New Luminar with Libraries, No Paid Upgrades, and MORE!
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We made a decision to do everything we can for your favorite Luminar to continue being an imaging software you can rely on for your photo editing needs. I understand that some of you are frustrated because we are delayed in delivering the promised update. We want you to know that we have heard every single one of you, and we've taken actions to do right by you. Great things are coming...
Skylum will ship the new version of Luminar (with Libraries) in December or possibly even earlier! That means that it's now only months away; before you know it, you'll be playing around with new Luminar in the new year. What's more is that we've made a promise to get better in communicating with our customers. From now on, not only will you always know what's coming and when, but you'll also get answers to your questions straight away.
That's not all. We're also happy to announce that you will not have to buy an upgrade to get Luminar's new features! Because you shouldn't have to pay extra for new features that every photographer needs. And we’ll also give more people early access to our software.
Have I got your attention? If so, let's delve deeper the details.
Luminar with Libraries
As mentioned last week, the new version will be released later this year. Anyone who owns Luminar will get the new update for free in December, if not earlier. This new version is now in a closed beta testing, and the feedback we have been getting so far has been overwhelming.
The first version of Libraries in Luminar is all about these main points: performance, comfort, and a complete user experience. This means the new version will give you speed to browse & organize images without the extra wait time. This means that you’ll enjoy your photos moments after you start the software.
Here’s a short speed test I did last week. Take a look and stay tuned for more videos, webinars, posts and live sessions about other features.
Most importantly, with the new version of Luminar, you’ll be able to conveniently group photos into albums, rate pictures, sync edits between hundreds of images, and do more without the need to check back a manual every time.
We spent years, studying the needs, workflows, and preferences of different photographers. So in the new Luminar, you get a truly great viewing/browsing experience that draws you in and helps you enjoy and organize your photos without extra distractions.
And since Luminar is already packed with dozens of innovative tools to edit, enhance, and share photos, you will soon get the most comprehensive and well-rounded photography experience available in a piece of software.
No paid upgrade. You will get all the great stuff for free.
Alongside the new Libraries feature, we also poured a lot of hard work, time & research to bring you new editing tools for portraits, landscapes, aerial and other genres of photography; new features powered by Artificial Intelligence, new looks and styles, and more.
We have initially planned to release those features in Luminar 2019, as a paid upgrade, just like we usually do. However, this week, we made a decision to forgo any paid upgrades at least until the end of 2019, and add those features to Luminar 2018 for free.
Luminar will be getting faster, more powerful, and smarter, but you won't have to pay a dime to get new upgrades.
We will incorporate the new tools and features in the latest version of Luminar instead of asking you to pay for the upgrade. Expect first updates as soon as this year. And throughout the next year we will be frequently rolling out more free updates to make Luminar Libraries, and its Editing & Sharing tools faster, better and more powerful for you.
A new price for a limited time.
Skylum's software is priced so that everyone can afford them and designed so that everyone can easily use them. We do this because everyone takes photos, not just experienced and pro photographers. We do this because photos are more than just the captions they come with.
We believe that every single person deserves to make his/her photos look their best without the extra hassle and without having to study and master all those photo editing tips the pros use.
So for a limited time, Luminar will be available for just $59 for new users who have yet to purchase the software. For this price, you’ll get the current version of the software, the free update to the new version that boasts Libraries, and free updates for the new features we initially developed for Luminar 2019.
No subscriptions. No upgrade fees. No extra charges.
A roadmap.
We also plan to launch a new section on Skylum.com, a section dedicated to upcoming releases and update announcements. You’ll see what’s coming and what to expect next. You’ll also be able to share your feedback and make suggestions for new features.
An early access to new versions.
We are building Luminar and our other products for you so we'd like to make you a part of our product development. Selected customers will get early access to the new versions, and these lucky folks will be able to participate in the beta program as well as contribute to the development itself.
I can’t share a lot of details on this now, but be sure to stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks.
A summary (if you hate long reads)
- The new Luminar with Libraries will come this December.
- This update is free for all Luminar 2018 users.
- There will be NO paid upgrade to Luminar 2019.
- Instead, you will get the new tools and features as free updates to your current version of Luminar.
- More AI-powered tools will come to Luminar soon.
- We will get better in keeping you updated on what’s coming.
- Some of you will have a chance to become a part of Luminar development.
- More users will get an early access to beta versions of Luminar.
- For new users, Luminar is available at a discounted price for a limited time.
- We are sorry to keep you waiting for these updates.
- We love you!!
