Adobe Lightroom has real competition with this version of the portrait photo editing tool
Key things
- Skylum’s Aperty may compete with Adobe Lightroom, but it focuses on portrait editing.
- The price is similar to Lightroom, but it doesn’t lock you into a one-year contract.
- The AI-based software specializes in portrait editing with selective masking and offline capabilities.
Skylum’s latest photo editing software, Aperty, is shaping up to be strong competition for Adobe Lightroom. With a portrait focus, could this even be a better choice for editing?
Introducing Aperty Portrait Editor
Aperty is photo editing software with a focus on portrait editing. Skylum – owners of the Luminar Neo AI-based photo editing platform – released Aperty on November 7, 2024, after announcing it in September 2024.
This release differs from previous Skylum updates, which focused more on generative AI and generalized photo editing. Aperty was developed with portrait photographer Julia Trotti, ensuring that the software provides everything needed to be the best portrait photo editing tool.
2022 and 2023 saw many updates to Luminar Neo, including the introduction of generative AI tools to the AI toolbox. Skylum also released its first iPad-specific photo editing app, Luminar for iPad. But Aperty marks a new direction for Skylum products.
The release of Aperta brings a refreshing take on portrait photography. This specialized focus puts it in direct competition with Adobe Lightroom and AI editing tools like Retouch4Me.
How much does Aperta cost?
Similar to Lightroom, you can buy Aperty through a license rather than owning it outright. If you want to own your photo editing software, then Affinity Photo is a great alternative to both Aperty and Lightroom.
You can get Aperty on a one-month rolling contract starting at $29.95 per month. It’s more expensive than Adobe Lightroom’s monthly plan, but you get the benefit of not being locked into an annual contract for that price.
If you want Aperts for the whole year, they cost $299. This is a one-off payment with a 14-day cooling-off period if you don’t want to commit. Unfortunately, there is no free trial offered for Aperty.
If Skylum’s pricing for its other software is any indication, Aperty may occasionally go on sale. When it first launched, Aperty was available for $149 for a two-year license on day one, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Aperty sales if full price isn’t in your budget.
What and for whom is Aperty intended?
The main difference between Aperty and other Luminar products is that Aperty focuses exclusively on portrait photo editing.
Aperty meets the high technology standards users have come to expect from Skylum’s traditionally AI-based software. While Luminar Neo has plenty of generative AI tools, Aperta’s AI features are more subtle and built into each tool’s neural networks.
With the development help of portrait photographer Julia Trotti, Aperta’s features are designed to enhance your portrait photography. But you don’t have to be a professional portrait photographer to use Aperty, and you can adjust aspects like lighting or colors in non-portrait photos if you want. There are features for face-specific, body-specific editing and a few traditional tools.
The best features of Aperta
The most important aspect of photo editing software is its support for RAW image formats. Aperty has it and allows you to edit with RAW color options and have full control over the final result of your photos. You can also edit JPEGs and other formats, but it’s usually best to shoot and edit RAW.
All editing tools use AI neural networks. While the AI results are subtle, they speed up typical workflows you might manually apply in Lightroom, Photoshop, or Affinity Photo, like whitening teeth and removing skin blemishes.
You can work offline while using Aperta. This is a great feature because most AI-based tools require an internet connection to use the AI features. You can do all the editing using any function in Aperty online or offline.
Selective masking options are available when using any Essentials or Creative tool. With selective masking, you can apply adjustments specifically to certain areas of the image – or avoid them in the same way. Aperta’s masking options work for a portrait subject, the sky, or the background of an image.
Is Aperty competition for Lightroom?
Although Aperty has many similar features to Adobe Lightroom, I don’t think it should be worried about Lightroom’s competition. The portrait focus of Aperta’s tools sets it apart from Lightroom’s more general features.
Lightroom introduced some AI features in 2024, but with the addition of generative AI, I think Aperty’s neural network and AI technology work more successfully to preserve the integrity of the photo.
Lightroom has several major competitors: Affinity Photo, Skylum’s Luminar Neo, and the open-source Darktable. Aperty fits seamlessly into the mix, and while it has some great features, it’s still hard to say whether they’re substantial enough to overshadow Lightroom. Although for portrait editing I’d say Aperta takes the lead.