The Luminar NEO HDR Merge extension announced in July was just the start, with the next coming at the end of August
Noiseless AI will be the next Skylum Luminar NEO extension, due at the end of August.(Image credit: Skylum)
In a swift change of gears, Skylum is launching a whole raft of ‘extensions’ to Luminar NEO. These extensions effectively plug in to Luminar NEO to offer new sets of tools, turning the core program into an extensible software platform.
The HDR Merge extension was announced at the end of July as a paid-for extra for Luminar NEO and it looks as if this is a model that Skylum is actively developing.
At the end of August, it will launch a new extension called Noiseless AI which can be used on both raw (ideally) and non-raw images using the power of smart neural network algorithms. It will offer a choice of Low, Middle or High settings, and the ability to adjust Luminosity, Color and Details separately.
The rest of Skylum’s Luminar NEO extensions for 2022 have not yet been disclosed, except to say that four will be delivered in November 2022 and another in December 2022.
There is obviously a cost implication with these separate extensions, which are not included in a regular Luminar NEO purchase. Skylum has announced new pricing and subscription plans to allow for this.
• It will still be possible to buy Luminar NEO on its own, either as a standalone purchase or as a subscription, but this will not include extensions, which must be purchased separately.
• Or you can take out a new Pro Monthly or Yearly Subscription which will include Luminar NEO and all extensions released during the subscription period.
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• If you don’t like subscriptions, there will also be a lifetime license and 2022 Extensions Pack offer.
This does not signal that Skylum has ceased the development of Luminar NEO itself. It’s keen to point out that the long-awaited Clone & Stamp tool will be added by the end of September.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
