New Luminar with Libraries, No Paid Upgrades, and MORE!
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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@Tom Pickering, what is really scary to me is that Skylum does not have a long-term road map with release dates and features. And why you may ask? My guess is that some of this stuff is coded by the seat of there pants and not really designed. Why else would we have had to wait close to a year for DAM or Libraries? And now it is coming out that there is no migration from Lightroom. How do Skylum expect that Lightroom users would move over to Luminar?
The real sad part to me is that I think the internal imaging manipulation algorithm engine is good, no it is great, but the GUI part with all the features and how you use those features is not up to pare (and here I am talking about Luminar 2018 for Windows).Let’s see what happens in November!
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I guess the reason for not having a migration for other DAMs is you want to encourage people to use the new DAM like a soft launch. Enter a few photos at a time and heck out the new DAM.
If you encourage a mass migration you’d undoubtedly have many issues and complaining customers who wonder WHY the image from Lightroom doesn’t have the exact tags or post processing like in their former DAM.
Waiting a few weeks (probably months seeing how Skylum works) then releasing migration tools allows other DAM bugs to be worked out.
Also, would you really want to quickly dump your photos into a brand new DAM? Either you duplicate and try or have issues with conflict.
I know when I jumped to Aperture I did not pull all iPhoto photos into it. Instead I started fresh and check how things go.
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I sense some serious problems here. Nobody was clamoring for libraries and its related features. Most complains are bugs and issues that the devs has not been able to address until now. Why keep your hands busy with developing libraries when there are other issues needs more immediate attention. Deliver the DAM, fixed the Win top/bottom tuning, make the brush adjustment (right click) useable across all filters, etc. Concentration was on the development of the DAM and as such other issues were set aside. Now the devs are getting their hands full with this so called libraries?
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I will say this Alex - you have taken to heart the fact that you had bit off more than you could chew. I really like Luminar but had to move my important work to ON1 and Affinity because they don't crash after a ton of work. But I like your approach and am hopeful you will continue to clean up this software and add reliable features. Looking forward to the new and improved Skylum. While you are reading this, one of my real frustrations is not being able to organize the buckets of presets - eg moving some of the best of black and white into one preset group. I have them all and it is quite hard to find what I am looking for. I know there is a business strategy to sell "bundles" but after a while, its a bit much. eg:
Thanks and good luck
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Finally this is the news we have been waiting for. Should have been done a year ago when you announced the DAM feature though.
However, it looks promising now, but in the meantime I have signed up for a year of Lightroom CC. With the time and effort invested in Lightroom management and editing over a few years, I will be waiting to see how 'Libraries' develops, and see some promises fulfilled, before planning on any migrations.
I also appreciate the upgrade pricing gesture, although if you still plan on charging annual upgrade fees in the future, you really need to remove the 'Luminar - pay once and enjoy forever' slogan, it is not relevant or accurate.
Hopefully you (as a company) have learnt a harsh lesson here, and maybe try to stop over-promising and under-delivering. Many of the comments show that there is a loyal following of MacPhun/Skylum software, and we only want to see you continue to produce great products, but you need to do it in a way that does not alienate them too.
Even in these comments I see more promises of features, but surely you can appreciate that it's going to be hard to take such promises seriously. Let's see what is delivered, and I hope we can restore faith in Skylum and your products.
Thank you and best wishes going forward,
Andy
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It doesn't surprise me that this new addition to Luminar won't have a migration tool for Lightroom and that there will be free updates during 2019 ... I predict it is just another half-baked addition! And I believe the reason they are offering updates for free in 2019 is because they very well know that the December release will be half-baked! The long intro to this thread is just more marketing blah blah from this company, nothing new, nothing that they haven't said before. There has been for quite some time a supposed list of interested people wanting to test the Beta version, but we haven't heard anything other than they are still doing internal testing. This new addition may well suit the hobbyist out there, but serious photographers and pros will not leave Lightroom, PS or C1 for this "browser".
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@Brian Ramage, sorry but if Skylum did the standard Alpha and the Beta testing this this would never be an issue. So, some new car company comes out with the new electric car, but they do not let you charge the batteries in the car, since something could go wrong – what kind of thinking is that.
No if Skylum want to play with the big boys they design, code, test (including Alpha and Beta) before releasing – remember they have spent close to a year on this from the day it was preannounced, and we still have not seen it.
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even with Standard Alpha Beta testing companies tend to put off certain advancements until later.
Apple is a BIG company that does this all the time. OR they keep it in the application/OS/Hardware and simply refer to it as BETA for 1-2 years.
I'd have to look up other companies that use this same tactic but busy with work at the moment.
AND, using Luminar with Libraries can still work, it is the retro-fitting of another DAM into Luminar that is not added, the DAM feature can still work fully without that addition. I remember opening a Quark file in some version of InDesign and the conversion never worked properly. it was faster to start from scratch.
**I am not thrilled by the response "soon" time and time again and finally saying on the last month of the year 2018 ew will finally get what has been talked about for more than a year. and we are all very much IN THE DARK with Luminar. I do feel like jumping ship soon if they do not announce and show off some features (before actual release)
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I recall recently getting an email from a Skylum US marketing official who suggested we do not need all the bells and whistles of LR's DAM. That what we need is something simple and fast. My fear, when I read this, was that we were being prepared for a stripped down DAM, an entry level system. I can understand that the early version(s) will not be as fully featured as Skylum expects to get to; however, I was concerned that a low expectation was being set, and I felt I was supposed to like that. I. Do. Not. It looks like I will be among those who will watch and wait. I have hundreds of thousands of images under LR6. I don't expect wonders on the first version. I support Skylum getting it right before releasing Luminar with Libraries. I didn't care for an attempt to lower my expectations because that's what I really need rather than a rich system that I do hope for it to become. Thanks for listening. n
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We will have to wait and see what luminar libraries provides.
