Luminar Flex 1.1.0
SKU(s) 67651, 98486 Brand Luminar Work AC Volts 120 Certification UL Shipping Weight 1.05 lb. Wattage (watts) 100 CA Residents Warning - Prop 65 Info. The luminar flex plugin can easily be used with Adobe photo shop cc and Photoshop elements, and ties natively into Adobe lightroom classic cc's external editing system and photos for macos's extensions. Photo shop users have the benefit of using luminar flex with smart objects, enabling the ability to revise edits even after closing the document. CoBRa WIRE & CaBlE X-FlEX® E NumBER (ul) BC5W2 oR mTW oR THW FT4 oR aWm 1232/1284/1338/10070 600V oR V VW-1 SR aWg SIZE ll NumBER CSa TEW 105°C 600V oR aWm I a/B 105°C 600V o FT1 RoHS ComPlIaNT maDE IN uSa (FoR SIZES 1/0 aND laRgER aDD “FoR CT uSE'). Warning: Please don't watch this if you are a big fan of Skylum products and will get mad at someone who doesn't agree. But seriously I do think there is a. “The Luminar Flex plugin lets photographers continue to use their host software of choice, while taking advantage of Luminar’s one-of-a-kind editing features, such as Accent AI, Golden Hour.
Luminar Flex – A new addition for most photo editing tools that works as a plugin, extension, or external editor. Luminar Flex means that if you choose to stick with your current workflow, you can still use Luminar’s AI tech and creative image editing tools.
Luminar Flex comes with Accent AI, which analyzes photos and applies adjustments to like color and tone in seconds. The sliders will let photographers dial those details back based on personal taste.
Accent AI: “Automatically analyzes and corrects photographs using more than a dozen controls at once. Accent AI can be a great substitute for several traditional controls such as shadows, highlights, contrast and more. Think of it as the best Auto button you’ve ever clicked, but you still maintain control.”
AI Sky Enhancer: “Turn gray and uninspired skies into something magical with AI Sky Enhancer. By automatically detecting the sky in a photograph, AI Sky Enhancer makes the necessary adjustments to increase color, clarity, and detail, allowing to boost your outdoor images with a single slider.”
Details Enhancer: “Creates dramatic photos with crystal-clear sharpness. This filter unlocks details for sharp looking images without halos or artifacts.”
Golden Hour: “Brings a warm-toned sunlit effect to your photo This filter emulates the shooting conditions when the sun is low on the horizon (such as shortly after sunrise or before sunset). This indirect light helps make even dull photos warmer and more dimensional.”
Orton Effect: “Allows enhancements to an image that include glow and focus. This produces a unique look that’s both sharp and blurry at the same time. It’s perfect to create an emotional feeling in a picture.”
Image Radiance: Virtualhostx 8 7 15 inch. “Gives an overall ‘dreamy’ look by adding a glow to the lighter areas of the image. This is a great filter to use for portraits and even landscape photos to create soft, saturated results.”
Foliage Enhancer: “Elevate colors often found in spring grass and fall leaves to make landscape photographs that pop off the screen.”
LUT Mapping: “Apply Lookup Table (LUT) files for creative color grading and film stock emulation.”
Luminar Looks: “More than 70 one-click Looks give photographers a speedy jump-off point for creative explorations. Easily dial in the right look with the Amount slider or customize the recipe and save a new Look.”
The Luminar Flex works in the following host applications
- Photoshop
- Lightroom Classic CC
- Photoshop Elements
- Photos for macOS
- Apple Aperture
Screenshots
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Verdict
Luminar Flex is the latest version of the ‘old’ Luminar, and a terrific standalone photo editor and plug-in. It doesn’t have the built-in digital asset management (DAM) of its Luminar 3 stablemate, but it integrates much better with an established workflow. If you don’t like the bundled Looks, you can always create your own or download more. In every other respect, Luminar Flex is powerful, innovative and very affordable. If you thought Skylum took a wrong turn with Luminar 3 with Libraries, with Luminar Flex it’s back on track.
