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Photographer Dustin Abbott explores the Luminar Mobile App photo editing suite to see if it is worth using. Find out the features and his conclusions here. | Purchase Luminar Mobile: https://skylum.evyy.net/QjZ2BM (Use code DUSTIN20 for 20% off).
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
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0:05
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott coming to you in a
0:08
different format and for a different
0:10
purpose than usual. Most of what you
0:12
know me for is my reviews and work
0:15
around cameras, mirrorless, DSLRs,
0:18
things like that. I largely avoid mobile
0:22
uh for photography because I believe
0:24
that the best photography is done with
0:26
real cameras. That being said, I did
0:29
purchase at some point an iPhone 15 Pro
0:32
because I did want to because I do use
0:34
my phone sometimes for B-roll type
0:36
things to have at least some kind of
0:38
camera on site in certain situations.
0:41
And so I wanted a little bit more
0:42
sophistic uh camera type system in a
0:45
phone. However, the amount of controls
0:48
you have to edit within the actual
0:49
iPhone itself are limited. Now, also
0:52
going back at one point, I did reviews
0:54
of almost every one of Lum Luminar's
0:56
updates to their editing software, but I
1:00
found that somewhere along the way that
1:02
I never actually switched away from
1:04
Lightroom and Photoshop because I had so
1:06
many years investment in that workflow
1:09
and uh catalog and things like that.
1:12
However, there was a confluence that
1:14
came this summer when I was on a road
1:16
trip with my wife. I had was using my
1:19
phone camera some just for B-roll, for a
1:22
different look. But I was also
1:23
experimenting with a way to edit the raw
1:26
images in my camera. And so I tried out
1:28
Luminar's mobile app and found that in
1:31
the long hours when I wasn't driving and
1:33
I was sitting in the passenger seat and
1:35
tweaking my photos, I found that I could
1:37
really do some interesting things with
1:39
that. And so today's review is taking a
1:41
look at Luminar's mobile editing
1:43
software available for iOS as I'm using
1:46
it. and then also for Androidbased
1:48
platforms. We're going to look at a few
1:50
of the different features and break down
1:52
whether or not they work or work
1:54
effectively enough for you to consider
1:56
this as a part of your workflow. So,
1:58
let's dive in and let's take a look at
1:59
some of the different aspects of the
2:02
editing components that you have here in
2:04
this software. So, I'm filming in this
2:06
format because I'm going to take you
2:08
into the actual app itself and do some
2:10
screen recording here to show you some
2:12
of these editing steps. So, we're going
2:13
to start by just taking a look at the
2:16
basic sliders that you can access once
2:18
you add photos to it. The basic AI
2:20
editing that's a part of it. So, let's
2:22
dive in here. Let's take a look at a
2:24
photo that I took in Myrtle Beach. And I
2:26
was interested in seeing at just what
2:28
that basic slider would do. And so, you
2:31
can see that just rotating that wheel,
2:33
which all of these controls are designed
2:35
to be used with just a fingertip, allows
2:37
you to really tweak the look of the
2:38
image in a very simple fashion. Maybe
2:40
you'll be happy enough there. But if you
2:42
want to dive deeper, there are much more
2:44
advanced controls available that will
2:46
allow you tweaking over levels, curves,
2:49
contrast, exposure, color, the details,
2:52
the depth of the photo, and more. Many,
2:54
many controls there. And all of them are
2:56
quite simple to use just with your
2:58
fingertip. And of course, getting a
3:00
direct visual feedback on the effects
3:03
that they cause. One of the other key
3:05
aspects of the Luminar mobile app is the
3:08
ability to go in and to use filters or
3:10
presets to give a defined look to your
3:13
photo that you can then tweak. And as I
3:16
went through this over the summer and
3:18
more recently, I found that there are so
3:20
many different presets there, about 34
3:22
by my count. And all of them are
3:24
completely scalable all the way from 0%
3:27
up to 100% to allow you to get just
3:29
enough or maybe to maximize that effect
3:32
and so that you can get the look that
3:34
you want as maybe even a basis for
3:36
starting to edit your photo. Now, one of
3:38
the technologies that Skylum or Luminar
3:41
was actually kind of cutting edge for
3:43
going back years ago was the idea of sky
3:46
replacement. And now of course that
3:48
phones are becoming increasingly uh
3:51
processorrich. It allows them to utilize
3:53
that sky replacement technology AI
3:55
technology within the app as well. And
3:58
so one thing I found is that AI edge
4:02
detection just keeps getting better and
4:04
better. And so it's really good at just
4:06
automating the whole cutout process of
4:08
where your your skyline needs to be and
4:11
and working around it. You can tweak all
4:13
of those things. You can tweak the
4:15
placement of the sky. You can tweak the
4:17
lighting. And what I particularly like
4:19
is you can even upload your own skies.
