Jan 1, 2019 - Let's look at Luminar 3 before I get to Capture One and Lightroom. The look of Lightroom is not the same as Capture One, Luminar, On1 Photo Raw, Alien Skinthe list goes on. Capture One will allow you to have multiple catalogs open at the same time, which is a. I can't really answer that for you. This is an in-depth review of the Alien Skin Exposure X3 software for culling, managing and post-processing images. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks) to invest massive amounts of time learning entirely new software. I feel like Adobe has me between a rock and a hard place. I have looked at Capture One, but feel overwhelmed by its cost.
Looking for a photo-editing alternative to Adobe's Lightroom CC that won't break the bank? Today, I test-drive editing suite for the first time.Every photographer is familiar with Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom software. Over the course of 20+ years, it has firmly secured its place as the industry standard for editing and culling photos and processing raw files. For years, these two programs were offered as standalone products that any photographer could buy once and use for years without the need to update. All of this changed back in 2013, when Adobe shocked the photography community by announcing they would end their standalone software and transition the entire Adobe software catalog to a subscription service called Creative Cloud.As I write this article, you can currently subscribe to both for $9.99 a month.
While spending $120 a year might not seem like a big investment for professional photographers who depend on this software day in and day out, what if you are a semiprofessional photographer or an amateur photographer who only edits photos a few times a month? What other alternatives are there if you don't want to sign up for the software subscription model? The short answer is there are only a few full editing suites available.
The second most popular raw processor is probably, but at $299, you would get a full 2 1/2 years of Adobe's software before paying off the license-free Capture One software. The other player in this space is. This open source software is free to download and does run on Linux (if you care about that), but also has a much higher learning curve than the other options.
For the sake of this article and video, I'm only comparing Lightroom and Exposure, because they are the same price (for ) and have the most similar user interface. User InterfaceI think I speak for a lot of photographers when I say the biggest hurdle when changing camera brands, lighting systems, or software suites is minimizing the learning curve. I've been a user of Alien Skin's Exposure Plugin for Photoshop for about 10 years now, and I am super familiar with their massive library of film stock emulators and tonal filters. If you've never used Exposure within Lightroom or Photoshop, I highly recommend downloading a trial copy and seeing how useful these filters can be in your existing workflow. When it was time for me to open the full standalone version of Exposure X4, I wasn't sure how easy it would be editing a raw file from the beginning compared to Lightroom or Photoshop's Camera Raw Engine.What I immediately noticed upon opening Exposure X4 was that it looked almost identical to Lightroom CC.
It was shockingly similar! All of the windows, panels, sliders, and organizing labels were almost identical.
This made the first 30 minutes of using the software super easy with little frustration. Unlike Lightroom, Exposure X4 loads your previews much more quickly, without the need of importing every single file. It's almost like using. Now that I've used Exposure on a few different machines, it also seems to be faster at processing my files than Lightroom, which has been notoriously slow despite how much hardware and resources your computer has on tap. I've yet to edit a full wedding on Exposure, but I have total confidence saying it would cut down the edit time by at least 10 percent if not more.
Alien Skin Exposure vs LightroomI admittedly have a lot still to learn and discover in Exposure, but my initial response is this software makes the transition away from Lightroom about as easy as you could imagine. Whether it converts raw files better than Capture One or even Darktable is up for debate, but it is certainly easier to use immediately after an installation if you are familiar with Lightroom. The FiltersAlien Skin first appeared on my radar back in 2008 when I was looking for a way to give my wedding photos a unique final process. The software has come a long way over the years, but at the heart of Exposure is a massive set of film and video filters that can instantly give your photos a specific look with the click of a button.
Some of these filters include black and white films like Agfa APX, Kodak T-Max, and Polapan. If you want to make your photos look like classic color and slide film, you have dozens of presets for Fuji FP, Fuji Velvia, and Kodak Portra.
