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