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This is great news! It's nice to have some concrete details about the new release and a clearer roadmap of what's to come. Kudos for making the upgrades free for 2019 - I"m sure that will be welcome news to a lot of users.
Will you be posting a more detailed feature list of what will be in Libraries? I'm especially interested in being able to use multiple search criteria to find photos and being able to apply specific filters to a group of photos.
Any way to still be involved in this or future betas?
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Sounds good to me. The importance of feedback to customers is paramount. Obviously people are quite frustrated and your comments have established a roadmap for future events. If Skylum can keep us fully up to date with events, I am sure there will be a great many satisfied customers at the end of the day, whose expectations will have been fulfilled.
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We will be posting more details, news, and updates in the new section on our website mentioned in the post. Email us at support@skylum.com and we'll add your email to the list of candidates for the beta.
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Well, good to hear you are implementing the upgrades with no payment till the end of 2019.
There are lots of rough edges in Luminar 2018, things that would work OK but don't. Several of them of great importance for a photo editor like correct color management.
The DAM is another thing that was promised quite long time ago and has been posponed several times, so a time for trying and polising it after putting it in the market would be needed.
I understand that things don't work always as planned, so posponing the advent of Luminar 2019 and giving users most of 2019 to upgrade without payment is a good policy. Thank you.
Let's see if major bugs and problems present in the software are mostly corrected mean while.
There is a point in your message that worries me: you say you are going to implement AI to process images.
AI may be great sometimes when you are in a hurry, but most serious photographer's want to know what they are doing in their photos.
I don't want another app with intelligent filters that make your portraits look great (and your skin look like plastic). There are dozens of it, google play is full of them.
I want a serious developing and retouching app.
If there are intelligent filters (like current AI filter) great, as long as you can have control of your workflow and don't use them if you don't want.
Best results and best photos do not outcome from authomated software.
I like taking photos myself and deciding what to do to them.
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@K.G.
Well, I'm not aware of any strict rule that the image's previews have to be equal size, who cares? as long as the previews provide us with the functionality we need.
And you actually don't know, maybe the system will give you an option to make the previews equal or variable size so calling it "idiotic" is a bit presumptuous on your part. Lets be positive and first see what features are coming and then we constructively comment on them.... just a thought.
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That’s good news. It has been frustrating, but giving us a year without a paid upgrade is great for people like me on a limited budget ( 50 plus years as a professional photographer, but now 76, retired on a small pension, but still devoted to photography) I started with a 5by4 “speed graphic” hand held camera, through to early digital adopter. I still use Apple Aperture but desperate to change to your new DAM. If you are looking for more beta testers, I am in!
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That is excellent news. I just cannot believe you did not take this more open approach ages ago. I took a refund on Luminar because you did not deliver. This is far more promising and I am temped to come back into the fold. It is not an easy decision as there have new many broken promises in the past. I have always believed the software had promise, it was the other things that got me.....and many, many others.
Could you answer one question on functionality - will it provide full exif/IPTC editing, including tagging and location mapping? If so I'm probably back in. -
@Roman, think about the needed functionality a file browser needs to fulfil if you want to cull or select images from a shoot. First and foremost it needs to be able to give you an unbiased view of the images - and having the line height vary is just not going to fulfil that brief, ever. It‘s an unusable design which will have cost them a lot of time (especially if they try to make that mess fast), time they could have spent fixing long standing issues like the missing color management, the messed up crop tool, the lack of influence on the RAW noise reduction (which renders the whole DAM unusable all by itself)... I could continue that list for quite a while.
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another Aperture user! ...hooray
as for the "standard sizing" I guess that comes from years ago with negatives and contact sheets. as someone looking over a series of similar shots, a quick scan of ALL the same size makes no image stand out purely on size relative to others (possibly showing more light even if the exact same exposure/lighting but a larger image shows more light coming through)
I could see AI being used as you are editing a set of photos and it picks up on how you are editing a scene/photoshoot and adjusts the rest to a similar style. I know not every adjustment would follow through but perhaps the White Balance Temp would adjust on the fly, or exposure as it sees you are post processing a few at a similar style. (sure you could Copy & Paste but maybe you didn't). BUT just saying "AI Filter" really doesn't explain much. I know in the beginning I would use presets and then "decode" what they were doing and how/why the photo adjusted with each setting.
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Not a lot has changed then has it! You are sharing nothing but trying it seems to generate revenue by offering a reduced price.......but for what. Seems no more than a glorified image browser. Sorry if I sound suspicious but there is not a lot there to give one faith in Skylum, especially given your track history. Where is the road map or what hope is there when at this late stage you cannot answer a question on basic functionality such as EXIF?
