Skylum announced a new vision for Luminar Neo, which is built upon paid Extensions. According to Skylum, seven Extensions will be released by year’s end. This company claims it intends to make Neo a flexible creative platform.
The company says it is deeply committed to making Luninar Neo a one-stop platform for creative photo editing and adds that focusing on paid Extensions is a flexible way to attain that goal.
By the end of 2022, Skylum says that it will release seven total Extensions along with a new subscription system that includes the base software and those new add-ons. All Extensions that are new to Luminar Neo users will also be made available as a bundle in a “deal”.
The first extension on this list was HDR Merge, which was released in July, and will be followed by a new Extension called Noiseless AI that is slated for release on August 30.
Noiseless AI is Skylum’s de-noising solution and says the artificial intelligence-powered (AI) algorithms are built to achieve higher quality results and a set of controls let photographers specifically tune the software to their needs.
Skylum says that Noiseless AI is designed for RAW photos, but adds that it works just as well with other image formats. The company says that the “smart neural networks” in the algorithm remove noise but retain all details. Based on deep photo analysis, Noiseless AI will determine how much noise is present in the image and suggest a reduction level. Artists can either click or manually adjust these levels.
“Furthermore, the three additional sliders, Luminosity, Color, and Details, give even more control over the results.”
Noiseless AI is set to be released on August 30 and is available with either the Luminar Neo Pro Monthly or Yearly subscription or as part of the 2022 Extensions pack. The Pro Monthly or Yearly subscription is available from August 16 2022, and includes Luminar Neo and all the extensions that will be released during the subscription period.
Skylum hasn’t provided details about the five next Extensions to be released in 2022. This is apart from pricing and timing. Two Extensions are planned for release in September, two more will follow in October, and a final Extension will launching December.
During the time when details on these Extensions are not known, Skylum has priced the software lower.
This strategy is very similar to annual video game subscriptions, where the player buys season passes without knowing what they will include. Seeing this strategy rolled out to photography editing software is unusual.