There are also tons of other effects like infrared film stock, Lo-Fi films, cross processing, color fading, and cinema effects. These are all highly customizable and can easily be used to batch process thousands of photos or fine-tuned for your final selects. Of course, Lightroom has some presets built into their software as well, but they are much, much more general and of course accessible to everyone who uses Lightroom. That being said, you can download thousands of presets for free online and import them into Lightroom, but if you want a one-stop shop for quality film presets bundled all in one piece of software, Alien Skin's Exposure is definitely the overall winner here.
LayersOne thing that always frustrated me with Lightroom was that I could not apply effects and edits on different layers. Instead, I still had to rely on Photoshop to tweak specific parts of an image, blend multiple exposures, and maintain a well-organized, nondestructive workflow.
Now that Exposure has introduced a layers panel, you almost get the best of both worlds with Lightroom and Photoshop all in one piece of software. I say 'almost' because the implementation of layers in Exposure is still a little clunky and requires a bit of muscle memory to master the process, but overall, it is a feature I think will help distinguish it from other similar editing suites.Unlike Lightroom that requires you to add gradients, masks, and retouching all to one single file, Exposure offers the ability to create different masks for each of these edits. Not only does this make it much easier to control each step of your edit in a versatile way, but it also helps you stay organized when revisiting files and tweaking nondestructive edits. I do wish Exposure would eventually allow you to align and blend multiple images all within one piece of software, but for the time being, having any sort of layer support within a raw editing suite is pretty exciting.
Raw Conversion QualityPerhaps the most important element of any raw processing software is the overall rendering quality. As you know, every single piece of software interprets the proprietary raw information differently.
Sometimes, one piece of software does better with shadow recovery and highlight suppression, while another gives you much more realistic colors. I have used Lightroom, Photoshop, CaptureOne, and now Exposure, and I have to say, each one of these pieces of software does render raw files a bit differently (Photoshop and LR are almost identical these days). Over the years, the gap between the final renders has narrowed significantly, and one could argue that the differences are as close to splitting hairs as possible, but they are indeed different.I wound up editing a handful of images in Exposure and Lightroom side by side and found that generally, Exposure did give me a little more latitude in the shadows and highlights (though not always), and the sharpening settings were fairly different too. With each photo, I was able to get the two images looking 98 percent identical.
You might view this as Exposure not being much better or worse than Adobe's Raw Converter, but I see it as a big win for any software facing off against the industry standard. Overall, I can't say I see either editor as being definitely better than the other, but it is nice knowing you won't lose out on quality regardless of what option you choose. Final ThoughtsEven though I have been a fan of Alien Skin's Exposure plugin for Photoshop, I was more than a little skeptical when it came to using their all-in-one software for my initial raw edits. I have been using Lightroom as my sole raw editing software since Lightroom 1, and the thought of replacing it with another piece of software (even the highly praised Capture One) has always filled me with anxiety. I started my career as a wedding photographer and had to edit dozens of full weddings each year. Lightroom, although super slow at times, was the industry standard for culling, flagging, and editing thousands of raw files shot throughout an event or wedding.
Up until a few years ago, there really wasn't another option available that offered all the features that Lightroom offers.Now that Adobe has completely transitioned into the software leasing model, it's no shock that software alternatives like Capture One and Exposure X4 are becoming more popular among photographers. Since I already subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Premiere, I doubt that I'll completely abandon Lightroom altogether. However, since I have multiple computers and Adobe is very strict on how many instances their software can run across multiple machines, I can easily see Exposure becoming the main editing suite on my travel laptop. I will, of course, continue to use the Alien Skin Exposure X4 plugin for Photoshop for my final edits.
If you, however, have not committed to any raw editing software, or if you are looking to pull back from some of your monthly subscriptions, Exposure X4 is about as perfect of a Lightroom replacement as you could find. In fact, it might actually be better than Lightroom! My suggestion is to download a free 30-day trial of Exposure and see if it meets your own photo editing needs.and be sure to use the discount code 'Fstoppers' to save 10 percent off your purchase of the full editing suite.
