Over the last few days I have been using the free trials of Aurora HDR and Luminar by Skylum – Great Photography Differently You can get trial version that are fully functional for about 10 days.
For batch processing and editing of photos the main applications have tended to be from Adobe with Lightroom and Photoshop. I purchased both of these as I found they were good for the photography I was doing and I could claim they were a work expense when I was taking car photos.
Adobe then went to the subscription model which was OK as I could justify the cost. Currently the photography plan is £120 a year for Lightroom and Photoshop. Which is fine if that does what you need but in the end you never own the software. I had some old versions of LR and PS and have been using them when I cancelled the subscription. They are both about 5 years old and there are features that I miss.
Like most applications it takes a while to get used to them and build up your skill set but I have been impressed by what I have been able to do so far. A lot of the adjustments are named for real people so it is a lot easier to understand compared to Photoshop. For a casual photographer Luminar does an awful lot that Photoshop does and only costs £53 (normally £64).
Aurora is used for HDR images usually a combination of 3 or more images taken at various exposures and combined to create a much higher dynamic range than you can normally get in a single image. Aurora is £92 so you would need to do a lot of HDR to justify it but you can see an example in the castle pictures below.
The Yellowstone photo is an old one that I tweaked. Some really old photos have had some life put back into them with Luminar and some that I would have deleted can be rescued. I am definitely thinking of getting Luminar when the trial period ends. I like Aurora but would need to see if it is worth that money. If it was on offer then I would definitely consider it.
Obviously both are not free but personally I think they are viable alternatives to Adobe's subscription model if you are into photography.
For batch processing and editing of photos the main applications have tended to be from Adobe with Lightroom and Photoshop. I purchased both of these as I found they were good for the photography I was doing and I could claim they were a work expense when I was taking car photos.
Adobe then went to the subscription model which was OK as I could justify the cost. Currently the photography plan is £120 a year for Lightroom and Photoshop. Which is fine if that does what you need but in the end you never own the software. I had some old versions of LR and PS and have been using them when I cancelled the subscription. They are both about 5 years old and there are features that I miss.
Like most applications it takes a while to get used to them and build up your skill set but I have been impressed by what I have been able to do so far. A lot of the adjustments are named for real people so it is a lot easier to understand compared to Photoshop. For a casual photographer Luminar does an awful lot that Photoshop does and only costs £53 (normally £64).
Aurora is used for HDR images usually a combination of 3 or more images taken at various exposures and combined to create a much higher dynamic range than you can normally get in a single image. Aurora is £92 so you would need to do a lot of HDR to justify it but you can see an example in the castle pictures below.
The Yellowstone photo is an old one that I tweaked. Some really old photos have had some life put back into them with Luminar and some that I would have deleted can be rescued. I am definitely thinking of getting Luminar when the trial period ends. I like Aurora but would need to see if it is worth that money. If it was on offer then I would definitely consider it.
Obviously both are not free but personally I think they are viable alternatives to Adobe's subscription model if you are into photography.