Global Adjustments
The first corrections that most photographers use are called global adjustments. These are corrections that affect the entire photo and are generally done before any spot/localized corrections are applied. They’re also the filters you should save first to your “basic” workflow, as you’re likely to use most of them on every image you work with.
Local Adjustments
After you’ve made all of the global corrections it’s time to move on to fixing issues that only affect a certain part of the photo.
1. Artifact Removal (spots, dirt, blemishes, power lines, etc.): Luminar has two tools for removing unwanted elements. The first is the Erase tool, which is great for removing elements in areas where the contrast is fairly uniform. For areas with that have high contrast, the Clone Stamp will often be the tool of choice. Both of these can be found on the right-hand tool bar.
2. Now’s the time for any other local corrections you’d like to make. Maybe you’d like to lighten up an area of the photo to bring more attention to it, or sharpen the eyes of a portrait. Simply choose the filter that will need your need and go from there. (Often you’ll need a separate layer with a layer mask to really isolate an area.)
Once these two steps are finished your image is now ready to go, either “as is” or with added stylized effects you’d like to apply from Luminar’s filter list.
