Last updated on October 14, 2024
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About the Customize tab

The Customize tab contains all the editing and correction tools in DxO PhotoLab.

In this chapter, you will discover and learn all the tools, as they are arranged when you use the DxO Advanced workspace.

Left pane

The left pane of the Customize tab contains the following palettes (top to bottom):

Histogram

RGB histogram
The histogram shows, color by color, how many pixels there are for each level of luminance.
The three color channels (RGB) and the Luminance channel can be displayed separately (Left: PC, right: Mac).
CMYK histogram
This shows the histogram of an image with a CMYK profile, indicating the luminance levels in the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black channels.

About the histogram

The histogram is the most convenient way to determine how an image has been exposed, in order to correct it effectively. In simple terms, the histogram is a graph showing the number of pixels per brightness level: the larger a vertical line, the more pixels there are at that brightness level. If the histogram is shifted to the right, the image is brighter and, conversely, the more it is shifted to the left, the darker it is. When the histogram is well spread out from left to right, with a nice peak in the center (corresponding to the midtones), the exposure can be considered balanced, with a wide dynamic range.

RGB and L channels

The histogram tool calculates the brightness values for each color channel, and displays them all together on the same chart. However, you can also display the values per channel, as your camera does, by clicking on one of the buttons located on the right side of the chart:

The palette displays the characteristics of the area, above the histogram, when you move the mouse pointer over the image. The exact color of this small area is duplicated and magnified in a square tile, next to which its RGB (red, green, blue) primary color composition, each on a scale from 0 to 255, is displayed.

CMYK channels

The DxO PhotoLab histogram also calculates and indicates the distribution of brightness values for each channel of an image with a CMYK profile (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). You can view channels individually, using the corresponding buttons located in the palette (above the histogram on PC, under the histogram on Mac):

Clipping

When a luminance level goes below the left end of the histogram – the so-called black point, or above the right end – the white point, it will be constrained to pure black or pure white. Pixels in this position, or close to it, are said to be “clipped.” Of course, it is highly desirable to avoid this situation and retain the details in these areas of the image. For this purpose, the DxO PhotoLab histogram offers two tools, represented by two icons located under the histogram:

Clipping of low and highlights is visible as false colors

When all color channels are affected, the affected area will be displayed as black; if information is still available in one of the channels, the relevant areas will be displayed in false colors.

Move/Zoom

The palette allows you to navigate the image after zooming in, using a rectangle that you can move with the mouse in the preview. The rectangle represents exactly what you see in the Viewer, and the display is synchronized with the movements of the rectangle.

History

Purpose and function

Located in the left pane of the Customize tab, the Advanced History palette displays all the steps in the work and corrections made to an image, including the date it was opened in the program and the application of default automatic corrections, in ascending chronological order (most recent step at the top). All this information is stored in real time in the DxO PhotoLab database, and requires no intervention on your part.

Use

Depending on the user, the history has a number of uses:

The nature of the recorded information

The DxO Advanced History palette records the following information, which is retained when you exit the program (Mac only):

Limiting the number of steps (Mac)

The history recorded in the DxO PhotoLab database represents a negligible amount of information in terms of impact on the program’s reactivity. However, on a Mac, you can limit the number of steps in Preferences > Advanced tab > History states section. By default, the number of entries is set to 100, and the available values range from 10 to Unlimited.

Using the History palette

Going back in the history and comparing

To see the state of an image at a particular stage of correction, scroll through the Advanced History palette and click on a step: the image returns to the precise state it was in at that stage of correction, and the sub-palettes and tools concerned show the settings and values used at that time. Click on a newer or older step, go back in time through the various stages of tool use, and see how the image looks in real time in the Viewer.

Erasing the history (Mac)

You can’t erase just one or more steps in the history, simply because doing so doesn’t make sense, as corrections are usually made relative to each other (for example, you do the white balance before correcting colors, and erasing the white balance step would not make sense).

If you want to take back a correction, simply act on the tool concerned, by changing its setting or value. In this case, this action will appear at the top of the history.

However, you can erase the whole history. At the very bottom of the History palette, click on Clear History. A dialog box will warn you that the operation is irreversible and, after clicking OK, the contents of the palette will be cleared, only one step (“Clear History”) is displayed.

Important: Deleting the history does not delete or reset your corrections and settings!

Of course, after you have erased the history, it starts saving again as soon as you apply new corrections to the image. In this case, the displayed values and settings start again from this step onwards; the corrections you erased from the history stay erased.

Presets Editor & Presets

About DxO PhotoLab presets

The visual presets window

A preset is a set of corrections that you can apply in one go to any pictures in DxO PhotoLab. The goal of the presets is to help you to record and keep track of your favorite corrections, and to ease and accelerate your workflow within the application.

There are two kinds of presets in DxO PhotoLab:

As soon as you open an image in DxO PhotoLab, the default full preset DxO Style – Natural is automatically applied. You can choose a different preset as the default if desired.

The different categories of available presets

DxO PhotoLab offers a set of full presets divided into 1 + 10 categories:

General purpose presets

The General use category includes six presets:

You can change the default preset in Preferences. The new default preset will be applied only to images that you process after making the change, not to images that were already opened with the previous or original default preset.

Portrait and Landscape

The Portrait and Landscape category is composed of two groups of presets that have been designed for these two uses. For portraits, for example, the contrast is softer and the skin tones have been optimized, whereas for landscapes, the contrast and the colors have greater emphasis. The following eight presets are available in this category:

Black & White

The Black & White category also provides eight presets that let you modify your images by playing with the contrast. You will find here presets that are adapted for “him” and “her” portraiture and for landscapes; presets that produce highly detailed images, and others which are shrouded to give a dream-like effect. Of course, all of these presets can be applied to any subject:

Atmospheres

The Atmospheres category offers eight creative presets based on toning. They can be applied to both color and black & white images:

High Dynamic Range (single-shot HDR)

This category contains four presets that simulate HDR effects – that is, images with an extended dynamic range but with a tonal range that is redistributed to be used without having to use special software or 32-bit files. These single-shot image presets do not require combining multiple images shot at different exposures, and can be used on both RAW and JPEG files:

Smartphones

This category contains two presets that have been optimized for images taken with mobile phones.

DxO FilmPack Designer – Black and White/Color/Black & White films/Color films and DxO FilmPack Time Machine

Designer presets, available when DxO FilmPack is installed, are based on film renderings and graphic effects – filters, toning, vignetting, textures, defects – that bring a new artistic dimension to your images.

Time Machine presets are installed from DxO FilmPack 6 onwards, and offer you film renderings from 1827 to 2019, the history of which you can consult via the Time Machine function.

Designer renderings are available from DxO FilmPack 4 or DxO FilmPack 5.

Time Machines renderings are available from DxO FilmPack 6.

They appear automatically when activating DxO FilmPack (a license is required).

Applying a preset

Applying a predefined preset

To apply a preset to your image, click on the Presets (Mac) / Apply a preset (PC) button in the command bar. Doing so opens a window in which all of the available presets and their effects on the selected image appear.

You can also right-click on a thumbnail in the Image Browser and select Apply Preset in the context menu, or click on the preset of your choice in the list in the Preset Editor.

