Luminar 4

[purplehaze]

Hi all,

So after a months-long drought, I am finally swimming in freelance translation work and have had very little time for anything else. I did do a portrait session with a nephew who was needing a head shot for his job hunt. We turned my living room into a little studio with a black backdrop and I shot with two soft boxes in a clam shell setup. It was great fun. I had spent the morning watching a Peter Hurley video on the importance of engaging your subject and it really helped.

Then last night, I responded to an invitation to upgrade my little used Luminar 3 to Luminar 4 and decided to see what it would do with the aforesaid head shots. I was shocked at how little time it took to achieve results comparable, if not better, than what I had achieved in Capture One. I decided to try some landscapes and then some close ups, and before I knew it, it was 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to keep going! I don't know what it is about their RAW processor, but I find my images look better even before I start editing. Whatever, I am hooked and will be exploring it further. It is fully integrated with the Adobe editors, but not with Capture One, so it will probably be best for me to round trip through Photoshop.

Here's a sample of what I did last night. It has been slightly Ortonized.

[billtils]

Hi all,

So after a months-long drought, I am finally swimming in freelance translation work and have had very little time for anything else. I did do a portrait session with a nephew who was needing a head shot for his job hunt. We turned my living room into a little studio with a black backdrop and I shot with two soft boxes in a clam shell setup. It was great fun. I had spent the morning watching a Peter Hurley video on the importance of engaging your subject and it really helped.

Then last night, I responded to an invitation to upgrade my little used Luminar 3 to Luminar 4 and decided to see what it would do with the aforesaid head shots. I was shocked at how little time it took to achieve results comparable, if not better, than what I had achieved in Capture One. I decided to try some landscapes and then some close ups, and before I knew it, it was 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to keep going! I don't know what it is about their RAW processor, but I find my images look better even before I start editing. Whatever, I am hooked and will be exploring it further. It is fully integrated with the Adobe editors, but not with Capture One, so it will probably be best for me to round trip through Photoshop.

Here's a sample of what I did last night. It has been slightly Ortonized.

Super - no wonder you are pleased. You should sell it to them to use in their advertising

[Shadowman]

Hi Janet,

Nice capture. How much engagement was needed and how long did the session last?

[purplehaze]

Super - no wonder you are pleased. You should sell it to them to use in their advertising

Thanks, Bill. Good to know you like it.

[purplehaze]

Hi Janet,

Nice capture. How much engagement was needed and how long did the session last?

Heh, heh! Actually, I followed that guy for a while, I think. It was a good day for nature shots. I also captured this guy, whom I think I only saw through the camera lens, not with my naked eye. (This was also processed last night in Luminar. Maybe more contrast is needed?)

#2

[Manfred M]

It's good to see you back behind the camera and working on your PP skills (although it does look like the images are unlikely all that recent).

Two nice, strong image here, Janis. The one thing that strikes me about both is that they look a touch "hot". The exposure on the first one looks fine, so pulling down the mid-point a touch and perhaps boosting the mid-tone contrast might be worth considering?

With the second one, it looks more like a minor black point issue. The parts that I would expect to be black on it (the eye, for instance) is quite gray. Pulling the black point to the right would give you that global contrast boost that you have identified as lacking. If that isn't enough, try adding a bit more mid-point contrast.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Manfred. I think I saw today what you were saying about #1 being a bit hot.

As far as the black point in #2 goes, the trick for me is getting some black in there without pulling everything down past where I want it to be, but I will play with it.

[Manfred M]

Thanks, Manfred. I think I saw today what you were saying about #1 being a bit hot.

As far as the black point in #2 goes, the trick for me is getting some black in there without pulling everything down past where I want it to be, but I will play with it.

I don't know what the shooting conditions looked like, but even with the adjustments that I would normally do, the image will have more global contrast, which almost always give you a stronger image.