Lightroom Classic to Luminar: catalog import tutorial

Anthony Morganti tests Luminar's Lightroom Classic catalog importer with 32 photos, including five edited examples. The tutorial covers the import process and compares the resulting images with their Lightroom versions. Some look close; others differ noticeably in brightness and color.

The process starts with Lightroom Classic closed. In Luminar, Morganti opens File > Catalog > Import Lightroom Catalog, selects the catalog and starts the import. The importer shown is marked beta and supports Lightroom Classic only. It reads the original catalog and leaves photos in their existing locations. It also loads every photo in the referenced folders, so the imported total can exceed the number in the Lightroom catalog.

In this test, folders, a collection converted to an album, flags and star ratings transfer. Luminar also reproduces basic tonal adjustments, crops, black-and-white mixes, HSL luminance changes and point curves. Morganti reports that RGB curves transfer too, though he does not show an example.

The limitations matter for edited libraries. Color labels, parametric curves, masks, denoise, lens corrections and removal edits do not carry over in the demonstration. Removed cars reappear, and a missing sky mask leaves clouds yellow in one image. Morganti recommends testing a catalog with Luminar's trial to judge whether the results and required manual edits are acceptable.