Combining presets

You can use more than one preset on an image. If each preset has a different value for the same correction, the rule is simple: The values of the last applied preset take precedence; for example:

This rule in particular makes it possible to create partial presets that are based on a limited range of corrections to be applied on top of “overall” (or full) presets. When a correction is assigned a value by the partial preset, it will be governed by it. When there is no value assigned to a correction by the partial preset, the correction will be governed by the underlying full preset.

Creating a full preset from current settings

To create a preset from current settings:

  1. Correcting your image.
  2. When you are satisfied with the results, right-click on the image thumbnail in the Image Browser, and select Create preset from current settings in the context menu.
  3. Enter a name for your preset in the dialogue box and click on Save.
  4. The new preset will appear in the Visual Presets window and in the list in the Preset Editor.

Any preset that you create in this manner will affect all setting values, as it is a full preset.

Managing presets with the Preset Editor (ELITE Edition)

The Preset Editor is a palette in the Customize tab that lets you create and manage your own custom presets, including those that you create “from scratch,” and others that you can create by modifying existing presets.

Preset Editor commands

PC

The Preset Editor lets you create a preset by defining each correction setting:

DxO PhotoLab provides some locked presets (marked with a padlock icon) so you cannot modify or delete them.

You can create as many presets as you want and save them in custom folders, import them into other sessions or versions of DxO PhotoLab, and export them to share them with other users.

To verify or to change a preset’s settings, select it in the Preset Editor and then click on Edit: the relevant palettes will then be displayed in edit mode.

Mac

A drop-down menu located in the upper right corner of the palette offers the following commands (also available in the editor by right- clicking on the preset): New preset from current settings, New empty preset, New group, Duplicate preset, Rename, Delete, Apply preset, Edit preset, Save, Save copy, Cancel changes, Import [note that importing several presets simultaneously is possible], and Export.

Modifying a preset from an existing preset (ELITE Edition)

PC and Mac

To change an existing preset:

  1. Click on the preset that you want to change.
  2. Click on the Edit button on the top left of the Preset Editor palette. The relevant correction palette tools will switch to editing mode (indicated by blue banding on the left edge of the palettes).
  3. Uncheck the settings in the palettes that you want to deactivate, or modify the setting parameters as desired. You can expand the hidden palettes to activate, deactivate, or modify their settings.
  4. When you are finished making all the changes to the settings, click on the Save button in the Preset Editor palette.
  5. Click again on the Edit button to quit the create/edit preset mode.

To create a variant of a locked DxO preset, click on the Copy button in the command bar of the Preset Editor and then rename the copy.

In all cases, changes to preset parameters can be canceled either by selecting Undo in the Edit menu or by using the Ctrl (PC) / Cmd (Mac) + Z keyboard shortcut.

Preset folders (ELITE Edition)

You can open folders in the preset folder list by either double-clicking on them, or by a single click on the arrow on the top left. Clicking on the name of a folder lets you rename it, just like the way you rename a file. To rename a folder, just click on its name. You should give your folders relevant names in order to efficiently organize and classify your presets.

Right pane

The right pane of the Customize tab contains the following palettes (top to bottom):

The Light palette

Exposure

About Exposure

The image on the top has a bright background, the sky lacks colors and details.
The image on the bottom shows the result achieved with “Highlight Priority – Strong” in the Exposure palette.

Exposure adjusts the image exposure level— that is, it increases or reduces the brightness coefficient of each pixel in the image. Because photographic systems record a reduced range of luminosities, in all cases of an inferior range to that offered by nature, most photos exhibit over- or under- exposed areas, or both at once.

Overexposure presents the biggest problem in digital photography, since a saturated camera sensor cannot cope with brightness above a certain level and returns all-white pixels. The Exposure tool can often recover information in these areas that have been incorrectly exposed, particularly with respect to RAW images, whose color channels generally retain some information even for burnt areas. With JPEG images, which have already undergone a series of in-camera processes relative to each RGB channel, however, highlights that are lost are gone for good.

Correcting a RAW file

There are three automatic correction modes for priority highlight recovery: slight, medium, and strong.

The Correction drop-down menu, specific to RAW-format images, proposes five automatic correction modes and one manual option:

Choosing one of the automatic exposure options can speed up your workflow by providing custom settings for many types of shooting situations. For example, the “slight” correction is usually enough to deal with a normally contrasted image.

The Exposure slider is also available in the Local Adjustments.

Correcting a JPEG or TIFF file

You can correct JPEG and TIFF files in manual mode by using the Intensity slider, whose range goes from –4 EV to +4 EV.

Move the slider in small steps while monitoring the changes in the histogram, with the highlight zone visibility button activated so you can see if the exposure has been increased too much (some clipped zones appear) or not reduced enough (clipping still visible).

DxO Smart Lighting

About DxO Smart Lighting

Backlit subjects are a typical case that calls for DxO Smart Lighting correction. Here, because of the very strong contrast, a high level of correction has been applied to open the shadows – as if a fill-in flash had been used.

Ordinarily, image corrections are applied to the whole photograph: when you modify the brightness or the contrast, you make the whole image brighter, darker, and more or less contrasted.

DxO Smart Lighting’s Uniform mode lets you automatically brighten or darken certain areas in your image without affecting other areas. You can also modify the contrast wherever necessary, such as in the following cases:

As for Spot Weighted processing, it uses face detection and works with Smart Lighting to give priority to correctly exposing faces. This is not precisely a local correction, but rather a way to weight the exposure in favor of faces while preserving the correct exposure of the rest of the image, for a balanced and natural result.

DxO Smart Lighting: Uniform mode

DxO Smart Lighting’s Uniform mode offers three levels of correction which take care of the vast majority of cases.

As with the majority of corrections, DxO Smart Lighting’s Uniform mode functions automatically. In this case, the software analyzes the image content and applies the correction in a homogenous way. You have two tools you can use either together or separately to adjust the correction:

DxO Smart Lighting: Spot Weighted mode

DxO Smart Lighting’s Spot Weighted mode is based on detection of faces in a photo in order to optimize the exposure — without radically modifying the rest of the image. This feature is particularly useful in the following cases:

When you click on the Spot Weighted button, DxO Smart Lighting will apply a correction in Slight mode by default, taking into account the faces present in the image. The number of areas detected is indicated in the sub-palette, to the right of the Spot Weighted processing tool icon.

To see the detected areas, click on the tool icon. In the image, each detected face is surrounded by a rectangle. If you move the mouse over one of these rectangles, it will activate (that is, its sides will appear as dotted lines and there will be handles in each corner), thus letting you move it, resize it, or delete it (for this last, click on the cross in the upper right corner of the frame).

You can also use the mouse’s cross pointer to draw a new area. When you do this, the software will perform a new analysis and apply a new correction to the image.

If the system does not detect a face when you turn on Spot Weighted, a No faces detected message will appear in the DxO Smart Lighting subpalette. Generally speaking, non-detection occurs when a face is partially hidden. In these cases, you can manually draw a rectangle, and here, too, the software will perform a new analysis and apply a new correction to the image.

The toolbar located underneath the image lets you activate and deactivate the display of weighted areas (rectangles); to reset the correction; or to close the tool (which you can also do by clicking on the icon in the sub-palette).

