it had several incompatibilities with previous Luminar versions, and some previous tools were missing, so a lot of the previous non-destructive edits could not be reproduced. User were generally not impressed.

Not long after the Luminar 4 fiasco, Skylum released Luminar AI, which was again a new and somewhat incompatible rewrite. It still provided a comprehensive photo editing package but was based on the use of AI-trained tools exclusively to perform most functions. While it was nice to use, it wasn’t easy to figure out what was happening in the edits, and how it might be used as a start further photo enhancements. Some of these issues were quickly resolved with updates. However, some users felt that Skylum was gouging money out of their supporters by releasing new stuff that made upgrading a daunting repurchasing and relearning exercise.

Soon after Luminar AI was released, Luminar Neo was promoted as a totally new way to post-process. However, it was not really compatible with previous iterations of Luminar. While the single enhance slider was pretty amazing, the great list of "edit" tools on the right-hand side of the edit panel showed several of the same sliders, and not always getting the same result depending on which item they were run within. The tools were also grouped into similar tools, favourite, Essentials, Creativem portrait & professionals, which helps negotiate such a long list of edit tools. The fact that there was no attractive price for updating from Luminar AI also got a lot of bad press.

Despite some reservations, many users, including me, still like Luminar Neo and use it a lot. However, it is definitely not as fast on my older hardware, and the solution of buying a new faster computer and having to pay for the extensions does not appeal to me. The extensions, which are a return to the add-in single effect style of tool, can be purchased as bundles (including not yet released features) or individually, plus numerous discount offers, making pricing complex and hides the true cost of getting a full function editor. 

I've chosen to process an "ordinary" photo without surreal colour changes or adding drama (the dark side of AI tools), since it can give a better view of Luminar as a regular photo editing tool.

In conclusion, Skylum's journey with Luminar for me has been a roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs. While some users love the new AI-based approach, others are still nostalgic for the simpler, less expensive earlier versions of NIK Collection the earlier Luminars. Nevertheless, Skylum's commitment to innovation is admirable, and it will be interesting to see what new AI iterations of Luminar will come out in the future.