DxO PhotoLab 9 review: a major update for DxO’s flagship photo editor

Pros

+ New AI masking and mask combining options
+ Unmatched RAW processing, especially with DeepPRIME
+ Simple but effective PhotoLibrary image management, now with stacking
+ Excellent lens corrections which include edge softness correction

Cons

– Expensive compared to most rivals, especially if you upgrade annually
– FilmPack and Viewpoint are excellent additions but sold separately
– Quite technical and complicated in parts

What is DxO PhotoLab 9?

DxO publishes a number of different editing tools and applications including the Nik Collection, PureRAW, FilmPack and ViewPoint, but DxO PhotoLab 9 is its flagship product, and it can also act as a kind of central hub for all the others. It combines powerful photo editing, enhancement and correction tools with a simple but effective set of photo browsing and search tools.

There’s no reason why you couldn’t use it as a Lightroom Classic alternative. Its organizational tools are less sophisticated but its editing tools are more advanced, particularly if you install DxO FilmPack and Viewpoint, though these are paid extras.

PhotoLab’s key strengths are its lens corrections, using profiles developed specifically by DxO in its own testing labs, its RAW processing and, especially, its AI-powered DeepPRIME noise reduction. Where Lightroom Classic is an efficient enough everyday tool used widely by photographers the world over, DxO PhotoLab goes straight for outright image quality.

DxO PhotoLab 9 key features

Just about all RAW processing software now includes automatic lens correction profiles. These don’t matter so much for JPEGs, which are usually corrected in-camera, but they are often essential for RAW files, where correction profiles must be applied in software. DxO’s lens corrections go further because they don’t just correct distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting – the three basic corrections for modern lenses – they also compensate for edge softness on a lens-by-lens basis. Indeed, DxO’s correction profiles are developed for specific camera-lens combinations, not just for each lens.

Another key feature of PhotoLab is DxO’s DeepPRIME AI noise reduction process, which is applied to RAW files at the same time as the RAW demosaicing process itself. I’ve tried a number of AI noise reduction tools, including Adobe’s AI Enhance option, and for me DxO’s is still the best by far at reducing noise while enhancing detail in high-ISO shots.

One of the key new features in DxO PhotoLab 9 is the addition of DeepPRIME XD3 X-Trans, a special variation of its latest DeepPRIME version for Fujifilm’s latest X-Trans sensors. These have a special color filter array layout different to the bayer sensors of regular cameras, and need their own process.

Perhaps the biggest new feature in PhotoLab 9 is AI masking. PhotoLab already had a very effective set of local adjustment tools including DxO’s unique Control Point masking alongside regular gradient and brush mask tools, but now you can select areas with a single click using AI, or individual objects. This is one area where PhotoLab was a little behind its rivals but now it’s caught up.

That’s not all. PhotoLab 9 now supports iPhone HEIF and ProRAW files. It’s probably about time, but it’s welcome nonetheless. The ProRAW support is especially welcome because now you can exploit the formidable dynamic range of these iPhone DNG files.

Other new features include advanced batch renaming tools and local adjustments for DeepPRIME noise settings and Lens Sharpness Optimization. These are really for fine-tuning your photos but they do reflect DxO’s attention to image quality.

On its own, PhotoLab 9 is a powerful Lightroom alternative, but things become more interesting still if you install DxO FilmPack and ViewPoint. PhotoLab 9 is expensive enough already, so you might not want to pay even more, but these additional programs are worth considering because they bring advanced volumetric lens corrections and a highlight controllable ‘miniature’ tilt shift effect (ViewPoint) and film simulations, light leaks, borders, frames and even DxO’s Time Machine historical film looks (FilmPack). These are integrated into the PhotoLab 9 interface and – crucially – into its non-destructive workflow. 

Some of the screenshots in this review may show ViewPoint and FilmPack panels (I haven’t worked out how to uninstall them for screenshots, sorry) but all the descriptions of features and image quality relate solely to the tools in PhotoLab 9.

DxO PhotoLab 9 pricing and availability

DxO PhotoLab 9 is available now and costs $239.99 / £219.99 for new users, and $119.99 / £109.99 as an upgrade for existing users of PhotoLab 7 or 8. It’s not a cheap product, costing a similar amount to Capture One, but both these programs are premium tools designed for quality not cheapness. DxO’s policy of extending upgrade pricing to the previous two versions does seem very fair-minded, and it means you can skip a year if you want to without losing your upgrade pricing (PhotoLab is on an annual upgrade cycle).

There will also be a cheaper DxO PhotoLab 9 Essential Edition (price to be confirmed) but this is harder to recommend because it lacks many of PhotoLab’s more advanced features, in particular its DeepPRIME noise reduction and ClearView haze reduction and contrast enhancement feature.

DxO PhotoLab 9 interface and usability

There are two basic operating modes in PhotoLab 9 – the PhotoLibrary panel, where you can browse, organize and search your photos, and the Customize panel where you do all the editing. Both are logical once you get used to how they work, but can seem a little technical at first.

The PhotoLibrary panel, for example, offers very fast searches of image keywords, filenames, metadata (shooting information) and more, but only for folders that it has ‘indexed’ – folders you have visited, in other words. You don’t have a lot of control over this index. If you move images outside of PhotoLab it will lose track of them and you have to relocate them. If you delete them, it can’t relocate them because they are not there any more, and there’s no obvious way to get rid of those ‘missing image’ thumbnails.