You can change the intensity of correction by choosing from among three predefined modes (Slight, Medium, Strong), or by using the Intensity slider to make manual adjustments. In every case, the algorithms take faces into account.

Which settings to use with DxO Smart Lighting

DxO Smart Lighting is probably the most complex of our corrections. It has a global and a local effect on the image – affecting the whole picture and local details – and has a strong influence on contrast and brightness. Such a complex correction can only be mastered with practice. However, you will quickly see for yourself how effective DxO Smart Lighting is even for difficult images.

First, reserve it for photos where the shadows need to be brought back. It has little effect on highlights, unlike Exposure Compensation. Second, you should stick with the three automatic correction modes as much as possible, as they can cope with most situations, and then fine-tune with the Intensity slider afterwards. If you need to do further corrections, use the Selective tone palette or the Tone Curve.

Selective tone

The Selective tone palette is a very intuitive and precise way to control and adjust the brightness of well-defined tonal ranges in an image:

– The Selective tone sliders can drastically change the contrast of your pictures. Use them in moderation and check your histogram to avoid clipping.

– The Selective Tone slides are also available in the Local Adjustments.

DxO ClearView Plus (ELITE Edition)

The DxO ClearView Plus tool automatically eliminates atmospheric haze in both RAW and JPEG files.

Atmospheric haze is caused by heat, humidity, or pollution, and frequently causes problems in landscape photos by obscuring details and adversely affecting contrast.

The Intensity slider, set at 50 by default, lets you choose the strength of the correction ranging from 0 to 100.

To return to the default setting (50), double-click on the slider.

You can also use DxO ClearView Plus on images that do not have atmospheric haze, for example to enhance the presence of a sky or landscape.

Contrast

The Contrast sub-palette consists of the Contrast and Microcontrast sliders.

If you have installed DxO FilmPack (ELITE Edition), four other sliders will also be present: Fine contrast and three advanced settings tied to it: Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows.

The Contrast sub-palette.

The global contrast correction can interfere with the Tone curve settings.

You can adjust the Microcontrast in two ways:

Automatic mode takes into account the presence of faces in order to preserve them, and also takes into account digital noise so as to avoid accentuating it excessively. For JPEG images, automatic Microcontrast is limited to a value of +5.

To reset the automatic correction, click again on the magic wand.

We advise you not to apply a strong Microcontrast correction, especially if you are applying the Sharpness Mask correction from the Detail palette.

Fine contrast (DxO FilmPack installed).

Each slider range goes from –100 to +100, with the default value set at 0.

Tone curve

About the Tone Curve

The tone curve is a photo editing tool often considered complex by photographers, sometimes to the point of avoiding its use. However, it is one of the most powerful, flexible, and refined image editing tools available. Don’t be intimidated by the lengthy description here. While the Tone Curve tool requires some learning, once you grasp its principles, the best way to master it is through practice.

The Tone Curve tool not only affects brightness and contrast but also color, via a global RGB channel, three separate channels (R for red, G for green, B for blue), and a luminance channel, also known as luma, which allows you to adjust tones without affecting color. You also have a tone picker that lets you sample a brightness level and mark it on the curve as a point, and make adjustments directly in the image.

By default, the tone curve is neutral and applies no correction, even when the Tone Curve sub-palette is activated. At this stage, it is represented by a 45° diagonal line, where the input brightness values, represented by the X (horizontal) axis match the output values exactly, represented by the Y (vertical) axis. When you adjust the curve, the output values change, impacting brightness, contrast, and color. Photographers frequently use it to enhance their images with the well-known “S-shaped curve”, which compresses the highlights (represented by the top of the curve, upper right) and shadows (bottom of the curve, lower left), while extending the midtones (center of the curve). The more pronounced the “S”,  the stronger the image contrast, meaning the difference between light and dark tones.

Adjusting tones with the curve also affects color by decreasing or increasing saturation depending on your settings, but you can also use it to correct or enhance a color cast with the three RGB channels. For instance, if your image is cooler and leans towards blue, you can adjust the B channel curve from blue to yellow, its complementary color, or vice versa to cool down a warm image. Manipulating the individual R, G, and B channels is also a good way to explore creative renditions.

Finally, the L channel, for luma or luminance, lets you adjust tones while preserving color. For example, if you enhance the tone of a landscape image with gray clouds, they might gradually turn blue, whereas with the L channel, they will remain gray. This is also a way to preserve skin tones in a portrait.

Inverted Curve

The tone curve in DxO PhotoLab also has an inverted mode, allowing you to convert and work on negative images, including scans of analog film.

Description

The Tone Curve sub-palette consists of the following elements:

  1. Presets: When you activate the tone curve, the default preset applied to your image, whether RAW or JPEG/TIFF, is the Linear curve. The dropdown menu allows you to apply curve presets included with DxO PhotoLab and create your own presets (see below).
  2. Channel selection: Click on one of the tabs to select and use the curve in the channel of your choice. Note that you cannot select and activate multiple channels simultaneously, but you can adjust multiple channels, one after the other (e.g., using the global RGB channel and then modifying the red channel).
    1. RGB: The global channel, where the curve affects all three red, green, and blue channels identically.
    2. R, G, B: Depending on your selection, the curve affects the red, green, or blue channel.
    3. L: The curve acts on the luma channel to adjust luminance while preserving color.
  3. Reset: Click this button to reset the active channel’s curve and associated settings.
  4. Reset All: Resets all channels and associated settings, returning the curve to the default preset (linear).
  5. Histogram: the background of the curve displays the histogram of the original image and the corrections that were made before working on the tone curve. When using the tone curve, and as long as you do not make corrections with other tools, its histogram does not change and serves as a reference. To check your curve settings, you need to consult the Histogram palette, which takes all corrections into account (don’t hesitate to enable the clipping indicators and select individual channels to avoid going too far with your adjustments). The appearance and color of the background also change depending on the active channel:
    1. RGB or L: Gradient gray background, lighter at the top left, darker at the top right, indicating brightness (brightening by curving upward, darkening by curving downward).
    2. R, G, or B: The background represents the complementary colors, according to the additive color model, and based on the selected channel (R: red/cyan, G: green/magenta, B: blue/yellow). For example, for the green channel, curving upward adds a green cast, and downward, a magenta cast.
  6. Curve: By default, the curve is a 45° diagonal line starting from the bottom left corner (absolute black, value: 0*) and ending in the top right corner (absolute white, value: 255*). The curve’s center is marked by the value 128 on each axis. The grid represents input values (horizontal or X-axis) corresponding to the original image tones and output values (vertical or Y-axis) corresponding to the tones after adjustments. To help with interpretation, click on the curve to add a point and drag it with the mouse: if you draw a vertical line from the point to the X-axis below, you’ll get the corresponding value in the original image, and a horizontal line to the Y-axis on the left shows the value after correction. The curve’s color depends on the channel, and if multiple channels are used, you’ll see multiple curves, each in its respective color:
    1. RGB: white.
    2. R, G, or B: respective colors, red, green, or blue.
    3. L: gold.
  7. Curve Points: When hovering the mouse over the curve, the cursor changes to a cross (+), and clicking sets a point corresponding to a brightness level in the image, with the value shown in indicators on the left (Y -axis) and below (X-axis) the curve (see point 9 below). Be aware that a point on the curve will affect all corresponding brightness levels, regardless of their location in the image:
    1.  You can create as many points as you want.
    2. To adjust the curve, click on a point and drag it.
    3. A point becomes white when clicked, indicating it’s active. A black point is inactive.
    4. You can’t activate multiple points at once.
    5. To temporarily deactivate all points, click on the background.
    6. When adjusting the curve between two points, only the corresponding portion of the image is affected. However, the curve accounts for transitions, causing slight variations beyond the points between which you adjust.
    7. Points on one channel are not visible on other channels (note: all curves are visible on all channels).
    8. To delete a point, activate it and press the Backspace or Delete key on your keyboard.
    9. You can also create points using the tone picker (see point 10 below).
  8. Thresholds: At each end of the X and Y axes, you’ll see small triangles. These handles allow you to modify the values of the white point (0) and the black point (255), also known as thresholds. This lets you adjust the input points and the range of brightness within which the curve will operate:
    1. On the X-axis, this allows you to adjust the tonal range of an original image whose histogram doesn’t extend sufficiently to the darkest and/or brightest tones.
    2. On the Y-axis, this allows you to truncate output values, achieving effects like the matte look illustrated thereafter.
    3. You can check the thresholds in the level indicators (see point 9 below).
  9. Level Indicators: On each of the X and Y axes, there are three level indicators representing:
    1. X-axis, from left to right: shadow values, midtones, and highlights.
    2. Y-axis, from top to bottom: highlight values, midtones, and shadows.
    3. The indicators also serve as input fields, especially if you have specific values from 0 to 255 to apply. You can also increment them using the up/down arrows on their right.
  10. Tone Picker: Activated by clicking the button, the tone picker offers two functions for convenient interactions with the image:
    1. You can create points on the curve by clicking in the desired spots in the image.
    2. You can click on a specific spot in the image and then drag the eyedropper up or down to adjust the tone.
    3. To deactivate the eyedropper, click the button in the sub-palette again.
  11. Gamma: In photography, this value, also known as the contrast factor, determines the contrast of the image capture medium, whether it’s film or electronic sensors. In the Tone Curve tool, it determines the slope of the central section of the curve (midtones), and it’s set to 1.00 by default. You can modify it on a scale from 0.05 to 6.00, either with the slider, by entering a value in the indicator, or using the up/down arrows:
    1.  Values above 1 increase contrast and bring out details in the shadows.
    2. Values below 1 decrease contrast and bring out details in the highlights.

