September DAM Update
Yesterday our CEO, Alex Tsepko released the following statement about the upcoming Digital Asset Manager (DAM) update for Luminar 2018:
"We know that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are waiting for this update. But mainly because there are so many people who need this tool, we wanted to take just enough time to make everything right.
We promise we will ship the DAM this year. I know it has been a long wait, but we don’t want to ship a product that we would not use ourselves. The new Luminar (with DAM) will bring you great speed and the most incredible user experience available. Your photos will play the main role. Our software aims to get out of the way.
The update will be free for everyone who has Luminar 2018.”
Since that post we’ve had a few questions:
Q: Will Luminar 2018 be updated with the DAM or will all Luminar 2018 users get a copy of Luminar 2019?
A: Luminar 2018 will be updated with the DAM
Q: How long after Luminar 2018 is updated with DAM will Luminar 2019 be released?
A: We plan to release Luminar 2019 later next year.
Q: Will Luminar 2018 users get updates to the DAM to address bugs?
A: Seeing as there will be several months between the release of DAM and the next (paid) major version upgrade, there will be updates to address bugs.
Q: Will Luminar 2018 users get a discount on Luminar 2019?
A: Yes. We always provide upgrade discounts for our customers. However, pricing for Luminar 2019 (and discount amounts) have not yet been finalized.
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@angelaandrieux--
I'm actually shaking my head right now. Do you have any idea how many correspondences I've had with various Luminar/Skylum people that include the phrase "sorry for the confusion." I've been very clear all along on this. One of the email discussions I had with someone after I explained for the umpteenth time that I do not have the program installed anymore, ended with "sorry for the confusion. We'll email you when the update happens."
I'm not checking back to this forum for an undetermined amount of time. Why is that my responsibility and how often? Every day, every week, every two weeks on Tuesdays. every month? There are 3.5 months left in 2018, that's a rather large opening. Email me when this update happens. There are elements of Luminar that I find wonderful, but man, you make it really hard to recommend this product.
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@Rick - At the risk of sounding repetitive, I am truly sorry that your experience with our support team has been frustrating. We will also email notices about updates when they are live and will likely post about their availability in our Facebook groups. If that doesn't work for you, you can request a refund by emailing support@skylum.com.
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@angela -- no refund required. As I've said numerous times, when the program works, I like it. That said, I think we've explored and discussed the shortcomings of Skylum to death. I'm OK to move forward and hope things (and by things I mean better and honest communication with customers and a stable product) will improve. Let's chalk it up to growing pains.
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Angela -
Since you're asking what parity issues are most important to us Windows users, the top of my list would be a Duplicate Layer function, which exists in the Mac version and virtually every other layer-based image editor in the world. The lack of this typically cripples my workflow. Plugin support is also important, as are gradient filters that allow the horizon to be moved up and down. These are basics that have eluded your Windows developers since the release of Luminar 2018. I've stopped watching the wonderful videos produced by folks like Jim Nix because they cannot be duplicated on my Windows version and I'm beginning to think they never will. For months now, we've heard you and your workmates say that everything is on hold until the DAM is released. Now we hear that you're in private early beta for the DAM, but you're preselling Aurora 2019 and Photolemur 3.0, so apparently you're not putting everyone on the DAM. This is insane.
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Laughable is it not? The entire history of Skylum is one of u turns and broken promises. I am on Mac so sympathise with Windows users; you bought on the basis of parity and it is still not here? Yet other Skylum products come along presumably because Skylum's business objective is to sell as much as they can without any loyalty to those who bought earlier. I got a refund weeks ago on the back of broken promises re the DAM. I am glad I did - there is better software out there and certainly more open and customer loyal companies. At the moment I am helping to test a DAM being developed by a competitor. They have only just picked that particular ball up but are already involving their users in the development process.......and there is already a working version, albeit limited in functionality.
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@Colin - I followed in your footsteps and got a refund as well. Now that I watched that sneak peak of the upcoming DAM, I don't like the way it's displaying the images at all. I have gone back to LR and still assessing ON1. Luminar will never be an LR replacement for serious photographers. - Will this post also be deleted? Yes, I know censorship is rife in this forum.