Affinity and Exposure address different needs. While superficially they are both image editors, they're very different tools in that Exposure, Lightroom, Capture One and similar tools are more about end-to-end workflow for sets of images, not just editing one at a time. Wedding photographers especially, but also photographers that shoot large series of images benefit from being able to pull in batches of images, and then apply tweaks to one or entire sets of images, like pulling your exposure up 1/3 of a stop for an entire range, etc. While their in-depth editing abilities aren't up to the level of Photoshop or Affinity, you can typically pick an image and edit it in an external editor, and those changes are then reflected back in your original program (this is called round-trip editing, FYI).
Moving to Capture One because one can purchase the software is nonsense as Capture One gets a new version once a year and that upgrade alone is more then the 120 pr year that Photoshop + Lightroom will cost. There must be a better argument then subscriber model to change.This software is a less but you still must pay for upgrades.If money is the issue Apple users will be fine using Photo and Raw Power from gentleman's coders for 20 dollars. While both Mac and PC users can use Affinity Photo for a little more. On Mac still also with Photo. Neither of those chare for upgrades.Anyway the X4 looks great and something to test out:). And thats where you fail. Because many users do not need to upgrade every year, and many users don't.
I've been using Exposure since X2 and started using it before I drank the Adobe Kool-aid again. Its good and for some reason I always wind up in Exposure when finishing portraits or anything with people in it. The way it works with layers is awesome, Luminar caught on and ON1 is following suit too.Adobe is loosing ground and rapidly it this area. LR isn't flexible enough and PS as awesome as it is, it is way overkill for most.
Not much middle ground in the Adobe camp.I find Exposure to not handle highlight and shadow recovery as well as LR or Capture One. You can get it there but you'll be heavy into the curves. The great thing about all different programs is, you can now find what is right for you now that they are catching up (or in some cases surpassing) what Adobe has offer us. I'll be curious to see how well ON1 2019 stacks up once it is released.
I absolutely HATE the cataloging system of Lightroom. It was the source of so much frustration and mistakes when backing up and restoring catalogs (name changes don't correspond etc.).We need speed!!Speed importing, or if not needed (as for X4) even better and speed when working on photos. I am currently;y working on a family shoot and it is painful how slow it is and how long it takes for things to render. My working catalog now as just under 14k photos, not much for LR as I understand, and still it is at times unusable.Great option!
Verdict: 9/10The Alien Skin Exposure X4.5 update has brought support for LUTs and new Haze and Lens Flare updates, adding to its already impressive list of features. Exposure X4.5 is a powerful, effective and engaging all-in-one photo browsing, organising and editing tool that can product hauntingly beautiful analog-inspired images.
It can help recapture the emotion in photography that’s so easily lost in a world of histograms, megapixels and lab charts. Pros+ Simple but effective browsing and cataloguing tools+ Beautiful analog film effects+ Now supports LUTs+ Effective as a regular image editor too+ Fully non-destructive editing+ Virtual copies Cons– Adjustment layers, but no support for image layers/montages– More expensive than some rivals– Not the best at RAW processingExposure X4.5 offers a similar set of tools and features to many rival programs, but its approach is somehow subtler, more creative, calmer and ultimately very powerful.
It doesn’t do dramatic ‘in-your-face’ effects or wild photo manipulations. Instead, its library of preset effects is rooted in atmospheric and evocative ‘film’ looks, with quiet depth and intensity.(This is an update to the existing Alien Skin Exposure X4 review, and includes the latest features in the X4.5 update.)It started out as a Photoshop and Lightroom plug-in and can still be used in that mode, and as an external editor for, for example, but Exposure X has evolved so that it can also be used as a standalone program with its own integrated photo browsing and cataloguing tools.Like, Exposure X4.5 is a fully non-destructive photo editor. All the adjustments you make to your photos are ‘virtual’ and fully reversible. You can create new, ‘processed’ versions of your photos at will, while leaving the originals unaltered and intact. What’s different, though, is that its effects and overlays go far beyond anything you can achieve in Lightroom.The editing tools aren’t all about film effects. They include regular photo enhancement and retouching options too, such as curves, cloning and perspective corrections. Exposure X4.5 can’t combine different images, both otherwise it’s close to being the complete all-in-one photo editing program.
