We also have to talk about Luminar 4’s integrated image browsing and cataloguing tools.

These are a great way to get ideas for effects to apply to your photos, and you’ll soon build a list of favorites – and you can of course create and add your own. These adjustments and effects can be applied manually using Luminar 4’s four newly-streamlined workspaces, or via single-click ‘Looks’ with preset combinations of of filters and effects. It’s not just a photo-enhancer but a powerful image editing tool in the classic sense, offering not just regular tone, color and cropping tools, but geometric corrections, raw processing, image layers and masking… and a whole range of creative effects.

(Image credit: Rod Lawton) (opens in new tab) It's not astrophotography, but it's a remarkable technical achievement. Luminar dropped in this perfectly masked night sky into a regular daytime photo with just a handful of mouseclicks, even shifting the overall exposure and colors to match the sky.

Sky luminar 4