Let’s do some maths !

* The 0 to 255 levels, 256 levels in total, are a standardized representation used by photo software, based on 8-bit files, or the number of bits per channel for RGB: 2 to the power of 8 (28) equals 256, which is typical for JPEG files that are 8-bit. For information, 16-bit files (216), like TIFF or RAW files, have 65,536 levels per RGB channel, but a representation with 256 levels is simpler to present and use.

Presets

The tone curve comes with several presets. For learning, feel free to try them and carefully observe all the associated settings in the sub-palette.

You can also create your own tone curve presets:

  1. Adjust the tone curve.
  2. In the Presets list, select “Save Preset…”.
  3. A dialog box appears allowing you to:
  4. Enter the name of your custom preset.
  5. Exclude or include the different RGB and Luminance channels.
  6.  Click “Save”.
  7. Your preset appears in the list.

To delete a custom preset*:

  1. Go to the list, select “Remove Preset”.
  2. Choose the preset from the submenu.
  3. A dialog box asks you to confirm the deletion.

*You can’t delete the tone curve presets provided by DxO PhotoLab.

Here are some examples of using the tone curve with associated curve settings:

Original

Increasing contrast

Decreasing contrast

Original

RGB contrast enhancement

Luma contrast enhancement

Correcting a color cast (here with the blue channel)

Toning a black & white picture with color channels

Matte effect

Inverted curve negative/positive

Vignetting

The appearance of the two Vignetting sliders when a DxO Optics Module is available

Vignetting is an optical aberration that results in corners and edges that are darker than the center of an image. The vignetting correction works differently and uses different commands depending on whether or not the relevant DxO Optics Module is available.

DxO Optics Module available

When a DxO Optics Module is available, the Correction drop-down menu will display Auto with DxO Optics Module, and the correction will be automatic. You also have the option to refine the correction by hand, or switch to a completely manual mode, as if the DxO optics module were not available (see the next paragraph).

The vignetting correction actually takes place in two steps, both of which can be fine-tuned:

  1. First, from the lens data, focal length, and aperture setting, the DxO Optics Module calculates the necessary correction for every pixel in the image. The Intensity slider allows you to decide how much vignetting should be removed (within a range of 0 to 100%).
  2. Second, a filter is applied to avoid clipping in bright areas and increased noise in dark areas. You can use the Preservation slider to set the intensity of this filter (from 0 to 100%), as follows:
    • If set to 0%, the vignetting correction will be applied without any restrictions.
    • If set to 80%, for example, the largest highlights and shadows will remain uncorrected.

When adjusting these two combined settings, we suggest sticking to the default 100% for the first Intensity slider, since the Middle slider is usually more effective in preventing undesirable vignetting correction side effects. Only vignetting due to the lens or sensor is corrected. Mechanical vignetting caused by a lens shade, for example, cannot be corrected. In the case of mechanical vignetting, you may want to use the Crop tool to remove the unwanted parts of your picture.

As with many other DxO PhotoLab corrections, the magic wand allows you to revert to the default settings.

No DxO Optics Module available

If the DxO optics module is not available, manual mode will be displayed. The Intensity slider will visually correct the darkening of the image at the edges and, in the advanced settings, the Middle amplification slider lets you determine the extent of the effect from the center of the image.

The Color palette

Working Color Space

Top : classic color space, bottom : DxO Wide Gamut color space

DxO PhotoLab (from version 6) uses an extended color workspace: DxO Wide Gamut, in addition to the Classic profile (Legacy), which matches the Adobe RGB 1998 profile, kept to prevent users from applying unwanted changes to images that they have already processed. The Colorimetric Space Subpalette lets you to manage images according to their color profile and convert them:

Converting images processed in Adobe RGB to the DxO Wide Gamut profile may change some colors and so, depending on how the picture looks, you may need to redo some corrections.

Indeed, soft proofing is available for the DxO Wide Gamut space, as well as the Legacy colorspace.

Important

Since version 6 (October 2022), DxO PhotoLab is no longer constrained by the color space of the input image, as each one is converted to use the expansive DxO Wide Gamut color space. For most screens with restrained color spaces, out-of-range color warnings may appear in the Soft Proofing tool when correcting images. However, getting rid of these warnings should not be your aim as they do not concern the quality obtained in exported files or prints.

Since DxO PhotoLab 6.3 (February 2023), the DxO Wide Gamut color space applies to both RAW and RGB files (JPEG, TIFF, linear DNG). 

White Balance

Regardless of its origin (artificial or natural), light usually appears white to our eyes. It is, however, nothing of the sort. Even daylight can contain strong blue dominants, particularly in shadows or when the sky is overcast. At the other end of the spectrum, incandescent bulbs have a yellow cast, while fluorescent lights produce complex green casts.