Organising toolsOne of the big complaints about Lightroom is that it makes you import your photos into its Library before you can work on them and doesn’t automatically update if you make changes outside of it, such as adding more images, renaming files or moving photos around.Exposure X4 works in a very different, rather clever way. You still have to choose the folders you want it to organise by adding them as ‘bookmarks’, so you can’t just take a look at the contents of any random folder – you do need some kind of filing system.The difference is, though, that Exposure X4 will react ‘live’ to any changes within these folders, even if they’re made outside the program. For many users this will be a much smarter system, and it’s one also used.
The only danger is that if you use other software to move files, they might get separated from the adjustment data created by Exposure X4.5, which is stored in a subfolder alongside your images. If you have made adjustments, it is best to use Exposure X4.5 to move any files subsequently.Once a folder is ‘bookmarked’, you can browse its folders and subfolders at will.
But they’re also indexed and catalogued, so you can search for photos using keywords or other image metadata right across your photo library.You can also create Collections to bring related images together ‘virtually’ rather than changing their folder location. A single image can only be in one folder, but it can be in as many Collections as you like.Better still, in Exposure X4, Alien Skin added Smart Collections. With these, instead of adding photos manually, you simply specific a set of conditions – a particular camera or lens, for example, or a particular keyword – and Exposure X4.5 will populate the Smart Collection automatically with matching images. Exposure X4’s new Smart Collections are like saved searches that automatically populate with images that match the criteria you set.Exposure X4.5 is not the fastest search tool out there – it can sometimes take a few seconds to scan a folder or find matching photos for a Smart Collection. Otherwise, Exposure X4.5 is very good at organising your photos. It’s easy to understand how it works, it’s pretty quickly for the most part, it’s flexible, and once you’ve specified a top folder for your photo collection, any sub-folders you add will be catalogued automatically. Editing toolsExposure X4.5 is a non-destructive photo editor.
That means all its changes are stored as processing instructions in separate ‘metadata’ files stored in the same folder. They’re not applied permanently to the photo unless you export it as a new, processed file – the original photo remains unaltered.Exposure X4 is like and, and in this respect. It’s a great system because you can go back and change the settings at any time, and you can create ‘virtual’ copies with different settings, without creating duplicate photos on your hard disk.Exposure X4.5 can edit any kind of image file, including JPEGs, TIFFs and RAW files.
(It supports the vast majority of camera RAW formats, but you may have to wait a few weeks for support to be added for very new camera models). You can use Exposure X4 as a regular photo editing tool for curves, retouching, local adjustments with masks and, in this version, perspective corrections.In this version, Alien Skin has added improved highlight and shadow recovering tools for RAW files, which makes it easier to extract the maximum tonal information from your files. It’s still not quite the best RAW converter out there, however, particularly for sharpness and noise control, and and still lead the field here – Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom are good for wide camera/lens support and local adjustments, too. This is why it’s useful to be able to use Exposure X4.5 as a plug-in – in case you’d rather use another tool for your RAW processing.Nevertheless, Exposure X4.5 does do a decent job with most camera RAW formats and delivers more colour and tonal data than you’d get from JPEGs. It also applies automatic lens correction profiles, though it’s annoying there’s no separate chromatic aberration removal tool, since this can still sometimes creep through in RAW files.Exposure X4.5 does not offer support for combining image layers, so you can’t add a new sky to a landscape, for example. But it does offer adjustment layers and masks for combining adjustments and effects. If what you need is a tool for enhancing single images rather than creating composites, it has all the power you’re likely to need.You can create as many adjustment layers as you like, and apply the full range of editing tools and image effects to any of them.
You can create layer masks manually using a brush tool, or with a gradient or radial mask tool.Its strong point is its array of traditional ‘analog’ film and darkroom effects, but Exposure X4 is also a very competent everyday photo editor, offering curves/levels adjustments, sharpness and noise reduction, cropping, retouching, colour adjustments and – new in version 4 – comprehensive perspective correction tools for fixing skewed images, converging verticals in shots of tall buildings and more. Analog effects and film looksIt’s a great all-round photo organising and editing tool, but most users will choose Exposure X4.5 for its library of analog effects presets. These are organised into Colour and Black and White categories and into sub-categories within these, such as ‘Cinema’ effects or ‘B&W film’ looks.Each of these presets is made using settings applied in the tools panel on the right, so it’s easy to see how they’ve been achieved, modify them and create your own.