- How to get/download Luminar: Save $10/£10 with coupon code “LAWTON”
Introduction
Luminar Flex is the new ‘plug-in’ version of Luminar, though it will also work as a standalone photo-editing program. The difference between Luminar Flex and Luminar 3 is that Flex is designed to work alongside other programs, whereas Luminar 3 is more of a closed all-in-one system.
Many photographers use different programs for different jobs, such as organising their photo library with Lightroom but applying image effects in plug-ins or external editors. That doesn’t suit the design of Luminar 3, which is the reason for Luminar Flex.
Luminar Flex is a lot like the original Luminar software. You can launch it as a standalone photo editing program or as a plug-in from within Lightroom, Photoshop and Elements – other programs will be able to use it as an external editor, which amounts to the same thing.
How Luminar Flex works
Luminar Flex offers a large selection of tools and effects, but not in a fixed system of panels and palettes like other programs. Instead, it uses a large number of Filters which can be applied individually or in combination. Each filter has its own adjustments – some simple, some sophisticated – and you can even use masking tools to restrict the filter effect to specific areas of the picture.
It doesn’t stop there. If you find yourself using the same set of filters again and again, you can combine them in a custom Workspace. Luminar Flex comes with a selection of preconfigured Workspaces for different genres of photography. You can use these or make your own.
But there’s an even quicker way to apply a very specific image ‘look’, and that’s with Luminar Looks (or presets, if you like). Each Look uses a specific combination of Filters and settings. You can adjust these in the main tools panel on the right, add or remove filters and create your own custom Looks very easily.
Luminar Flex comes with a wide selection of Looks in different categories and you can download more from the Skylum site. In fact, Flex users can download a free Flex Toolbox Looks Pack from the Flex Community site.
Luminar Flex isn’t just a tool for adding filters and effects – it goes a lot further than that. It can open and process RAW files via its RAW Develop filter, and this includes automatic and manual lens corrections, and transform tools for correcting converging verticals and other perspective problems. Luminar has a crop tool, noise reduction, and a retouching/erase option for removing sensor spots and unwanted objects in the scene.
Even more impressive is its support for layers. These are not just adjustment layers, for applying adjustments non-destructively, but image layers too, so you can combine images in multi-layer montages, with control over the layer opacity and blend mode (just like Photoshop) and with layer masks too. These include a manual masking brush, gradient and radial masks. The only limitation is that if you go back to edit a layer part way down the stack, the layers above are temporarily disabled while you work.
Luminar Flex may look like a quick-fix and special effects tool, but it’s actually a lot deeper than that. It’s a powerful photo-editing application in its own right, that’s just as useful for in-depth image enhancement and adjustments as it is for instant Looks.
Luminar Flex 4
Verdict
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It does seem odd that Skylum should first launch Luminar as a standalone photo-editor, then add in digital asset management (DAM) tools in Luminar 3, and THEN launch a separate Luminar Flex program that works like the ‘old’ Luminar. These are now being sold as two separate products. If you want both (realistically, you won’t), you have to pay for both.
But there is some sense behind this. On paper, Luminar 3 (or ‘Luminar with Libraries’) offers more than the old version, with in-built photo management and fully non-destructive photo editing. In fact, though, it takes the software in a very different direction. It’s fine for novices or casual users and experimenters who want just a single editing environment and don’t mind if it’s something of a closed system. That doesn’t suit photographers like me who prefer to manage and process RAW files in one program and use others for different kinds of effects.
So although Luminar Flex appears to do ‘less’ than Luminar 3, it’s actually much more useful to me and, I suspect, may other photographers who already have a workflow they like. Even if it looks like you’re getting less, what you’re getting is actually much more useful. I’d recommend Luminar 3 to new or non-technical users, but Luminar Flex to regular photographers. Luminar 3 still has some limitations, annoyances and constraints, whereas Luminar Flex doesn’t have any. It reminds me why I liked Luminar so much in the first place.
UPDATE: In Luminar 4, Flex has been re-integrated into the Luminar app and is no longer sold separately. See below.
Luminar Flex
Luminar 4 is now available – Download the trial version – Upgrade from Luminar 3 – Buy Luminar 4 – Use the code LAWTON for a special discount at the checkout