4:21
And so that allows you, if you're kind
4:23
of thinking about that, allows you to be
4:24
intentional about if you see a really
4:26
unique or beautiful sky, you can take a
4:28
photo of the sky itself, add that to
4:30
your library, and then incorporate it
4:32
into other photos. Now, of course, some
4:34
of you may debate the viability of doing
4:37
sky replacement in general and whether
4:39
that's an ethical approach to
4:41
photography. In many ways, I would agree
4:43
with you if I'm talking about my own
4:45
standard photography. When I'm talking
4:47
about photos I've taken on my phone,
4:49
however, I would say that my scruples
4:51
aren't quite as high because I'm not
4:53
quite sure I'm at the pinnacle of
4:55
photography anyway. Your mileage may
4:57
vary all on all of that. But one thing I
4:59
can say is that over the years, I have
5:01
watched their uh capabilities when it
5:03
comes to sky replacement get better and
5:05
better. And so, if it's something that
5:06
does interest you, it works surprisingly
5:09
well in a mobile environment these days.
5:11
Now, we've all seen the ads for one
5:15
phone or another where, you know,
5:16
there's people or objects in a photo and
5:19
you just quickly paint them and they're
5:20
just gone magically. There is an object
5:23
removal aspect of this mobile app here.
5:26
So, let's dive in and take a look at how
5:28
well it works. So, if I start with
5:30
something that is more complex, a major
5:33
object that is kind of the focus of
5:35
that, and I try to remove it, I get what
5:38
I would call um disappointing results.
5:40
Now, you can continue to try to refine
5:42
that, but I found in multiple
5:44
situations, if I tried to remove
5:46
something that had too complex a
5:47
background behind it. Uh, it's kind of
5:49
object replacement didn't work
5:51
particularly well. Now, if I move to
5:53
something simpler, for example, and here
5:56
I've got some lights reflected in the
5:57
background of the same photo. If I just
5:59
paint over those quickly with the
6:00
fingertip, it does a pretty near perfect
6:03
job of that. And so, I would say that
6:05
your object removal is going to really
6:07
be situational.
6:08
If it is a fairly complex background,
6:11
you may not be happy with the results
6:12
you get. But if it's something that's
6:14
relatively small that you're trying to
6:16
remove and not dominating the image, it
6:18
can work quite well and very quickly.
6:20
There are a number of controls also for
6:22
tweaking your portraits. And so in this,
6:25
you can obviously do the basic things
6:27
like I've done here to affect the uh
6:30
lighting and the color temperature um
6:32
just to kind of get a more pleasing end
6:34
result. But you can go beyond that even
6:37
to do some morphing of bodies, you know,
6:40
expanding or making them slimmer. Uh you
6:42
can remove some facial blemishes and
6:44
things like that. All of it works
6:46
reasonably well. It's not going to be
6:48
quite to the Photoshop level in terms of
6:50
the finite control, but if you again, if
6:53
you're making tweaks to images on the
6:54
fly, you certainly can make those tweaks
6:57
with a fairly good effectiveness. And
6:59
the fact again that it's real time, you
7:01
can actually see what you're doing, I
7:02
think, uh makes it quite useful. And so
7:05
you can decide whether or not you like
7:07
what you're doing. And with all of these
7:08
things, there is a very quick reset. But
7:10
you can see here if we take a look at
7:12
this portrait that I did some tweaking
7:14
with back and forth that I certainly
7:16
prefer the end result I was able to
7:18
achieve in Luminar. So finally, let's
7:20
talk about price here. And I note that
7:22
what I'm going to say about price, it
7:24
it's always in a state of flux when it
7:26
comes to things from Luminar. that they
7:29
very frequently have sales and
7:31
promotions that will allow you to get a
7:33
better price than the prices I'm about
7:34
to give to you. But the basic
7:36
subscription models work like $4.99 per
7:40
month. And so it's something you can you
7:42
can do a free trial. By the way, there's
7:44
I'll put a link in the description down
7:45
below, but you can do $4.99 a month. You
7:48
can do six months for $19.99, $29.99 for
7:51
a year. And so it's certainly not a
7:53
dealbreaker in terms of price. You can
7:55
also invest in a lifetime license for
7:58
it. That is typically $59.99, but then
8:01
again, um it's often available for less
8:04
if you watch for sales and promotions.
8:06
So, at the end of the day, it's not an
8:08
overpriced app. And if you're looking
8:10
for something that kind of takes you to
8:12
the next level of being able to edit the
8:14
photos that you take on your phone with
8:17
your phone and thus to be able to do it
8:20
all inhouse and not have to worry about
8:22
a computer or a tablet or anything else
8:24
like that. And by the way, there are
8:25
tablet versions of this is available as
8:27
well. I've just kind of focused on the
8:29
mobile in terms of the phone size. But
8:31
at the end of the day, I think that this
8:32
is actually quite a wellexecuted app.
8:34
There's a a surprising depth of controls
8:37
there. All of them work really well for
8:39
just manipulating with your finger and
8:41
so I think that all of that is well
8:43
executed. There are easy um steps for
8:46
inputting and exporting images. So at
8:48
the end of the day I think it works
8:50
really well. Then of course if you are
8:51
invested in their desktop software you
8:54
can sync between what you're doing on
8:56
the mobile app and then what you're
8:58
doing on the desktop app to take things
9:00
a little bit further. So a smart imple
9:02
implementation of all of that there. So
9:04
hopefully this has given you a little
9:06
bit of a closer look in real time at how
9:09
this app works. And if it's something
9:10
you're interested in, we'll check out
9:11
the description down below and you can
9:13
find more information there. Maybe try
9:15
out that trial and see if it works for
9:17
you. As always, thanks for watching.
9:19
Have a great day and let the light in.
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