Skylum Luminar 2018

I achieved this dreamy soft-focus effect by blending a couple of presets

Historically, Adobe has owned the lion's share of the market for image-editing software. However, its decision late last year to switch Lightroom and Photoshop entirely to a subscription-based model has ruffled a few feathers. The moment you stop paying your monthly fee, the software will stop working, making your Lightroom catalogue and Photoshop PSD files useless. This opens up an opportunity for those competitors who are still offering software as a one-off purchase.

Among the contenders jostling for a share of this market is US-based Skylum. Previously known as MacPhun, the firm has been around for a decade now, making photography-focused software for iOS devices and Apple computers. Its all-in-one photo editor Luminar was originally released for Mac in 2016, but earlier thisthe firm changed its name to Skylum and announced a Windows version, making Luminar available to a much wider audience. The first release was slow and buggy, but the recent Jupiter update (version 1.2) claims to provide a much better experience. This is the version I tested, with Windows 10.