For boudoir photographers, getting skin to look perfect is incredibly important and there are various software options that offer automation and simplicity instead of spending endless hours in Photoshop. In this video, check out how Luminar 4 performs. (Models in the video are wearing lingerie — possibly NSFW!)
Highly regarded boudoir photographer and educator Michael Sasser decided to see how Luminar 4 compares to his regular choice of software: Portraiture. While Photoshop is most photographer’s tool of choice when it comes to retouching skin, sometimes it’s easier to have a plugin or standalone piece of software that can automate many of the processes and give you quick results.
As detailed by Fstoppers’ own Nandon Harmsen in this excellent article, there are some features within Luminar that might make you feel that it’s not a serious tool — crazy skies full of galaxies and comets, and the option to throw a random giraffe into any photograph. From this video, it seems that the skin retouching and batch processing stacks up quite well, though of course, tastes may vary.
Luminar has a seven-day trial available to download (click here, hover on “Luminar” in the top menu, then click “Download Trial”), so if you find yourself tweaking pores and pimples on a regular basis, it might be worth checking out whether it’s worth adding to your arsenal.
Have you used Luminar for retouching skin? Let us know your experience in the comments below.
I tried it on a portrait that had a young man with pretty bad acne. It did not do well where the acne met the chin line. It just made a big mess of it. Luckily smart me made a copy layer and just brushed the good stuff back in. The rest of the portrait enhancements work pretty well. Nik probably has the best in color efex 4 though.