The older (CEP) versions are designed for Adobe’s CEP Legacy platform and will still work as long as Adobe supports the CEP platform. In 2020 Adobe announced that the older CEP Legacy platform will be discontinued within a few years and fully replaced by the new UXP platform But Adobe didn’t give an exact date. As for now, the older CEP Legacy plugins will still work but if you have the latest Apple computer with the new M1 or M2 processor then you have to start up Adobe PS in Rosetta emulation mode to use the older CEP plugins. It is described here – it is a simple one-off setting and the older plugins will then work fine. But it is not known when Adobe will discontinue the support for the CEP platform. Apart from that, the new UXP plugins have more features and will usually work faster.

Because this is not a panel for creating luminosity masks – it does that too but can do far more. The luminosity masks feature is only one small bonus feature part of this full post-processing workflow panel. It is a full workflow panel designed to process B&W images optimally and easily, like for example Silver Efex Pro or Topaz B&W.

I use the panel myself extensively, even though I am able to do it all manually. Why? Because I can do it faster and much more accurately with much more subtlety and consistency than when I do it manually. Furthermore, creating depth in very small objects like thin cables is nearly impossible to do without the panel (Special FX feature) or cost a lot of painstaking effort that can not match the subtlety of the method with the Special FX feature.

No, this panel offers something for everyone. There’s a way of working with the panel that’s less intimidating and time-consuming. It will result in less sophisticated images, but still very good artistic results, considering the time, effort, and experience you give it. To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig: it’s not hard, it’s having the right attitude that’s hard. 

Yes, absolutely. The panel is designed to operate independently from color information as it only takes into consideration the actual RAW luminance value of a pixel, not the color information of a pixel.

You can process color images very accurately, effectively, and beautifully just by using the luminance value information to come to your colorful end result. Later on, you can alter the saturation/hue yourself with either the built-in color-grading or split-toning presets, or do it yourself manually with Photoshop’s color features.

No, there’s a difference between a traditional workflow, the workflow using adjustment layers that Adobe endorses and everyone seems to use, often referred to as a ‘non-destructive workflow’ and a non-traditional workflow such as the workflow supported in the panel and used by me. A non-traditional workflow is not equal to a destructive workflow. The many subtle incremental changes that are typical for my workflow, using dozens of channels and hundreds of layers, are not workable using the traditional workflow.

Yes, absolutely. It will work on both Mac OS and Windows systems.