Sometimes photo editing is really difficult and I’m not even talking about the actual editing, I’m talking about the editing software itself. I’ve crashed out a few times on a few different software applications, but this time, it’s Luminar 3. I’m back in business again. I’ve learned a few things and had a few things I already knew reinforced. The most important thing that I already knew is to backup your work. Please do this. Because I do this, my Luminar 3 crash was not utterly devastating. When considering how to approach your backup, I would advise you whatever software you are using, to make a high-quality jpeg version of your final edit. This is in addition to the backup of your drives that you are already doing.
What I learned is that Luminar 3 is not currently capable of handling a large library. In my subsequent research on how to rethink my approach, I found this Matt Suess video to be a really good starting point. In the video, he offers a few options of how to work around this library issue. I would recommend watching it and then considering which variation you might want to apply or modify for your library set-up.
This crash was a complete drain on my creative energy and time in general. I keep track of the time I spend on photography and this past week, this crash took 11 hours of work time to fix. This does not include the backups I ran of my drives. Hopefully, the fix will hold. As of the writing of this post, it seems solid.
This photo is my first edit under my newly revamped set-up:
This photo has a total of four layers. The first was some basic edits, a crop and details enhancer. The second was a Luminar Look applied called Camden Fade. It is an analogue film style look. The third was my black and white conversion layer. I applied a blue filter within the black and white conversion and then increased the yellow luminance. The fourth layer includes a filter called the Orton effect and a vignette.
The original file is this one:
This is a file that I very possibly will be revisiting. I like the black and white edit, but I also think the color edit alternatives here are interesting.
Do you like this particular interpretation? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
Added to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, Bricks or Stone and Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Monochrome.
I like it very much, Amy. The angel is beautifully lit and I think you have enhanced this well. 🙂 🙂
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Thanks very much! That lighting was just a happy accident, my favorite kind!
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Sorry to hear about the issue you’ve experienced with Luminar. I’m lucky in that I have never experienced anything similar in Lightroom or Afinity – probably because the latter doesn’t have a library function in the first place! 😉 I don’t tend to use lots of layers either as most of my work is documentary in nature rather than artistic. Glad you’ve got it back up and running 🙂
I like your B&W – suits the image very well 🙂
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Thanks very much and I am glad to be up and running again as well.
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Beautiful shot, Amy, and beautifully processed. I think using selective color will be an interesting experiment. I love the light here too.
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Thanks very much. I do think this photo would have a few interesting potential edits, part of the fun of creating!
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This is something new to me:) Very interesting.
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Thank you for your visit and kind comment.
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That’s a very scary story Amy and some excellent advice. I went the extra step this year and subscribed to Backblaze which is cloud backup software. It took forever to do all of my drives and my Mac but now that it’s done it’s self-maintaining and fast. That’s in addition to my backup drives. Backups are tedious but critical.
Your image is lovely, I much prefer your edited version.
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Thanks very much Tina. It is true that some of the behind the scenes stuff you have to do as a photographer is tedious. It sure is important though. It sounds like you have a very robust system in place!
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I really like the edit. The figures stand out so clearly and there is an atmosphere of ghostliness to the photo.
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Thank you very much.
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I do like your edit, although the color version sets an alternate mood, which is nice as well. Sorry to hear of your lost 11 hours. Technology is great but when it isn’t…hours go down the drain. I agree with you about backing up. It’s hard to know how many backups (and in what format) will last the longest.
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Yup, you bring up a very good point about format and number of backups. It’s important to have a system and update it as technology evolves.
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Yes and keeping up with what to update is a definite challenge! Imagine trying to print everything to have a “real” copy which doesn’t need to be updated! Storage units would fill quickly! 🙂
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Yeah, I’d have to rent so many! 🙂
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I think the black and white version is gorgeous !
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Thanks 🙂
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What outstanding photography of the stone artwork. Simply divine 😀
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Thanks very much Cee!
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I really love the B&W edit, Amy. The faces shine out of the beautiful surroundings.
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Thanks very much!
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A beautiful shot and beautifully edited, Amy.
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Thank you 🙂
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The work is coming along well I see, although I’m very sorry to hear about the technical difficulties! Yes – I ALWAYS back up my work! 🙂
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Glad to hear you have a system in place.
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That is the most frustrating experience, I can relate to it. Horrible…
I love the edited version, the light is so well captured.
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Yes, I feel like pretty much everyone who has dabbled in photography has had this problem at some point.
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Heartbreaking when that happens. I have back up upon backup and am actually thinking of storing in the cloud as well when we have an unlimited internet connection again. Love your black and white treatment.
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Yes, the cloud is a step I have not taken. I just don’t really trust it. The best argument for using a cloud backup, in my opinion, is the whole “you lose everything in a fire”, that’s a point well taken.
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I am a Luminar user as well. I use Lightroom 6 for my catalog (not the subscription version) so when I found the Luminar catalog to be less than useful, I fell back to Lightroom. I keep a backup of all my photographs on a USB hard drive and I use an online backup service as well. With redundant backups, one online, I feel pretty protected and so far I’ve not needed to use either backup set for anything except the occasional accidental deletion of an image.
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Sounds like you have a good system in place. At the moment I am using Bridge for my catalogue and then edit in Luminar. I really like Luminar in terms of editing, but the library feature is problematic at this point for anyone with a larger library.
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I also like the black and white version
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Thanks 🙂
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You are welcome
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Thanks!
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