Adjusting white balance serves to correct these undesirable light dominants.

The White Balance palette

The settings available depend on the file type:

When you select a RAW file or a RGB file (JPEG or TIFF) in the Image Browser, the White Balance palette automatically adapts accordingly.

Using presets (RAW files)

The drop-down Setting menu contains a certain number of settings that cover most known light sources, ranging from daylight, cloudy, or shade to tungsten, different types of fluorescent, or industrial (sodium, mercury) lights.

The default choice is Original, which corresponds to the white balance of the camera used to shoot the image. Manual or Custom mode is automatically selected as soon as you use the Color temperature or Tint sliders (see the corresponding paragraphs further below).

The presets are:

Extending white balance to 50,000 allows for very specific corrections, such as those for the Aquatic preset that efficiently compensate for the strong blue-green dominant in underwater images.

The original white balance is the only camera setting that DxO PhotoLab takes into account.

Using the eyedropper (RAW and RGB files)

To use the eyedropper, you will first need to find an area or element in your image that is as close as possible to a neutral gray color, preferably a relatively light gray. Next, click on the area to establish the white balance. You can do this as many times as you want until you achieve the result you are looking for.

If the neutral area repeats in the image is small, zoom in to perform a more accurate pick.

Underneath the Viewer (Mac), or above it (PC), you will find a Radius slider that will allow you to change the size of the sampling area (indicated by a circle that accompanies the eyedropper). You can adjust the radius from 1 to 50 pixels.

White balance Radius slider (PC)
White balance Radius slider (Mac)

For images taken at high ISO speeds, we recommend increasing the Radius slider value to 10, to reduce pointing errors due to possible noisy patches.

After you finish using the white balance eyedropper, click on Close in the bottom right of the toolbar directly underneath the image.

Fine-tuning the white balance of a RAW file

However you choose to initially correct your images for white balance — via pre-established settings or the eyedropper, you can fine-tune the corrections using the Color temperature and Tint sliders. The Color temperature slider has a range of 2,000 °K to 50,000 °K, and can often be combined with the Tint slider to remove residual colorcasts.

In all cases, choosing As shot in the drop-down menu lets you safely revert to the settings provided by the image EXIF data.

Fine-tuning white balance for a RGB file (TIFF or JPEG)

When you select a JPEG or TIFF file in the Image Browser to set the white balance, the RAW white balance palette changes automatically to the RGB white balance palette, in which a simplified Color temperature slider is available in addition to the color picker. Strictly speaking, it is not possible nor recommended to set the white balance for a JPEG or TIFF file, since the white balance has already been established by in- camera processing. Therefore, any modification in one tonal range will produce imbalances in other tonal ranges: if we correct the midtone greys, then highlight greys or low-key greys will inevitably suffer a slight colored hue. For this reason, any white balance adjustments on images like his should be very slight. You can use either the color picker (eyedropper — see above) or a dedicated slider, both available in the advanced settings (Mac), to move from cooler (blue) tones to warmer (yellow) tones and vice-versa.

To reset slider adjustments, double-click on the slider. For both RAW or RGB files, it is not always necessary to look for perfect white balance. Keep in mind the atmosphere of the scene you have photographed, and try to adjust the settings to maintain that atmosphere.

Color/B&W Rendering

Color/B&W switch

The Color/B&W Rendering palette allows you to easily switch between workflows using the Color and B&W buttons. By clicking on either of these buttons, the content of the palette automatically adapts to the selected mode.

In B&W mode, the following tools are disabled :

Every camera, every processing software, and for traditional photography, every film, has a particular color rendering (and some renderings have contributed positively to their manufacturers’ reputations). The purpose of the Color Rendering palette is to simulate the rendering of a camera or film. Beyond aesthetics, this correction has a practical application for photographers who work with multiple cameras, enabling them to unify the appearance of their images regardless of the camera used. And professionals might also want to deliver to their customers a neutral set of images that bears no noticeable signature of any particular camera.

By default, DxO PhotoLab applies the following renderings to RAW files:

RAW images

Because RAW images still contain all the luminance information and have never been converted into any color space, they are particularly suitable for the Color rendering correction. This means that many creative opportunities are open to you, as you can see from the contents of the two drop-down menus, Type and Rendering, which also depend on the Color or B&W modes:

DxO PhotoLab does not take into account the photo styles provided by some camera makers. However, it will try to match the standard original rendering as closely as possible. Note that DxO PhotoLab lets you apply Fuji renderings (see below).

If DxO FilmPack is installed and activated, the Type and Rendering drop-down menus offer more films in the following categories : Color Positive Film, Color Negative Film, Color Processed Film, Digital Film, Cinematic Film and Black & White Film. For more information, please refer to the DxO FilmPack user guide.

Fuji and Nikon images

If you are using a Fuji or a Nikon camera, you have the option to automatically apply the camera’s rendering. To do this, you will need to activate the option Automatically use camera rendering if supported in the Preferences > General tab of DxO PhotoLab. There are two possible scenarios, depending on whether DxO FilmPack is installed or not:

  1. DxO FilmPack not installed: the rendering will be the generic rendering of the camera, and DxO Photolab will apply this rendering if the camera is set to Fuji film rendering.
  2. DxO FilmPack installed: in addition to the generic renderings, you will have the choice of all Fuji and Nikon renderings to apply as you wish. Note that in this scenario, you will also be able to apply those renderings to any brand and model of camera supported by DxO PhotoLab (renderings are available either in the Color > Color Rendering > Rendering palette or in the Presets, DxO FilmPack Designer – Color and DxO FilmPack Designer – Black & White sections).

TIFF or JPEG images

As with several other corrections, Color rendering is inherently limited when applied to TIFF or JPEG images: the images have already been processed to some degree, and thus there is no access to the original file data. So for these formats, only certain film emulations are available.

You can access film options by combining certain choices found in the two drop-down menus, Category and Rendering (see below). The Intensity slider allows progressive changing of the original image into the selected emulation. The default setting is 100, with 0 for the original image, and all values above 100 “hyper-correcting” the image.

Color rendering (DxO FilmPack enabled)

Starting with version 6.0, if FilmPack is enabled, the DxO FilmPack Time Machine button appears in the Color Rendering sub-palette. Clicking on it will open the Time Machine floating window that lets you browse through an illustrated history of photography, from the 19th century to the year 2020. You can also apply directly the presets proposed by Time Machine (see the section on DxO FilmPack and Time Machine for more details).

Calibrated Color Profile (ELITE edition)

DxO PhotoLab lets you use DCP input profiles to obtain optimal image rendering and colors, depending on the illuminant used to light the scene, and/or to apply a particular rendering, or even to homogenize the image colors produced by different camera models.

What is a DCP profile?

Your camera’s sensor converts the photons that reach the photosites (the sensitive elements that capture light) into electrical signals. These electrical signals are then converted into data stored in a RAW file which, in turn, need to be processed using software such as DxO PhotoLab to produce a usable image. To restore color throughout this process, the program applies an input profile, and therefore its own rendering.

However, you can change this rendering using another input profile.

