This week Skylum released the latest update to Luminar, which includes their Accent AI 2.0 filter and a plethora of new features that add a lot of new functionality and support. The update from version 1.0 to Accent AI 2.0 features facial and object recognition technology that will help photographers create more realistic and natural looking effects in their images in less time. The system recognizes people in your images and applies adjustments selectively to specific zones.

 

With Accent AI 2.0, you can make dozens of adjustments (done quickly) with just one slider. Fix tone, detail, exposure, depth, color, and more thanks to behind-the-scenes AI. In less than a second, your photos can look their absolute best. Make Accent AI 2.0 your go-to filter. (Tip: It can even replace the Develop step for most photographers!) For beautiful photos, rely on Accent AI 2.0 as your starting point.

 

What’s New?

  • Import Images – You can now import images from a memory card or hard drive and copy them to a folder. You can also choose to include subfolders when importing.
  • SmugMug Sharing – The ability to post images to SmugMug has now been added to Luminar for Windows.
  • Shortcuts – Folders and user albums can be added to the Shortcuts list. Just right-click for a context menu or drag & drop them into the list.
  • Improved Selections – Want to choose a range of photos in the Gallery view? Try the Shift or Ctrl key to select a range or group of images. You can also deselect images from a multi selection by Ctrl+clicking on an image.
  • Rotate In Gallery – Images selected in the gallery can be quickly rotated left or right by 90 ̊increments with no need to switch to edit view. Just use the Image > Rotate menu or just right-click.
  • Photoshop Elements Support – We’ve added Photoshop Elements support to the Windows platform. Just choose the Install Plugins command if you want to load Luminar as a plugin. For future versions of Luminar, plugin users should switch to Luminar Flex.

Performance Improvements:

Get additional speed and performance from the Luminar update.

  • Improved History – Undo a Sync/Copy/Paste adjustments with one step in the History list.
  • Hidden Files – Luminar does a better job of filtering hidden folders and photo. Additionally, unwanted items like Backups, History, Previews, and Caches won’t be shown when opening Luminar Catalogs.

Luminar Updates for Mac Users:

Several performance improvements, as well as new features, await Mac users. We hope you enjoy this new release of Luminar and appreciate your feedback and reports.

  • Progress Bar – Keep better track of what’s happening when working with Luminar. You’ll see a progress bar when using tools like Erase or when running Luminar as a third-party filter.

You can find out more about the updates in Luminar 3.1.0 by watching the video below or reading the official blog post from Skylum here.

[REWIND: Skylum Announces Luminar Flex Plugin For Photoshop, Lightroom, And More]

How To Update

If you’re already a Luminar user, updating is easy. Be sure to also rerun the plugin installer if using Luminar as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom Classic.

  • Mac – Please, launch Luminar 3, then in the Top Menu Bar choose Luminar 3> Check for updates.
  • Windows – Please, launch Luminar 3, then in the Top Menu Bar choose Help > Check for updates.

Also, from now until May 14th, 2019, the folks at Skylum have an added special to go along with the launch of updated Luminar. If you update or order now, you’ll get 15% off of the regular retail price and our very own SLR Lounge Photography 101 workshop at no extra cost!

Luminar & Slr Lounge Bonus - Photography 101

Bonus Info

As an added bonus, Skylum has put together a useful infographic for beginning photographers to help make photo editing headaches less painful! Click the teaser image below to see the post and infographic! Shoot Better, Edit Less!

Skylum - Learn Photography Cheat Sheet

What do you think?  Have you tried out the Luminar Update yet? What do you think of the new system? Expect a more hands-on review to follow; until then, share your experiences in the comments below.