You can build your own effects manually from scratch, but the presets give you a useful head start and also give you ideas for ways to process your pictures that you might not have thought of otherwise.The key to many of Exposure X4.5’s signature ‘looks’ is its Overlays panel. This has three sections for Borders, Light Effects and Textures. You can use a Border overlay to add an authentic-looking negative frame or print border, and use Textures to apply dust, scratches or a mottled ‘distressed’ look.The Light Effects tools have been updated in this version. Originally designed to simulate the ‘light leaks’ of cheap or vintage cameras, these are now highly adjustable – you can move the effect around, change its zoom setting or opacity and even rotate the effect. From being simply a tool to make pictures look as if they were taken on an old camera, the Light Effects can now be used to add simulated window flare or a hazy low sun effect to any kind of picture to add atmosphere.
Version 4.5 adds new Lens Flare and Haze overlays for adding atmosphere to your images. Exposure X4.5’s real strength is its library of 500+ preset effects, which can be subtle, dramatic, unexpected or all three!Exposure X4.5 has other tools for creating these film-like effects. It can simulate many different types of film grain, for example, with an amazing degree of control – although it does sometimes look as if the grain is sitting ‘on top’ of the image detail rather than eroding it in the way you might expect.The big new addition in Exposure X4.5, though, is the new LUTs panel. LUT stands for Look-Up Table and it’s a way of applying an instant tone and colour shift to an image. Exposure X4.5 comes with a selection of LUTs and you can easily import more – I tried it with LUTS from Lutify.me. Read this Lutify Q&A to find out more about LUTs.Alien Skin has implemented LUTs support perfectly, right from the start. You can organise them into categories and preview them ‘live’ in the LUTs panel before you choose which on to apply to your image.
You’re not likely to use the adjustable lighting effects in every shot you take, but they can add a certain analog atmosphere in the right conditions.It’s Exposure X4’s transform tools that stand to make the biggest difference. These are practically a must for fans of travel photography, architecture or interiors, as skewed verticals can spoil an otherwise great shot, and the difference between a beautifully captured interior and a snapshot is often down to the perspective control.Exposure X4’s new Smart Collections are another major bonus. You can use these to organise and find matching images in ways that would be slow and painstaking with regular Collections and Folders. Want to find all the shots you took in Venice with your XF 23mm f/2.0 lens? With a Smart Collection it’s easy.The new tethered shooting tools work via ‘watched’ folders. At first, it looks like this is barely a feature at all, but as you dig deeper you uncover something rather interesting, not to mention powerful.
The bad news is that you will still need tethering software and a cable for your camera – so what have you gained? Quite a lot, as it happens, because apart from automatically updating a nominated ‘watched’ folder as you shoot, Exposure X4 will can not only show each image as it’s captured, it can apply any metadata and keywords you choose and even automatically create virtual copies with different presets so that you can choose the ‘look’ you like later.The less obvious reason for upgrading is that you get to stay up to date with the newest camera RAW formats. There’s no guarantee that every new camera will be supported, but you can check the current list of supported RAW formats on the Alien Skin website.That long list of enhancements in Exposure X4 does feel like it justifies the upgrade price. One of the points to be made about this software is that it’s never been pitched as a cut-price bargain or a cheap alternative to a more expensive product. You buy it because you admire what it can do, not because you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck. And with Exposure X4.5 (a free update for existing Exposure X4 owners), you get the excellent new LUTs support and some more lighting effects thrown in. Not sure what preset effect would suit your image best?
You can ‘audition’ up to six at a time to see them side by side. VerdictAs a photo organising tool, Exposure X4.5 is straightforward, efficient and surprisingly powerful.
It doesn’t offer multi-layer composites, panoramas, focus-stacking or 360 editing, but as an everyday photo enhancement, editing and retouching tool it’s rather good.