Luminar froze on occasion, but was faster to load images and adjustments than Affinity Photo. I use a Windows 10 laptop that is more than capable of running both programs at once, but I trialed each program separately to see how well they performed. Both Affinity Photo and Luminar 4 are processor-intensive programs, so make sure you have enough memory available before hitting the download button. The power of your computer and graphics card make a big difference when using photo and video editing software.

I used a landscape shot of the beach and sea to test the sky enhancement functions, though you should be careful when applying AI Sky Replacement to images with objects along the horizon. I’m impressed by the AI Sky Replacement (and had a lot of fun playing around with this!), plus there’s a huge range of skies to choose from, including sunsets, starry skies, and bright blue skies. At full strength, they often look a bit too strong, though you can always adjust the strength slider for a more natural look. With Luminar, it’s all about getting your editing done quickly and with minimum fuss, and the AI tools work okay, but I still have some reservations. Luminar 4 utilizes AI technology for some of its editing tools, including AI Sky Replacement and AI Augmented Sky. Which program offers superior editing capabilities? It’s a close call. Plus, Affinity Photo offers every kind of advanced editing/retouching/graphic design tool you can imagine, as well as printing options. There’s only a limited range of built-in LUTs, but you can always find more on the internet. You won’t find many presets in Affinity Photo, but you will find tools like Mesh Warp, Pen, Rectangular Marquee, and Clone Stamp. Click on your chosen Persona to see the tools you’ll need for the job for instance, in Develop, the huge plethora of tools down the left-hand side of the screen are replaced by a few editing essentials, perfect for getting basic editing processes out of the way. There’s one for Photo, Liquify, Develop, Tone Mapping, and Export. Instead of workspaces, Affinity Photo uses something called Personas.

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