• Luminar Aurora Hdr Review
• Aurora Vs Luminar 4

In the comparison of Luminar VS Aurora HDR, Luminar offers easy photo editing tools. Aurora HDR focuses more on HDR merging, processing and editing. The full version price of Luminar is 2/3 of Aurora HDR. Part 2: Aurora HDR Alternative.

Skylum (formerly Macphun) is a software developing company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is most known for its photo editing software Aurora HDR and Luminar.^[1] Skylum is also the developer of Snapheal, Focus, Tonality, Intensify, Noiseless and FX Photo Studio.^[2]

Alec Goncharoff The ART Studio PhaseOne Capture One, Skylum Luminar & Aurora HDR, DxO PhotoLab are professional-grade photo editing software designed for pros and serious enthusiasts. Like in modern cameras, you can basically reassign just about everything in DxO PhotoLab, Luminar, Capture One Pro, or Aurora HDR apps to just how you’d like to use it. Similar to Lightroom’s presets but a whole lot more powerful, Capture One Styles, DxO presets, Luminar & AuroraHDR looks are one-click solutions for bringing extra life to your RAW files. These include objects such as birds in flight, the aurora borealis, a full moon, clouds, a space shuttle launch (?!) and more. You can also upload your own, and Luminar does a mighty fine job in blending them seamlessly with the photograph’s sky. For some applications, Augmented Sky can create a realistic outcome.

Founded as Macphun in 2008, the company decided to change its name to Skylum in 2017, following the decision to develop its Mac only software for Windows as well.^[3]

History[edit]

Skylum was founded as Macphun in 2008 by two gaming developers and amateur photographers, Dmitry Sytnik and Paul Muzok. Initially the company developed applications for iOS. One of its first applications was Vintage Video Maker, which was later named Vintagio. In 2009, Apple named Vintagio among Best iPhone apps of the year.^[4][5] Alex Tsepko, Ivan Kutanin & Oksana Milczarek joined the team few years later. In total, the company released over 60 applications in the first three years. However, it saw the greatest number of downloads in the photography applications. Skylum thus decided to develop the same photography applications for macOS.^[6]

In early 2010, Skylum launched its first macOS application, FX Photo Studio Pro, which was earlier available for iOS only.^[7] Several other applications were also developed for macOS including Snapheal.^[8]

In order to tap the North Americas, the company moved its headquarters to San Diego, United States in 2013.^[6] A great number of employees came from the Nik Collection, which was earlier acquired by Google.^[9] Later that year, the company launched Intensify, a fully featured photo editing software, that was named among 2013 Best Mac App Store apps. In 2014, Skylum launched Tonality, a black-and-white photo editor software, that won Apple’s Editors’ Choice of the year.^[10] The same year, Skylum hired a team in Europe to develop localized versions of its software and start European expansion.^[6]

Luminar Aurora Hdr Review

In 2015, Skylum released a new image noise reduction application called Noiseless.^[11] Same year Skylum partnered with Trey Ratcliff to develop an HDR program. Through the collaboration Aurora HDR, a High Dynamic Range editing and processing tool, was released in November.^[12] A year later, Skylum developed Luminar, an all-in-one photo editing software as an alternative to Adobe’s Lightroom. Both the software became the most known applications by the company. ^[13]

In 2017, the company released Aurora HDR and Luminar for Windows - software that previously was available for macOS only.^[14] At the same time, it was also announced that Macphun would change its name to Skylum.^[15]

Products[edit]

Skylum is most known for its photo editing software, Aurora HDR launched in 2015, and Luminar launched in 2016. Other notable software by the company include: Snapheal, Focus, Tonality, Intensify, Noiseless, FX Photo Studio, and Photolemur.

Skylum products have been recognized with multiple awards. In 2019, Skylum took home four gold awards at the Digital Camera Grand Prix. The company was honored for innovation in the photo editing sphere with its Luminar 4, Aurora HDR 2019, and Photolemur^[16] editing software. Skylum also took home a technical award for its innovative approach. In 2017 Luminar and in 2019 Luminar Flex was named the Best Software Plugin in the Lucie Technical Awards.^[17] In the same years, Luminar was awarded the Best Imaging Software by TIPA. In 2018, Luminar was named an Editor’s Pick by Outdoor Photographer.^[18]

References[edit]

1. ^Thurston, Anthony (June 16, 2017). 'Macphun brings AI tech to photo editing with Luminar Neptune Skylum'.
2. ^Pierini, David (May 24, 2017). 'Macphun to offer software for Windows-based photogs'.
3. ^Scoblete, Greg (November 2, 2017). 'MACPHUN IS NOW SKYLUM, SETS SIGHTS ON DISAFFECTED LIGHTROOM USERS WITH LUMINAR 2018'.
4. ^'iPhoneで撮った動画を8ミリやサイレント映画風にする「Vintage Video Maker」'. November 19, 2009.
5. ^'MacPhun LLC Company Profile'(PDF). Retrieved February 24, 2018.
6. ^ ^abcLaurinavicius, Tomas (November 21, 2016). 'An In-Depth Look At The Future Of Digital Photography With Alex Tsepko Of Macphun'.
7. ^'Review: FX Photo Studio Pro for Mac, fun photo editing done right'. May 20, 2011.
8. ^Chang, Alexandra (December 16, 2011). 'Snapheal removes unwanted objects from photos, and more'.>
9. ^Freeman, Mike (November 29, 2013). 'Photo software firm Macphun comes to San Diego'.
10. ^Dove, Jackie (July 31, 2014). 'Review: Macphun's Tonality brings out your inner Ansel Adams'.
11. ^Carlson, Jeff (October 9, 2015). 'Noiseless and Noiseless Pro review: Clean up your photos shot in low-light conditions'.
12. ^Mathies, Daven (May 24, 2017). 'Macphun's highly lauded photo software are coming to Windows for the first time'.
13. ^Lawton, Rod (November 17, 2016). 'Both products became the most known applications by the company. MacPhun Luminar 1.0 review'.
14. ^Lestoc, Costea (June 10, 2017). 'Macphun's Luminar and Aurora HDR apps come to Windows 10 this fall'.
15. ^Zhang, Michael (October 27, 2017). 'Macphun Renaming Itself Skylum as its Photo Apps Land on Windows'.
16. ^'Luminar 4, Aurora HDR 2019, and Photolemur'.
17. ^'Lucie Technical Awards'.
18. ^'Outdoor Photographer'. December 12, 2018.