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@Margarita - you have done the right thing and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised how well ON1 has come on, especially after the last update. Just a shame the content aware eraser is not all it should be but that might be tweaked later. I am still on LR as you know but remain close to PhotoLab which I really do think is the elephant in the room. It is capable of some amazing results once you get to understand the workings and combined with Nik it can do so much. Shame it is not Fuji compatible though - hopefully that will change, although it does not impact me.
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@Magarita I too have been disappointed by the missing DAM, but I have to disagree with your comment on censorship.
I was able to read your comment, as well as @Collin and some of my own less than enthusiastic ramblings. While less respectful posts might get deleted, credit where it is due and Skyrim is at least tolerant of criticism.
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@Verlon - My experience has been that I have had posts deleted from the Skylum FB page as well as their FB Group page and here. None have been abusive or with inappropriate language, but have been truthful about what has transpired in the last year or so. My disappointment with Luminar extended far beyond just the DAM. The only credit I give them is for Aurora 2018, which is pretty good, in my opinion.
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But until we fully see Aurora 2019 in action, we do not know if they put back items like luminosity masking at least as well as we had it a couple of years ago. None of the preview videos on Youtube have shown anything about that feature. I guess we will all know more in a couple of weeks.
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@Angela Andrieux, many thanks for your reply to my post. Today I received the email linking to Alex's detailed update so I greatly appreciate that Skylum has listened, learned and acted - very useful to know straight away that significant announcements have been made. All of the news is very positive and in my opinion should mitigate the concerns stated by everyone here. Really good news.
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Hey guys,I am in Cologne Germany for Photokina 2018. To my big surprise as I was leaving for the day I suddenly sat that skylum was there and had a small standby. So I ofcourse had to ask very cat fully about the coming DAM. Ans guess what I got a little demo from head of AI at Skylum Alex Tsepko. And yes that DAM excist and it is FAST like hell.
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Hi Piotr,
Yes, the Luminar Library will be released in December. We've been sharing quite a bit of information about it on our blog. Here is the latest post: https://skylum.com/blog/luminar-with-libraries-lets-you-label-and-rate-your-photos
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@Angela, why isn't there even the slightest hint at keywording in all those screenshots? Open menus, open sidebars, no hint whatsoever of keywords!
And then what about Luminar 3.0? Is the name Luminar 2019 already burnt that you have to rename - or do you intend to give existing customers Luminar 2019 and for Luminar 3.0 we'd be expected to cough up an update fee?
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@Colin Grant the default and the main way to sort is by capture date; there is a recently edited tab that allows you to access photos you edited today, this week, and this month; there's a recently added tab that shows the latest additions to the library; there's no sorting by the addition date as such because Luminar doesn't require importing and re-importing photos - you point it to a folder once, and it syncs the files in it automatically. There's a folder view that duplicates the folder structure on your storage device. You can also create albums that are independent of the folder structure in file system.
@K.G. Wuensch Luminar 3 is the name of the free upgrade with library functionality. Keywording won't be available in the initial release of the 3, we'll add it later in an free update. There will be no paid upgrades for Luminar up until the late 2019.
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@Denis Kotsee, thank you for that. Useful stuff re the sorting but without keywording support the dam is pretty valueless to me seeing as I use it extensively, as do all the major photo web portals. Absolutely amazed this is not there yet, especially as Skylum have supposedly debated the dam requirement with many leading photographers. All you have really built is an image browser it seems and one that is far less capable than software already out there. Why are you even bothering? Am I correct in concluding the there is no exif/iptc editing support either? Or am I mis-understanding?
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Thanks Angela, but you say "will likely be added". That does not seem a definite yes so we know not if we will get it at all and even if we do when. I certainly have no intention of buying back into Luminar if this is the vision re an alternative to LR. Indeed with the latest incarnation of ON1 it appears you may be getting further behind the field.
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Sorting without keywording seems a pretty big miss. Is the intended workflow that we assign virtual albums to all photos relevant to a specific keyword? That ratings, colors, and favorites handle this? Both seem rather week in comparison.
Unable to edit metadata is another big miss. For photos I scan in from 80 years ago, showing a 2018 capture date is misleading.
As a DAM, how is Luminar better than, or even comparable to Lightroom, Apple Photos, or even Finder?
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