DxO PhotoLab supports DCP profiles, a technology developed by Adobe. DCP (DNG Color Profiles) are based on DNG (Digital NeGative), a free and open RAW format that Adobe has provided to the image, photo and film industry, and which has been universally adopted by mobile devices running iOS and Android.

DCPs have a number of advantages over ICC profiles, in particular their flexibility. Indeed, DCPs make it possible to incorporate two types of illuminants — for example, daylight and incandescent lighting — to obtain the right colors and white balance in all circumstances. Profiles also affect image contrast: for example, you can use profiles with a more or less soft rendering, or linear-type profiles, to produce a flat rendered image, thus giving you a neutral working base on which to create your own rendering.

ICC profile support has been dropped since DxO PhotoLab 7 (Sept. 2023).

DxO or Adobe DCP curve ?

The DCP curve menu appears only when you select DCP Profile in the Type menu, and lets you select two different renderings:

How to create a custom calibrated color profile

DxO PhotoLab lets you create DCP input profiles. If you don’t want to produce your own profiles, service providers are also available to create input profiles for your particular camera.

To create a custom DCP input profile, you need to use a color chart. This will allow you to get accurate colors according to the light source, and apply the saved profile to batches of images taken with the same light source.

  • The application of a calibrated profile must be done upstream of the workflow in the Customize tab, and more particularly if you plan to correct the colors.
  • The Calibrated Color Profile Tool is only available in the DxO Wide Gamut working color space.

To create a custom profile, you must have one of the following charts:

Photographing the color chart

The Calibrated Color Profile creation tool can only be used with RAW files. This is because with a JPEG file, the white balance and color corrections will be limited, while RAW files give you all the latitude for corrections. If you select a JPEG file, the tool will remain inactive.

To photograph your chart, make sure it is well exposed to the light source, frame it so that it fills a good part of the image, especially if you are using a small chart, and that it is facing the lens.

After you have photographed the chart, or the chart with its subject, remove it and then continue your shooting session. If you change the light source or change the subject, take a new shot with the chart.

Creating a Calibrated Color Profile

After opening and selecting the image with the chart in DxO PhotoLab, and before making any color corrections (by default, the software adjusts the tones and basic rendering, and the camera’s white balance is preserved), activate the Calibrated Color Profile creation tool in the Colors palette, sub-palette Color Rendering / B&W, then:

Applying a Calibrated Color Profile

To apply a custom calibrated color profile to an image or a previously selected batch of images:

If, for some reason, you switch to B&W mode and then back to Color mode, the Type and Rendering drop-down menus are reset to Generic rendering and Neutral color. You will therefore need to reselect your calibrated profile.

Importing and applying a Calibrated Color Profile

To import and apply a DCP input profile into DxO PhotoLab:

When should you apply a DCP profile? Ideally, you should apply it at the beginning of the workflow, before performing any image corrections:

LUT Grading (ELITE edition)

Overview

LUT (Look-Up Table) files are tables that modify input values into different output values, especially in terms of colors and their respective RGB values. In DxO PhotoLab, to make things easier, those tables are referred as “LUT files”.

In the case of a digital image, LUT files allow you to practice color grading and give a creative rendering to your images, without modifying or altering the default settings in the Customize tab (unlike the presets of DxO PhotoLab and DxO FilmPack).

The goal, here, by reproducing a palette of colors, is to give a particular look to your image, often inspired by movies or TV series, but also by magazines, landscapes, seasons, etc.

Finally, unlike DCP calibrated profiles, you can apply a LUT file to both Raw and RGB files (JPEG, TIFF).

DxO PhotoLab comes with 3 different sets of LUT files:

Apply a LUT file

The application of a LUT file must be done upstream of the workflow in the Customize tab.

To apply a LUT file to an image or a previously selected batch of images:

  1. Go to the Color palette, sub-palette LUT calibration.
  2. Select the desired rendering in one of the LUT file lists.
  3. If you are using an imported LUT file, and therefore not one of the LUT files from DxO PhotoLab, the LUT Color Space menu allows you to assign a working color space.
  4. The Intensity slider, set to 100 by default, allows you to attenuate the rendering obtained with the selected LUT file.

Import a LUT file

You can easily add LUT files, after downloading them from the Internet and decompressing them:

  1. In the Color palette, sub-palette LUT calibration, open the LUT file list and select Import (.cube)…
  2. A system dialog box allows you to locate and select a LUT file (on PC, you can select multiple files).
  3. Click OK, the LUT file appears in the list and is applied immediately.

DxO PhotoLab does not move LUT files during import. Provide a dedicated storage folder, such as the Images folder in your system.

Delete a LUT file

Go to the LUT file list, and select Delete. All LUT files, except those from DxO PhotoLab, are deleted.

Style – Toning (DxO FilmPack not activated)

The Style-toning palette offers by default a Sepia preset.

You can adjust the effect with the Intensity slider. The default value is 100, and 0 corresponds to the original image.

The contents of the Style – Toning palette depends on whether DxO FilmPack has been activated or not. For more information, see the section on DxO FilmPack palette.

HSL

The Hue/Saturation/Luminance (HSL) palette allows you to selectively and precisely correct colors using a color wheel, 8 color channels, and a global channel, as well as 3 sliders that affect saturation, luminance, and uniformity. This tool also allows you to:

The Hue/Saturation/Luminance sub-palette is located in the Color palette.

Color channels

At the top of the sub-palette, the colored dots show the selectable color channels (from left to right):

The dots represent the global channel (white) and the color channels. On the right, the reset arrow.

The selected channel is indicated by a white outline around its dot. As soon as you make a hue, saturation, luminance, and/or uniformity adjustment, a white dot appears under the active channel indicator.

The white outline indicates that the orange channel is active and the white dot indicates that the corresponding shade has been changed.

After applying a correction to a channel, you can temporarily disable it by clicking and holding the mouse button in the active channel dot. This allows you to quickly compare the image before and after the correction.

To the right of the channels, the curved arrow resets all the adjustments made in the palette—both to the settings of the color wheel and to those of the sliders. However, the channel you previously selected remains active, as indicated by a white outline.

DxO ColorWheel

The DxO ColorWheel replaces the HSL tool hue slider in versions prior to DxO PhotoLab 3. Equipped with both broader and finer adjustment options, it consists of the following elements:

As the inner wheel represents the source color (the one you want to change) and the outer wheel represents the target color, you should read and interpret the DxO ColorWheel from the inside to the outside.

The behavior of the DxO ColorWheel thus depends on what you select in the global channel or in one of the color channels.

The DxO ColorWheel (left, global channel active; right, blue channel active).

When the global channel (white dot) is selected, only the Saturation and Vibrancy sliders are active.

If the global channel is selected

Using the handle, you can rotate the outer wheel of the DxO ColorWheel 360°, and in this case, each inner color range (source color) will take on the hue it aligns with in the outer wheel (target color).

With the global channel active (white dot), the handle has rotated the outer wheel (target color) 180° around the inner wheel (source color).

Let’s take the example of a photo with a blue sky and fairly yellow grass:

If the global channel is active (white dot) and no adjustments have been made, the two wheels will be aligned (slider to the right): the blues next to the blues, the reds next to the reds, the greens next to the greens, as well as the complementary colors (yellow, cyan, magenta). The sky and grass maintain their original colors.

Global channel active, wheels aligned.

