Luminar 4 misses a couple of key features, however, that the others have. This has become a standard way of working for many programs, not just Lightroom, such as Exposure X5, ON1 Photo RAW 2020 and Capture One Pro.

Luminar 4 also offers Lightroom-style non-destructive editing, so that even after you’ve closed an image or even quit the software, you can go back later and change or remove any of your settings. (Image credit: Rod Lawton) (opens in new tab) You can create Albums to 'virtually' group together images stored in different folders, though. Luminar 4 has its own integrated browsing and cataloguing tools, complete with non-destructive editing, though it doesn't offer more advanced options like virtual copies, smart albums or search tools. These are fast and effective, and while they’re not as sophisticated as Lightroom’s, for example, they’re probably enough for casual users. 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. 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.

Luminar 4 portrait editing