Skylum, which until recently was known as Macphun, has announced a major free update to its Luminar photo-editing software.
Available for both Mac and PC, the new 'Jupiter' release promises significant performance enhancements, improved raw conversion and key-feature parity between Mac and Windows versions, with Batch processing, Free Transform and Flip and Rotate features now on Windows.
What's new with Luminar 2018?
The 'Jupiter' release of Luminar 2018 sees speed improvements of up to 12x compared to the older version of the software, while there are a host of new advanced features, and some 300 improvements overall.
Performance-wise, Skylum reckons most users will see snappier sliders, as these have gained performance boosts of 3-25x for easier adjustments, while Luminar is dialed into the operating system better to deliver faster overall performance. The latest version also sees several 'under-the-hood' enhancements designed to improve stability, even when editing large files.
Another significant overhaul is to Luminar's raw conversion algorithms. There's better exposure calculation to produce a refined initial brightness setting for raw files, while Skylum has also improved the de-mosaicing process to deliver a cleaner image conversion with smoother transitions.
There's now support for a broader range of cameras, while also new is automatic lens distortion removal, with the Raw Develop filter analyzing the image and its metadata to calculate an auto fix that can be applied with a single click.
Existing users of Luminar 2018 can upgrade for free, while the standalone software is now available direct from Skylum for £64 / $ 69.