Otherwise, the PhotoLibrary panel is very simple and very effective. You don’t have to import photos into a catalog and it will display folder contents ‘live’ without the need to resynchronize. You can also create Projects (albums) and you can even create a nested album structure, so while PhotoLab doesn’t offer quite the same organizational control and flexibility of Lightroom Classic or Capture One catalogs, it gets most of the way there and doesn’t come with all the import/synchronizing/database complications that go with them.

The Customize panel is simple to use on a basic level but can quickly become complicated as you dive deeper into the settings. PhotoLab 9 will automatically match your cameras and lenses with correction profiles and apply them straight away – and if it doesn’t already have a matching profile it will download them for you. These are not large files, so it’s very quick.

You can also choose from a range of processing presets, including a Standard look and a bright and saturated ‘Natural’ look, together with custom presets for portraits, landscapes, black and white and more. It’s quite easy to create and save your own presets too.

The automated corrections happen automatically so you don’t have to do a thing, and the preset looks are optional – you don’t get as many as other programs offer, such as Lightroom or ON1 Photo RAW, though.

The manual adjustments are powerful, but do take a little learning. There’s a Smart Lighting panel which crosses over with a Selective Tone panel, which could cause some confusion, and while the adjustment panels are grouped into tabs for exposure, color and more, you still need to know where to look. There is a search field, though, which helps a lot, and a toggle switch to display only those tools currently applied to the image.

The DeepPRIME options are quite hardware intensive, so you can’t really see their effect in real-time on the whole image without a bit of a delay, but there is a large loupe tool which is practically instantaneous. The DeepPRIME options themselves include regular DeepPRIME processing and DeepPRIME XD, which stands for eXtra Detail. The idea is that you choose whichever version you feel works best for your image (though this might be one of those times where choice can be confusing rather than useful).

The new AI masking tools are very interesting. They are in addition to the existing masking tools rather than a replacement. What’s especially clever is that you can combine masks to include more areas, or remove areas you don’t want included. Here, though, PhotoLab’s interface does feel a little fractured, with the masking controls over in the right sidebar but masking options displayed underneath the image in a horizontal toolstrip.

Anyone used to the DxO PhotoLab interface won’t have any problems at all learning where things are in PhotoLab 9, but new users might have to spend a little time getting used to where things are and how they work.

I’m used to PhotoLab’s interface and DxO’s way of going about things. I don’t mind its occasional quirks because the results it can achieve are excellent.

DxO PhotoLab 9 quality of results

Let’s start with the lens corrections, because these are a step above those in rival programs in the way that they incorporate corrections for both global lens softness and edge softness. DxO’s correction profiles can transform the images from older or more amateur gear – more so than any other program. This applies mainly to RAW files, of course, as most JPEGs will have been processed and corrected in-camera –  though PhotoLab can still apply corrections to those that aren’t. 

DxO’s RAW processing is amongst the best on the market too. I’d say that without DeepPRIME processing it’s about on the same level as Capture One for definition, noise control and color rendition, with Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw not quite in the same league. But when you factor in DxO’s DeepPRIME processing, the gap widens. I still don’t think there is any other AI noise reduction tool on the market to match DeepPRIME’s combination of noise removal and detail enhancement – though now that Lightroom’s Enhance feature is built into its workflow, it is a close rival.

PhotoLab’s combination of lens corrections, exposure/tonal controls, color renderings and overall RAW processing quality yields superb results, helped along by clever and effective masking tools including DxO’s unique control point masks (though not yet with the elliptical mask shapes already in the Nik Collection), its highly selective control point gradient tool and now its new AI masking tools. 

For a busy, high-volume professional workflow I would probably choose Capture One for its combination of speed and image quality, but for fine art or exhibition work where images deserve painstaking attention to detail and the best quality possible, I would choose PhotoLab. Both these programs could do both jobs, to be fair, but they are tilted towards slightly different workflows.

DxO PhotoLab 9 final verdict

DxO PhotoLab 9 brings some important and useful updates, including AI masking tools for the first time, improved DeepPRIME processing for Fujifilm X-Trans owners and support for iPhone HEIF and ProRAW files. All three of those are highly significant for me, though your needs might be different. If you already have PhotoLab 8 you might decide that’s fine and that you can afford to skip a year and wait for PhotoLab 10. Personally, though, given that the upgrade price is half the cost of a new license, I think I would upgrade to PhotoLab 9 anyway. I would definitely upgrade from PhotoLab 7, if only to keep my upgrade entitlement active.

For new users, PhotoLab 9 is an extremely interesting Lightroom Classic alternative. It’s fairly expensive by comparison, but it’s subscription-free, so you can choose when and if you upgrade to the latest version. Its image cataloguing tools are more basic but also fast and straightforward and ideal for anyone who hates the chore of image imports and keeping your catalog synchronized with new images. Its editing tools are more technical and more scattered around than Lightroom Classic’s, but equally effective and, if you go the whole hog and buy DxO ViewPoint and FilmPack as well, PhotoLab will take your images far further than Lightroom can.

The main thing about PhotoLab 9 is the quality of its results. It’s not a ‘one-click-fixer’, it doesn’t push AI down your throat and it’s not a bargain-basement bundle designed to be almost as good as the market leaders but cheaper. PhotoLab 9 is expensive, but that’s because of what it can do. My advice is not to buy expensive camera gear and cheap software.

In fact I would turn this around and say that if you choose the right software you don’t need to worry half so much about how good your cameras and lenses are.