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Popular macOS photo editor Luminar 3 launching December 18 with libraries, AI tools

Luminar 3 will launch for macOS and PC December 18, as the popular Adobe Lightroom competitor adds new feature based upon artificial intelligence.

Luminar 3 is marketed as a direct competitor to Adobe Lightroom. Just take a glance at their websites header and you’ll see a link leading you to a big comparison chart.

Currently priced at just $69.99 on the Mac App Store, Luminar is offering $59.99 introductory pricing for version 3.0 until launch day on December 18.

Many of the new features touted in the release are based upon AI, with the company going so far as to provide their product roadmap through July 2019. While the version launching next week will include some new AI-tools, the company is making clear that free updates through mid-2019 will offer users many more features than what’s seen at launch.

Besides AI though, the company is also launching a system library, allowing users to browse through and manage photos more easily. This should be a big plus to professional users with huge photo unloads from their cameras.

Luminar AI Sky Enhancer

AI-tools featured in past releases offered some seriously impressive editing power, such as AI Sky Enhancer, which gave users the ability to edit content like photographed skies with a simple slider. The software would then adjust actual cloud details, color, contrast and more.

In v3.0, the company will add similar AI detection to offer users the ability to edit skin, correct color, as well as a ‘smart resolution enhancement’.

Accent AI, which generally adjusts color and contrast with a slider.

While the company has made clear not every feature they’re working on is ready for launch, AI is becoming a more important aspect of post-processing moving forward.

Recently, 9to5Google did a round-up of all the AI features Google uses with the Pixel 3. And although it’s not quite the best single-shooter lens on the market according to DxOMark (for now), Google’s use of AI makes it one of the most powerful smartphone cameras on the market.

Do you have Luminar currently? If so, do you prefer using it or Lightroom? Tell us down in the comments.


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