There is a lot of confusion, misconception, and myths around photo editing. Most photography enthusiasts think editing tools are expensive or difficult to master. That’s why beginners usually don’t go beyond advanced retouching tools or end up on not fine-tuning pictures at all. While the most feature-heavy, high-functional tools are much harder to master, there’s plenty of intermediate-level software for tweaking pictures in a few minutes.

Ifyou are new to photo editingor don’t have the device powerfulenough to support advanced software, an Aurora vs Luminar comparison will show you the toolsthat can be used to touch up your pictures quickly. So we’ve put together adetailed review of bothtools that will help make up your mind.

• Features and Capabilities of Luminar
• Features and Capabilities of Aurora HDR

Features and Capabilities of Luminar

Luminaris an end-to-end photo editor thathelps color-correct, crop images, emphasize on the foreground or thebackground, and fix the composition of the shot. The platform does not fall short of asset management features to helpphotographers organize theirshots.

Interface

Luminarhas a customizable workspace — users can move sidebars around and show or hidepanels. The standard layout of the software is exceptionally familiar —essential editing tools to the left and an advanced right-hand color correction panel.

Luminarhas a Custom Workspace feature that helps photographers mimic the look and feelof different editingtools, like Adobe Lightroom.

Features

Luminarsupports presets as well as layer-based editing. A photographer can edit apicture locally by tweaking a chosen layer, creating a mask, and correctingluminosity. There’s a range of ready-to-print filters — click on a preset totweak a picture in one click.

Otherthan that, Luminar is feature-rich software. The development team added additional photo managementfeatures to the tool, such as:

• Batch photo editing and viewing;
• Advanced viewing modes — gallery,single image, film view;
• AI-based search filter for getting ahold ofany shot in no time;
• Lost edits folder that keeps track ofall unsaved changes;
• Adjustment synching between several images.

Pricing

Photographersneed to pay $70 as a one-time fee to use Luminar and keep using the tool for free after that with noadditional fees.

Features and Capabilities of Aurora HDR

Launchedback in 2008, Aurora HDR is still on pace to gain popularity amongphotographers. While it’s no match for Adobe software in terms of how it can function, it’s much easier touse, with better performance speedand an intuitive interface.

Interface

Aurora’sinterface is highly guided — a first-time user will not have to worry aboutgetting lost. There’s a short tour guiding photographer through the mostpopular features, new updates, and explanations of how to navigate theworkspace.

Thelayouts of Luminar and AuroraHDR are similar— that shouldn’t come across as a surprise since Skylum develops bothproducts.

Theinterface isstreamlined and thought-out; the placement of all elements fits a design logicand is easy to grasp. The downside of the look and feel of the program is its lack ofcustomization — users can only go as far as to hide certain UI panels.

Features

Auroraincorporates advanced technology into photo editing quite smoothly. Beginnerphotographers will find AI-powered presets and tone mapping algorithms quite useful since they tweak the image considerably in just afew clicks.

Forprofessional photographers and retouching professionals, there are more toningfilters and color correction tools. The most impressive editing features are:

• Denoising;
• Masking;
• Adjustable gradients;
• Tone curve;
• LUT mapping.

Pricing

AuroraHDR is one of the most expensive intermediate editing tools in photography. To use the software, photographers haveto pay $89 for lifetime use. The development team does not update the toolregularly — over time, the collectionof features might feel too narrow or outdated.

Which is better:Luminar or Aurora HDR?

If you got to compare both tools, yet can’t make up your mind about which one to choose, take a look at the detailed chart that’s an ultimate face-off of Luminar vs Aurora:

Why Phototheca Is BetterThan Luminar and Aurora HDR

Luminar or Aurora HDR are both good photo editing tools.However, they are not the only alternativeoptions on the table — some tools are more affordable, easier to use,and highly functional.

Lately,more photographers have been discovering the power of Phototheca — an all-in-one desktop photo editing and asset management tool.Here’s why it’s better than Luminar andAurora HDR:

• Supports more picture formats, including RAW and HEIC;
• Uses artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies for image filtering;
• Automatically detects and removes duplicate files;
• Has 56 unique editing filters that will instantly fine-tune any shot — more than either Luminar or Aurora;
• Uploads pictures to most common social media in a few clicks;
• Has a free version with basic photo editing tools.
• Password-protects sensitive pictures so that nothing can compromise their safety.

Don’t hesitate to give the next-generation photo editing tool a try — download Phototheca to take picture management and retouching to the next level!

Aurora Vs Luminar 4

Phototheca is the photo organizing software for PC. It gives the way to organize thousands of family photos over decades into the clean and straightforward photo library.

Phototheca can find and remove all duplicates, adjust the date and time of photos, tag photos with keywords, recognize faces, and organize photos into life events. See all Features of the software.

Computer programming and digital photography enthusiast. Make programs for the last 20 years. Interested in product design, UX, and image processing.
Work for Lunarship Software and improve Phototheca every day.