Alien Skin Exposure X4 $119 | alienskin.com/exposure
A screenshot of Exposure X4.
When I reviewed Alien Skin Exposure X3, I noted several features that make it unique among other photo editing and organizing applications, such as its extensive library of professional presets, a quad-layout interface option for reviewing multiple similar shots at once, and a novel way of storing nondestructive edits on disk.
The changes in this release address some prior rough edges, add features and refine the experience of processing your photos
Although the new Exposure X4 version 4.5 feels more evolutionary than its version number would suggest, that´s not a criticism. The changes in this release address some prior rough edges, add features that are now expected for this class of software, and in general refine the experience of processing your photos without feeling like the software is getting in the way.
Performance and Fixes
In Exposure X3, I was surprised by laggy performance when editing photos, specifically working with the Raw files from my FujiFilm X-T1 and its 16.3MP X-Trans sensor. Using the brush to paint adjustments was like watching a movie with dialogue out of sync: I´d paint an area, wait for the software to apply the effect, paint another area, wait, and so on. The problem wasn´t as pronounced with Canon or Nikon Raw files, though it did show up to a lesser degree on large Sony Raw files.
The improvement between that experience and Exposure X4 is noticeable: the lag is gone
The improvement between that experience and Exposure X4 is noticeable, even with larger Raw files from today´s cameras, including the 26MP FujiFilm X-T3. I´m using the same computer (a 2016 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and the Radeon Pro 460 graphics processor with 4GB memory), and, happily, the lag is gone.
There´s still a pause when opening Raw files or switching zoom levels, as Exposure X4 loads the image data, but even that seems improved with this version. I ...
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