Last month, I shared why I am loving skin retouching in Luminar 4. I had a friend reach out to me after reading it and asked if I could share how I got my images into Luminar.
If you aren’t familiar with Luminar, Luminar 4 is an amazing app for editing your images. It’s so easy to use that it allows your editing to be the least of your worries. One of the coolest features about Luminar is that it can be a plugin for Lightroom Classic. I know you’re probably thinking, “Why not just use Luminar as a stand-alone editor?”
My answer is simple: I don’t edit every image and sometimes I don’t edit images at all. When I do edit something, I am not doing all the cool things like adding filters and effects. My friend and Luminar Ambassador, Michele Grenier, does those things really well. I just need to touch-up on a face.
Plus, to be 100% honest, I have used Lightroom Classic for years now and I have my cataloging, organizing, etc. right where I want it. So moving everything right now scares me as I am trying to figure out Luminar and see what works best. Who knows, maybe in a few months I’ll only be using Luminar. :)
Using Luminar 4 as a plugin
If you didn’t install the Lightroom Classic plugin when first installing Luminar 4, go to Luminar 4 > Install Plugins… and do so. Then follow the instructions below.
- Make sure Adobe Lightroom Classic is open.
- From Lightroom Classic, choose your image(s) that you want to work on with Luminar.
- In the top menu, click Photo > Edit In > Luminar 4, or right-click on the image and select Edit In > Luminar 4.
- The Edit In dialog opens. Choose your settings.
- Click Edit to send the file to Luminar. A new file is added to your Library and stacked with the original in your Library.
- Make any edits or adjustments.
- When done, click the Apply button to send the adjusted image back to Lightroom.
If you aren’t using Lightroom Classic, you can also use Luminar 4 as a plugin with Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Apple Photos for macOS and Aperture.
Keep in mind that Luminar is a full-featured stand-alone application, meaning you don’t have to use it as a plugin. But using it with Lightroom Classic, for me, makes it so easy to have the best of both worlds!
I prefer Thomas Fitzgerald’s creative approach – https://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2019/6/the-best-way-to-use-luminar-flex-with-lightroom.
Your post could have been clipped from the user guide. Give your audience a little credit…
Not everyone wants to use Photoshop to open an image in Luminar. While Thomas’ recommendation certainly works (and smart objects are a topic that we’re working on for the future), some photographers just want to quickly and easily send their images to Luminar right from Lightroom Classic.
User guides are rarely read.
Is there any way to prevent Luminar from adding “Luminar-edit” to every file name? Renaming every file is a time consuming and error prone process.
Dan – You can turn this off in Lightroom preferences. Note this will effect all external editors when you run as a plugin through Lightroom.
Go to preferences, then click on External Editing. Then at the very bottom, you’ll see “Edit Externally File Naming.” You can change this to follow a template you setup, or just choose “Filename” to not have Lightroom change it.
Thanks for the quick response. That is the solution that Luminar suggested. I just tried it again and it doesn’t work. My picture still comes back with “Luminar3-edit” added to the file name.
Hmm … be sure your changes are saving in Lightroom Classic preferences. I just tested this myself and it named it as I told it to.
Which option are you selecting in Preferences?
Thanks for taking the time to help me with this. In the External Editor settings I have the Preset as Luminar 3, File format TIFF, Color Space ProPhoto RGB, Bit Depth, 16 bits, Resolution 240, Compression None, Template Filename. I right click and select Export, Edit a Copy With Lightroom Adjustments and it always comes back with “Luminar3-edit” or “LuminarFlex-edit” appended to the file name. When I was on the phone with Luminar we tried all the different options on the file naming in Lightroom and I would never get anything different than the “Luminar3-edit”. They did screen shares and… Read more »
Alright, I think I know what might be happening here. Instead of selecting Export > Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments … try going to Edit In > Luminar 4. This is located near the top of the right-click menu.
This is better anyway as it will ensure you’re running Luminar as a plugin instead of a standalone application that just pushes the photo back to LR.
Let me know if this works! If not feel free to reach out to us via the Contact page and I’ll answer. https://photofocus.com/contact-us/
Hooray!! You are officially a wizard. That worked perfectly. I can now re-purchase the Luminar4 upgrade. Thank you so much.
When I click apply it saves it… to where? I have no idea… not Lightroom. How am I suppose to use this? I tried saving a different photo so I know where they are going. No- nothing. All this is doing is wasting my time. I could have opened it in Photoshop. edited it and have been done a long time ago. I like this program less and less
Are you using “Open In” or “Edit In” through Lightroom Classic? You have to use “Edit In” in order for it to come back to Lightroom Classic.