Grab the handle and then rotate the outer wheel so that the handle is at the bottom: the blue range of the inner wheel (source color) ends up aligned with the red/magenta range of the outer wheel (target color) and therefore the sky turns a red/magenta tint. The yellow/orange range of the inner wheel (source color) aligns with the green range of the outer wheel (target color) and thus the yellow grass turns a bluish green.

Outer wheel handle moved a quarter turn: the blues turn magenta, the yellows turn green.

Continue until the handle is positioned to the left of the wheel: the internal blue zone (source color) is next to the orange zone (target color) so the sky turns an orange hue, the yellow zone of the internal wheel is aligned with the blue zone of the external wheel; then the grass turns blue and so on as you return to the default position (slider on the right, in line with the internal marker and both wheels aligned).

With the handle positioned on the left, the blue of the sky turns orange, and the yellow grass turns blue.

If a color channel is selected

Let’s use the same photo as before:

Click on the blue dot to activate the blue channel.

Please also note the following behaviors:

Sliders

You can use the Saturation, Luminance, and Uniformity sliders to refine the color corrections you make with the DxO ColorWheel. All sliders are set to and remain at 0 by default, regardless of the ColorWheel settings.

The Saturation and Luminance slider bars show the target hue. For example, if you click on the blue channel, or if you have positioned the outer wheel handle on the blue (at 90°), the Saturation and Luminance slider bars will turn blue. If you change the target hue, the color of the sliders will also change to match the target hue.

Saturation

The Saturation slider subtly attenuates or strengthens all the colors in the image if the Global channel is selected, or the active hue channel.

If you move it to the left, the colors or the selected hue gradually shift to grey, and completely when you reach a value of –100. To the right, the colors or the selected hue become more and more vivid, but without the risk of clipping or oversaturating the color. The default setting is 0.

Vibrancy

Compared to the Saturation slider, which reinforces colors, the Vibrancy slider operates in a much more subtle way, taking into account the vibrancy of the different colors in the image. It can be defined as a “smart” color saturation setting. The range is from –100 to 100, and the default setting is 0. When the slider has a positive value, vibrancy increases the overall saturation, but with some very particular behaviors:

When the slider has a negative setting, overall saturation is reduced, with the following restrictions:

Luminance

The Luminance slider affects the brightness of the selected or active hue. By moving it to the left (dark end), you darken the hue and, to the right (light end), you make it brighter, while preserving the saturation as much as possible.

Uniformity

After you adjust the skin tones with the DxO ColorWheel, fine-tune the results with the Uniformity slider. From left to right: slider to the left (less uniformity); untuned image (slider at 0); slider to the right (more uniform).

The Uniformity slider allows you to influence the color homogeneity of a defined and active range. Increasing the value (to the right) will reduce the shade variations of the target hue. Reducing the value (to the left) will increase the shade variations within the active range.

The algorithms that the HSL tool uses are not implemented by the Saturation and Vibrancy sliders (global & local settings), nor by the Hue slider (local settings).

Color sampler

You can also select a shade even more precisely with the Hue picker tool, found in the center of the DxO ColorWheel. It works with each of the color channels except the Global channel (white tile). To use the hue picker:

  1. In the HSL palette, select the desired channel.
  2. In the center of the DxO ColorWheel, click on the eyedropper to activate it.
  3. Click on the desired hue in the image.
  4. The corresponding shade range is automatically activated in the DxO ColorWheel.
  5. Make your shade and color adjustments using the DxO ColorWheel and associated sliders.

When you activate the hue picker, a toolbar is displayed below the image (Mac), or above (PC) and includes the following items:

  1. Name or icon of the active tool (hue picker).
  2. The selected channel and then the hue after modification are indicated (Mac).
  3. Radius: Allows you to adjust the hue picker’s sampling diameter from 1 to 50 pixels (the sampling area is indicated by a circle at the tip of the eyedropper).
  4. Reset button (Mac) or icon (PC): Resets the sampling; the indicator [2] returns to the base color of the selected channel.
  5. Close (Mac): Deactivates the hue picker (but not the corrections).
Mac
PC

Display mask for the selected color range

After selecting a color channel by clicking on one of the pads (and possibly refining the selection with the eyedropper), you can display only the colors concerned by clicking in the range of the DxO ColorWheel, while holding down the Ctrl (PC) or Cmd (Mac) key. The rest of the image and colors outside this range will be shown in grayscale. 

This method will allow you to select the colors to be processed even more precisely, since their display will vary depending on the settings you make in the DxO ColorWheel, both in terms of range and hue transitions.

Normal display
Display using the Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (PC) key

Channel Mixer

The Channel Mixer lets you adjust and fine-tune color and black & white pictures according to your taste by acting on the additive colors (red, green, and blue) as well as on the subtractive colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow).

You can think of the Channel mixer as a set of fully-configurable filters. Although the filters in the Filter palette are limited both in hue and intensity, the Channel mixer lets you create any combination of colors at any level of intensity.

To use the Channel mixer, you will need to evaluate which channels are too bright or too dark, and then move the corresponding sliders in the desired direction. For example, if your image contains yellow elements, you can move the Yellow slider to the left to darken them, or to the right to brighten them.

Soft proofing (ELITE edition)

Soft proofing enabled with white background image and color indication off gamut according to the selected profile.

About soft proofing and recommendations

Screen proofing, or soft proofing, consists of simulating the rendering of a paper print on your screen, taking into account paper characteristics, such as its tint, as well as inks used by the printer or lab. This simulation, based on ICC colorimetric profiles, also lets you identify possible off-line (non-printable) colors as well as any corrections that may to be made before you start printing.

Soft proofing is not limited to printing, it also lets you simulate specific display renderings for where you plan to present your images (TV, tablets, etc.).

DxO PhotoLab lets you test on screen using ICC and CMYK profiles installed in your system, having obtained them from the following sources:

All sites offering download profiles offer detailed installation instructions. This is done at operating system level, and DxO PhotoLab will be able to offer them to you and display them without you having to do anything special within the program itself, simply reach them through the Profile menu, in the soft proofing subpalette.

IMPORTANT: For soft proofing to be reliable and efficient, it goes without saying that your graphic chain – from the screen to the printer – must be calibrated using the corresponding tools (for colors and associated software), with screen adjustments (brightness, contrast, color temperature) set for printing. Also note that calibrations need to be updated regularly and, for an optimal result, must take into account the brightness and neutrality of your working environment. Do not hesitate to consult specialist sites and books, as well as the documentation of the manufacturers of this type of equipment.

Soft proofing Tools

Soft proofing is done in the Customize tab where the associated tools are to be found:

Soft proofing Subpalette and White Background

Soft proofing subpalette in the Color palette

The Soft proofing Subpalette has the following elements:

Histogram out-of-gamut warnings

The histogram in soft proofing mode, with off-gamut indications for the screen and for the active destination media.
Out-of-gamut notification

The histogram not only displays RGB or CMYK channels, depending on the selected profile in the Soft proofing subpalette, but also off-gamut warnings (out of color range) in the form of colored masks embedded in the image.

