Move Your Luminar Looks To Luminar Flex
Skylum announced Luminar Flex yesterday, and made it available for free to owners of Luminar 3. Luminar Flex is a plug-in version of Luminar and has all the editing features of Luminar 3. Skylum posted an overview of Luminar Flex including answers about the distinction between Luminar 3 and Luminar Flex.
My abridged version:
Luminar 3 is an asset manager and a photo editor. Luminar 3 is for photographers that want to both organize and edit their photos in Luminar.
Luminar Flex is an editing plug-in to other photo software. Luminar Flex is for photographers that organize their photos in Lightroom/Photoshop/Apple Photos, and want Luminar’s editing power.
Today, Luminar Flex is made available for free to Luminar 3 users. In the future, each will be its own product, with its own pricing.
As a photo editor, both Luminar Flex and Luminar 3 have the same filters, features, and capabilities. Which application you choose depends on your workflow.
Because Luminar Flex and Luminar 3 are distinct and separate applications, Looks you have installed or created in Luminar 3 do not automatically appear in Luminar Flex. However, it’s easy to get them into Luminar Flex.
Your Custom Luminar Looks
My preferred method of getting my Luminar 3 Looks into Luminar Flex is using the the Finder/Explorer. Here’s what I do:
Start Luminar 3.
Choose File > Show Luminar Looks Folder. A Finder/Explorer window opens showing your custom Looks.
Select all the Looks you want to move in the Finder/Explorer, right click, and choose Copy.
Close Luminar 3.
Start Luminar Flex as a standalone application.
Choose File > Show Luminar Looks Folder. A Finder/Explorer window opens showing the custom looks folder for Flex. Unless you’ve created a Look already in Luminar Flex, this folder is empty.
Close Luminar Flex.
Right click in the Luminar Flex custom looks folder and choose Paste.
The next time you launch Luminar Flex as a plug-in, your custom Looks are available to you.
At present, there is no automatic way to keep Luminar 3 and Luminar Flex in sync wrt custom Looks or Looks packs. Although, in practice, your preferred workflow will steer you toward either Luminar 3 or Luminar Flex.
Note: Launching Luminar Flex as a standalone application is for managing Looks and Workspaces. Skylum does not support Luminar Flex as a standalone application.
Luminar 3: Use File > Show Luminar Looks Folder to find your custom Luminar Looks folder
Luminar Flex: Use File > Show Luminar Looks Folder to open the Looks for Flex. Copy the Looks from Luminar 3 into this folder.
Processed using Looks in Luminar Flex
Luminar Looks Collections
If you purchased a Looks collection from the Skylum Marketplace or other photographer, you can load those looks into Luminar Flex.
Start Luminar Flex as a standalone
Use File > Add Luminar Looks Collection and install the collection into Flex
Close Luminar Flex
Migrate Your Workspaces, Too!
Do you have custom Workspaces? The Finder/Explorer approach above also works to migrate custom Workspaces from Luminar 3 into Luminar Flex. Just use File > Show Workspaces Folder instead of the Looks folder. The rest of the steps are the same.