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Ayoul
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Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this. For me, it's one of the dealbreakers, even if it may be not that important to other users. I process A LOT of pictures every week, and I modify highlights and/or shadows on almost every picture I take. I can't waste time like that if I know that it can be done way faster somewhere else. I just can't.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modify the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the shadows if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 04:47 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this. For me, it's one of the dealbreakers, even if it may be not that important to other users. I process A LOT of pictures every week, and I modify highlights and/or shadows on almost every picture I take. I can't waste time like that if I know that it can be done way faster somewhere else. I just can't.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the shadows if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 04:46 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this. For me, it's one of the dealbreakers, even if it may be not that important to other users. I process A LOT of pictures every week, I can't waste time like that if I know that it can be done way faster somewhere else. I just can't.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the shadows if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 04:41 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this. For me, it's one of the dealbreakers, even if it may be not that important to other users[b/]. I process A LOT of pictures every week, I can't waste time like that if I know that it can be done way faster somewhere else. I just can't.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the shadows if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 04:40 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the shadows if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 12:36 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, this tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Sep 07, 2022 at 12:35 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and will continue to push the exposure if you use this item, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, This tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Apr 04, 2022 at 03:45 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or smearing in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and continue to push the exposure, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, This tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Apr 04, 2022 at 03:43 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion it defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or semaring in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and continue to push the exposure, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, This tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Apr 04, 2022 at 03:42 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion in defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or semaring in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of exposure, highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and continue to push the exposure, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, This tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Dec 29, 2021 at 05:58 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion in defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or semaring in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and continue to push the exposure, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective shadows / highlights sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice. In my opinion, This tool is a not so clever way of solving a problem that they created with their poor highlights / shadows sliders.



Dec 29, 2021 at 04:24 PM
Ayoul
Offline
Upload & Sell: Off
Re: Personal review of DXO Photolab 5


LIGHT PALETTE :

You will find what you probably thought that you would : exposure, contrast, selective tones, (highlights midtones shadows and black), tone curve and vignetting, and two items with a fancy name : DXO Clearview plus and DXO smart lighting.

--------------------------

Contrast :
Contrast, microcontrast and fine contrast.
As far as I know, the fine contrast slider (sort of clarity found in LR or C1) just exists if you buy DXO FilmPack. Why ? I don't know. Is that justified ? Clearly not. In my opnion in defies any logic to link a contrast tool with a film simulation software, but it's their choice. I'f I'm not mistaken, there is still the "micro" contrast available if you only own DPL5, which is also a tool of the same kind, with of course a rendering a little bit different. Not sure which one I prefer, I don't really use them. Good thing is : you can choose if the contrast (global, fine or micro) affects everything in the picture or just the shadows, higlights or midtones.

---------------------------

Selective tones :
It allows of course to adjust highlights, shadows, midtones and blacks. I hate it. Compared to equivalents in LR and C1, this is probably the worst tool of the three. The highlights slider takes way too much of the picture with it, it's not selective enough. The same can be said about the shadows sliders. In both cases, the midtones are way too much affected. I have sometimes to rely on local adjustments to process a highly contrasted picture in DPL, whereas the same picture just makes me use the sliders in Lr or C1. It's not very convenient for a fast workflow, but local adjustments are a good workaround if you have time for this.

-----------------------------


Tone curve :
It's a very rudimentary tool. RGB curve, Red, Green and Blue curve. That's all folks, thank you for coming. No luminance curve like in C1, no Parametric curve like in LR. Just the plain old RGB curve, that's all. Definitely not a strong point.

-----------------------------

Vignetting :
DXO likes to brag a little bit about their optical corrections (distorsion, sharpening and vignetting). They don't just test lenses for vignetting, they pretend to test the lens in combination with specific cameras, probably to check if the corrections should be the same or not. So if Sony releases a new camera, apparently, they test again the old lenses with the new camera to bring specific adjustments, including vignetting. If I'm not mistaken, we have indeed seen in the past a few specific models generating more vignetting and/or semaring in the corners than other cameras of the same brand (the old Nex-7, for instance). But the process is surely time consuming for them. As a consequence, they are not lighting fast to publish their optical corrections when a lens is released. But if they are perfect, it's worth the wait, right ? Yes, but they are not always perfect. I saw in the past some obvious overcorrections of the vignetting of a few lenses, I don't know why. But there are probably thousands of lenses calibrated, so shit happens.

---------------------------

DXO Clearview plus :
Under this fancy name, it acts like the Dehaze tool that you find in the 2 others. As far as I know, DXO was the first of the three to introduce it, but it's not revolutionnary anymore.

--------------------------

DXO Smart Lighting :
One of the fancy things inside DXO, which gives very variable results. This tool, rated from 0 (no effect) to 100 (very strong) can modifies the general exposure, reduce locally the highlights and push the midtones if it "thinks" that all of this has to be modified to match a "good" exposure. It can be nice and generates a waow effect on some landscapes with just one click, if you're lucky. It can be horrendeous, especially in portrait mode where it can lead to a very plasticky rendering of the skin. This effect can be reduced if you use the spot weighted mode, which looks for faces in the pictures and/or let you choose the important part of the pictures. But in the end, for an experienced photographer, it implies a lot of trial and error to finally give the picture a good corrections of highlights and shadows.

Another drawback : it doesn't take into account the adjustements that you already did with the classic tools (exposure, highlights shadows etc). So if you pushed manually the exposure for one stop on your underexposed picture, DXO will ignore that and continue to push the exposure, as if the picture was still to dark even if it isn't anymore.

DXO, you better give us more selective sliders for that, instead of promoting your Smart Lighting. Because it's indeed activated by default, if you don't change any option. A little bit ambitious move to me given the results, but well, it's their choice.



Dec 29, 2021 at 02:59 PM





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