Life after Photoshop

PhotoLab

DxO PhotoLab 8 Elite
Image: Rod Lawton

DxO PhotoLab is the modern replacement for the old DxO Optics Pro, adding in local adjustment tools when DxO bought the Nik Collection and its technologies from Google. PhotoLab is now a powerful all image browsing, raw processing, lens correction and editing tool, and is renowned for the image quality it can produce.

Read related articles below and this full DxO PhotoLab review

DxO PhotoLab 9 AI masking tools explained, with examples

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DxO PhotoLab already had a formidable set of local adjustment tools, including some that rivals don’t have. PhotoLab’s clever control point masks and control lines, which effectively combine linear masks with selective masking, are unique to DxO. But other makers had already introduced AI masking with automatic region, subject and object detection, so it was about time PhotoLab caught up – and that’s exactly what DxO has done with the launch of PhotoLab 9.

Is simple folder browsing software like Adobe Bridge all you need for organizing your photos?

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In this article I want to explain the difference between what I’ll call ‘image browsers’ and ‘image cataloguers’. Image cataloguing tools like Adobe Lightroom import your photos into a database and offer very sophisticated, very adaptable organizing and search options. But they bring their own limitations and complications. What’s the alternative?

3 reasons why I edited this in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom

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I know Lightroom very, very well. I’ve been writing about it for years. A large part of this site’s content is devoted to Adobe Lightroom tips and tutorials. That means, though, that I also know its weaknesses, and there are plenty. So I thought I’d run through the editing steps I used on this photo and why I did them in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom.

DxO PhotoLab 8 Elite review

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Verdict: 4.5 stars PhotoLab 8 is the latest update to DxO’s flagship photo organizing, image enhancement and editing software. The changes in this version are incremental but still very useful. If you’re upgrading from a previous version you might want to look closely at what’s new before you take the plunge. But if you’re new to PhotoLab then here’s the low-down. If you want to get the best possible quality from your RAW files and you’re prepared to put in a little time and effort, PhotoLab 8 is quite simply in a class of its own. 

The new LUT Grading panel in DxO PhotoLab 7: what it does, how it works

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A LUT is a very interesting thing. LUT is an acronym for LookUp Table, a conversion profile that, basically, takes a pixel value in the original image and looks up an alternative value in the LUT file. LUTs are used widely in cinematography to recreate a specific and consistent ‘look’, but they’re also appearing more and more in still photography.