Exposure Software Launches Exposure X7, Its Complete Photo Editor

Exposure Software, which was previously known as Alien Skin, has announced Exposure X7. The latest version of the RAW photo editor, the company says it can handle every step in a photo editing workflow.

The new software is available as a stand-alone application as well as a plugin for either Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom and features what Exposure promises is intelligent masking, selectable workspaces, unified crop and transform tools, improved noise reduction, and improved color fidelity.

Exposure X7 includes a new masking tool that the company says makes it easy to separate subjects from backgrounds. By drawing a rough border around a selection, the software’s intelligent algorithms can create what Exposure says is a precise mask.

Exposure X7’s new polygon masking tool: A series of points were quickly placed around the foreground ridge and climber. Exposure then created a precise selection from the points.

The software also adds new editing workspaces that allow panels to be organized by what is needed for particular tasks and enables users to focus on a specific step in their workflow. Included in Exposure are built-in layouts for culling, editing, and retouching, and photographers can easily create new workspaces that can be customized for their specific needs. Additionally, Exposure X7 has navigation popovers that allow users to easily switch between workspaces or jump to other panels in a workspace.

Exposure Software has also unified the crop and transform functions into one panel, which the company says streamlines the interface to enable easier modifications for simple crops but also allows for detailed transform adjustments. Additionally, new composition guides have been added: golden ratio, golden spiral, golden triangle, and diagonal.

For RAW photos, Exposure X7 has added defective pixel removal, which automatically detects and removes single-pixel artifacts caused by defects in a camera sensor. The strength of this removal tool can be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.

Exposure X7 also includes more faithful color reproduction when using custom DCP color profiles, improved color fidelity with DNG files, and fine texture noise can be added to recover detail with aggressive noise reduction.

Original version of David Mecey’s desert portrait, before processing in Exposure.

This desert portrait by David Mecey was processed in Exposure using the GAF 500 – Warm film preset, with additional edits to adjust color saturation and add subtle sharpening.

Exposure X7 is available starting at $119. Owners of previous versions of Exposure can upgrade for $89, and anyone who purchased Exposure X6 on or after July 15, 2021, will automatically be able to upgrade at no additional cost.