On the 2nd of April Alien Skin Software announced the release of a major update to their already feature rich non-destructive raw photo editor, Exposure X4. The new update, Exposure X4.5, promises some meaty new enhancements.
The Three Most Significant Updates Include
Support for LUTs
While presets have been around for some time, LUTs, or Look Up Tables, are a rather new feature for raw photo editors, as they are normally used to help color grade video. The ability to apply LUTs as separate layers — which are freely available on the internet or to be purchased from third parties— to photos opens up new flexible and creative avenues to the user.
A Redesigned "Copy Photos From Card" Function
This allows photographers to quickly select which images they want to import by displaying visual previews at the source location. Not only that, but photographers can now select a variety of source and destination options. Both of these updates can significantly speed up workflow by allowing users to begin editing as soon a the image copy begins.
Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
The ability to assign a shortcut keystroke to suit your workflow for editing, organizing, or navigating. A Lightroom keyboard shortcut preset is included for those who are migrating from Lightroom to Exposure.
A preview of the new LUT support feature in the Alien Skin's Latest Update to Exposure, Exposure X4.5.
Alien Skin's CEO, Finley Lee, has this to say about their new update:
Exposure X4.5 delivers features that are among the most requested by our customers and that make Exposure an even more powerful and complete editing and organizing solution.
Other Updates in Exposure X4.5 Include
New light leak overlays: Including two new categories; Lens Flare and Haze.
Collection membership for images: These can now be found in the Metadata panel, allowing photographers to view the full list of collections that an image belongs to.
Support for additional cameras and lenses from:
- Fujifilm
- Canon
- Sony
- Leica
- Olympus
- Panasonic
- Nikon
- DJI
More: User-requested workflow refinements including additional photo sizing options when exporting, new keyboard shortcuts, and more.
Pricing and Availability
Exposure X4.5 is now available for $119 from the Alien Skin store on alienskin.com. The update is free for those who already own Exposure X4. A reduced upgrade price is available to owners of previous versions of Exposure.
A thirty-day free trail of Exposure, which includes all its features, is available here.
LUTs are what I actually miss more in Lightroom (and also a simpler way to manage them in Photoshop)
It is not exactly the same thing: a LUT is a LUT, a profile is a profile.
From my point of view the main problem is a problem of standard.
LUTs use universal standard formats (.cube .3DL etc.) common to various image/video editing software.
The LR profiles don't use a universal standard format, it uses a non standard .dcp format (and this is just absurd in 2019).
Lightroom cannot read the standard LUT formats (.cube .3DL etc.).
You can make a LR profile from a LUT, but it is an enough long (complex) process to convert the LUT in profile (I did some).
• A tricky way to use LUTs in Lightroom: https://www.wimarys.com/using-lut-lightroom/
• Conversion From LUT to Profile using 3D LUT Creator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWQ_7qyyrm4
• Conversion using Photoshop and Camera Raw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFniYyiAV_w
True. I tried creating LUT's for LR and it's a long process.
LUTS work very well in Lightroom.
See my answer above
Exposure is awesome. Been using it for 2 years now. Who needs LR?
I still unfortunately pay for LR for the mobile app. Seems to be the only one that let's me work with my ARW raw files without issue or processing to DNG first. :(