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Boy, writing is easy, delivery not so much. It is still unclear what will happen to the not Windows compliant Luminar 2018 for Windows and its future. In all the reading I have been able to do I see two different version (see postings https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360022362811-Remember-the-exported-Filename-?page=1#community_comment_360002355612)
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I am delighted you are doing things to bring those who left Luminar in frustration back to the fold. I am Mac, so have been happy with each upgrade and use Luminar and Aurora regularly. Looking forward to your DAM/Libraries. I know it's too early to tell me, yet I want to know if I can import images from a card and choose to have them DEFAULT to folders (or whatever you call them) BY DATE, and the ability to rename that folder so I can add location(s) to the dated folder name. Like LR. I have half a million images in LR, so need to keep certain conventions. Thanks for listening. And thanks for bringing this out soon. Nancy
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As someone who's first DAM was Aperture I'm excited to see similarities. I've continually struggled to work with any other DAM having been spoiled it seems by the functionality and customizability that Aperture provided, especially regarding import options. Capture One 11 comes close but still misses the mark for me.
It still blows my mind that Lightroom couldn't use a Photoshop file as a watermark, adjust time zones on import or show you the active focus points just to mention a few features. All things the first version of Aperture could do.
I'm looking forward to what is to come.
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As many others have noted, the UI is a huge disappointment (based on the speed text video) and the delay isn't great either, but I have to say that the decision regarding the free upgrades is fair. I interpret it as a sign that management is aware of the huge discontent that has been building up and that has been further fuelled by the disappointing UI video a few days ago.
But if you want to make Luminar the success that you've been suggesting it will be, I think you still need to get much better in listening to and interacting with the community, especially when it comes to crucial decisions such as UI design. These can no longer be made by designers behind closed doors. See https://ideamotive.co/blog/design-thinking-in-software-development/
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@Christoph, I concur - the problem to me is that nobody who is a heavy DAM user has been involved in the design of the new DAM, else such bad UI decisions never would have happened.
To the casual user who has a few snapshots a day this may seem like a nice UI but once you get into for example a series of shots with similar but not identical subjects then you need to have an UI that allows you to spot the differences between the shots. For example I have panning shots of F1 cars, some of which bottomed out under load and the skid blocks hit the tarmac and produced a set of really nice looking sparks. If looking at the shots at consistent size I need to select the size so that even in the previews I can see those sparks. Or in a series of shots of a long feeler grasshopper you need to be able to see where the feelers end in selecting the shot(s) to edit further. With inconsistent sized previews as shown by the screenshot and the UI video from a few days ago you can't rely on Luminar to show those differences consistently, thus clearly showing that cardinal errors were made in the basic design of that feature. That should never have happened and the latest this should have been caught would have been an alpha release to someone who uses a DAM daily if they haven't one in the company.
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As a registered Luminar owner, I'm a little disappointed that I have never heard a thing from Skylum since the day I bought the program. I would never had known of this upgrade had someone not posted it on a photography web site. I routinely receive info and updates from other software companies, Makes me second guess my purchase.
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Guys here is the difference between Skylum and a real company that really cares about its customers.
@Denis Kotsee point out to that the reason that @John Hanlon most likely have not received any email notification is that John may have unsubscribed – end of story.
A company that cares about its customers would have research what Johns statute was and reported that and if needed would have fixed it so John would become a very happy customer.
See if you can do that for your paying costumer then why would one think that you would pay attention to the issue that has been reported about the Luminar 2018 for Windows version.
However, November is going to really tell where Skylum is putting its money, I really pray that I would be proved so wrong and have to eat dirt since that would benefit the Post-Production world!
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Oh no. I've suddenly felt a chill in my bones. The latest emailed message from Skylum now talks about 'Luminar with Libraries' and Alexis says, "Libraries will be powerful right out of the gate, but it represents the first of many photo organization and management updates launching over the following months. ... The first version of Libraries in Luminar ... "
Does this all mean we are getting only part of a DAM this year? I am bound to be sceptical when terminology changes and Skylum is gaining a reputation for not keeping promises.
Incidentally, the email came into my email box the same day that I updated to Apples's new OS - Mojave. Apple said it would deliver in the Fall. It did. Dark Mode for Photos is a welcome change. Luminar 2018 and my remaining extensions from Creative Kit by MacPhun work happily within Mojave.
Perhaps Skylum should think about why Apple has been so successful and see what good practices it can adopt.
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@Jens - I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with Luminar on your Mac! Please email us at support@skylum.com or start a new thread in the Luminar for Mac section here in the forums and we'll see if we can sort it out.
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