But I am not liking the news about it, it seems it is going to be just a browser.
They did not only promised that it would have a way to import photos from Lightroom
They promised they were able to read the Lightroom catalog, that is quite more advance than just importing photos.
Now it is not clear if there is going to be some kind of catalog.
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But when did they ever live up to expectations. I guess we could say that by attempting to lower expectations they are at least being honest. Of course none of that matters as a significant number of people have bought into Luminar on the basis of it being a replacement for LR when it appears to be no more than a low grade alternative. Remember - it was a DAM now its Libraries! And they still won't answer questions re functionality. That suggests to me the functionality being asked about is not there.
But we must not forget the main app itself which is still sadly lacking in functionality when compared to LR and ON1. Masking for a start is a joke. That is not to forget the Windows/Mac parity, or lack of. -
For all the complainers that are freaking out about "libraries" and "where is our DAM you promised".....
What is the DAM called in Lightroom...Libraries.
What is it called in Aperture...Libraries.
What is it called in Capture One...Libraries.
What is it called in On1 .... Browse. (There's one in every crowd, right?)
The point is no one calls it a DAM. It is implied.
They have only released a couple screen shots and short videos, how are people reaching all these conclusions on what it can and can't do from those?
As for transferring photos from LR after the mess that Adobe made of their migration tool from Aperture to LR and then LR deciding after a couple years that my hard drive has a different name than it actually does, I have to start from scratch anyway.
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The DAM in LR is not called library the library is but one element of LR. The same goes for CaptureOne et al. What people are asking is will the functionality of the Skylum version be anywhere near that of LR, as was promised at the outset. The answer to that is probably no because every time a question is asked, like mine re EXIF editing, they say they cannot answer that question at present.
And of course you overlook the fact that Skylum called the thing a DAM in the first place and have retreated to Library recently. That suggests an attempt to water-down expectations. I suspect all this speak about speed is also just a smoke screen - how fast do you really need to go!
So indeed yes - where is the LR equivalent that was promised. -
I appreciate all the hopeful voices here - I'd like to be hopeful myself - but I'm engaging a lot with various software companies/ developers and have developed a good sense for predicting eventual outcomes based on how the company communicates with its users and I'm afraid that Skylum ticks quite a lot of boxes on the "this is going to be a painful journey" side. So I can't help but keep my expectations rather low.
For me, the question is: will Luminar eventually be abke to replace lightroom for people like me who don't have pro-grade requirements for DAM. (It seems clear that it will never be for most professionals).
But when I read that they can't even answer, at this point, whether Luminar Libraries will support such a basic feature EXIF editing, I'm just speechless. For two reasons: their unwillingness to communicate and the fact that it's even an option for them to release a DAM module that does not support EXIF editing.
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The implication was clearly that Luminar would be an equivalent/viable alternative after all people are not going to jump ship for something that is less capable than they already use. There was also that ridiculous comparison chart that showed what LR did not have but Luminar did but did not show what LR had that Luminar did not. The entire advertising campaign was at best doubtful and given the number of refunds that have probably been made I suspect Skylum know this.
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I'm sure time will tell but has there been any word if you will be able to import your current LR catalog with edits into your library? I spent a lot of time creating the LR catalog with all my tags, rating and edits. I have a large NAS so everything is stored as a raw file so not to have destructive edits. It would be oh so nice just to import it from LR and not loose any of my work.
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Do not get me wrong I too are looking forward to the next release later this year which I have been told will still be called Luminar 2018 (for Windows in my case). I could really care less about the new stuff, I would be a happy user if I could get some of the current stuff working, like this one:
This simple option Open | Open Images does not work. Yes, in the Mac version it will give you the option to Open Images. Notice this is plural, meaning you can select a one or a group of pictures to open. Well, in the Windows version the option is as you can see in plural, but the Windows version cannot open more than one image.
So how do you do batch correction. You open one image and hope that is a good representation of your batch, not sure which part of Luminar you use to select the best single image. You then do the corrections and you save the correction in a “Preset”. Now you can open the batch procession and apply this new “Preset” to the batch. Most of you guys a much smarter than me, since I do not get the correction correct in the first try and therefor I have to go back and load the single images again with the new “Preset” to fix what I did not get right. This type of correction of my sports picture takes so long that I miss my deadline for suppling my shots to the TV news director – this is not going to work.
Now think that the above must also work with “Libraries” – dream on. Skylum need to fix the single image work are first before even thinking that “Libraries” will work!
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@kevin - while it might be possible at some time in the future to import your LR catalogue with tags and ratings etc - I think it is extremely unlikely you'll be able to copy your edits. Luminar has a fundamentally different set of tools - and a different raw processing engine - compared with lightroom. Even if Skylum implemented some sort of equivalence - it is very unlikely the end result would be the same as you see in LR.
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To increase the speed, we work with, everything is streamlined in Luminar 2018 for Windows – not so fast.
So, you are ready to save the edit picture and you have the above Black Dialog Box with white Text displayed. Skylum have never tested this, if they had they would know that you can see the Black Cursor so altering a part of the filename is a gamble.
Can we get that fixed in the next release?
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