To do this, you have the following two buttons, which you can also use together:

Depending on the selected mode, RGB or CMYK, you can view the channels of the histogram by clicking on the corresponding buttons. This will let you determine which channel is affected by a gamut clipping or overflow problem, depending on the profile type:

Thumbnail Indications

Soft proofing Icon.

When you do a soft proof and apply an ICC profile to an image, a specific icon will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the thumbnail image. Hovering the mouse pointer over this icon will display a tooltip with the assigned profile.

The display icon is only visible if soft proofing is enabled, and also works on virtual copies.

Filtering and Displaying Soft proofs

Filtering images with or without soft proofing

Image Browser allows you to filter images that either soft proofed or not. Click Image Filtering and select one of the following criteria from the list:

This way you can easily find the images with soft proofing and potentially group them into a project.

How to use soft proofing

We advise you to use virtual copies for all your simulation and soft proofing work. This will allow you to keep the master image, while creating multiple test copies with different profiles and/or renderings.

To do softproofing:

  1. Go to the Customize tab, then select your master image.
  2. A dialog box confirms that you are in soft proofing mode and invites you to create a virtual copy instead of using the master image (recommended workflow).
  3. In the Color palette, enable the soft proofing subpalette.
  4. Select the desired profile from the Profile menu.
  5. If the test is for printing, check Simulate Paper and Ink.
  6. In the Histogram palette, enable off gamut warning depending on the image destination: for screen (web display or on a particular device, tablet, mobile, etc.) or for a destination media (printing paper, publishing).
  7. If the image shows off gamut indications (blue for screen, red for paper), make the necessary corrections with the tools in the Custom tab (Saturation, Vibrance, TSL, etc.) to reduce non-printable colors. You can also use it to make any corrections that affect image rendering.
  8. You can also alter color saturation and detail in saturated areas with the saturated color protection slider in the softproofing subpalette.
  9. Once the corrections have been made and verified, you can leave the screen test on, especially if you are using virtual copies. This way you will always see the thumbnails with the test icon in your Image Browser.

Whether you turn the soft proof off or not, if you are printing it yourself it will be up to you to select the correct profile in the printer driver (the soft proofing does not convert your image).

When exporting images for your printer, follow their instructions as to whether you should attach the ICC profile or not (usually labs and printers do the conversion themselves).

If the profile used during the test is no longer available at the time of export, DxO PhotoLab automatically returns to the default sRGB profile, and an error message is displayed.

If you export images with a CMYK profile, they will be converted to CMYK. If the export takes place in the original folder or any folder managed by DxO PhotoLab, it will not be able to display them and you will not be able to correct them. A warning will be displayed instead of the image.

The Detail palette

DxO Denoising Technologies

The DxO Denoising Technologies subpalette contains buttons to access different noise processing modes and associated tools. Denoising can be previewed at 2 zoom levels with the Loupe tool.

The DxO Denoising Technology subpalette in High Quality mode, sliders collapsed

Selecting noise reduction modes

The mode selection buttons are greyed out when inactive and blue when selected and active:

Noise reduction sliders and settings

DxO Denoising Technology subpalette sliders (left: High Quality and PRIME; right: DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s modes).

The Luminance slider is always accessible, you will need to click the + button (Mac) or Advanced Settings (PC) to display the other sliders. Some sliders are not available for RGB files:

In DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s modes, the Chrominance, Low Freq. and Maze sliders are not available.

Each slider has its own display and input fields; the magic wand to the right of each slider lets you return to the default settings at any time.

Thumbnail icons

Noise reduction Icons, left to right: High Quality (no icon), PRIME, DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s.

When you are processing images in one of the noise reduction modes, you will see an icon in the top left of the thumbnail. All modes, except High Quality, have a unique icon (see picture above). The icon appears as soon as you select one of the modes, including before export, for PRIME, DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s modes.

Loupe

Denoising preview with the Loupe tool

The effects of the denoising modes and associated tools can be previewed only with the Loupe tool, except in High Quality mode, which is also displayed in real time in the Viewer. To check the denoising:

  1. In the upper toolbar, click the Loupe button to activate it.
  2. Move the mouse pointer wherever you need in the Viewer, the loupe will refresh on the fly.
  3. You can set the zoom level, between 100% and 1600%. However, the best setting to check denoising is 100% or 200%.
  4. You can change the size of the loupe by clicking on the button in the lower left corner.

HQ (high quality) denoising

Image at ISO 7200: original (top), High Quality (bottom).
The High Quality mode is applied by default with the DxO Standard setting.

How HQ denoising works

You can apply the High Quality denoising mode to all files supported by DxO PhotoLab (JPEG, TIFF, RAW, and DNG). It offers the best compromise between quality and speed, and is automatically applied via the DxO Style – Natural preset when you open an image in the program.

Noise reduction is applied and displayed in real time in the Viewer, even when zooming and using the comparison tools. To judge the outcome, it is best to set the zoom to 100%.

All sliders are implemented, and DxO PhotoLab takes into account the characteristics of the camera, whose noise has been measured and characterized by DxO Labs, and of course, the ISO sensitivity you used. Even if, by default, the sliders display the same values, HQ noise reduction is not generic.

If you want to do the corrections manually, you will use mainly the Luminance and Chrominance sliders to adjust the ratio between granulation and detail, and the presence of colored pixels, especially in the dark parts of the image.

DxO PRIME denoising (Elite edition, RAW files)

Image at ISO 7200: PRIME

PRIME or DeepPRIME?

Although DeepPRIME represents a great leap forward in terms of noise reduction technology and the quality of results, PRIME remains available in DxO PhotoLab for users of older computers that cannot meet the demands of current software, primarily in terms of processing and computing power.

How PRIME functions

The DxO PRIME noise reduction mode (Probabilistic Raw IMage Enhancement) applies only to RAW files. Its operation is based on the following principles:

Advantages of PRIME

DxO PRIME takes noise reduction even further, but with the aim of keeping as much detail and color in the image as possible. The advantages are:

Images taken with older cameras, which are more prone to noise than newer models, also benefit from this technology. Finally, the higher the ISO sensitivity is, the more the difference in processing quality compared to the HQ mode will be perceptible. As a general rule, the divergence begins to be marked as early as ISO 1600, though this value may vary depending on the camera used and the image.

Drawbacks of PRIME

On the other hand, DxO PRIME implements complex algorithms that require a lot of computing power, which can lead to some constraints:

The processing time varies depending on the power of the computer and the size of the file, which can take from a few tens of seconds to several minutes, or even several tens of minutes for an older or less powerful computer.

Using PRIME

With PRIME, only RAW files can be processed:

If you want to compare the original image with its processed version, you can use the reference image mode to display both images side by side. Please refer to the Interface chapter to find more about the Compare and Reference image modes.

DxO DeepPRIME and DxO DeepPRIME XD/XD2s noise reduction (ELITE edition, RAW files)

Image at ISO 7200: DeepPRIME XD

Image at ISO 7200: DeepPRIME XD2s

DxO DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s noise reduction (Deep, for deep learning, and derived from Probabilistic Raw IMage Enhancement) goes even further in noise processing. Based on artificial intelligence and neural network technology, its algorithms have been trained using the millions of images produced by DxO over many years, for laboratory analysis. DeepPRIME XD and XD2s have been developed continuously to let you extract even more detail (XD: eXtra Details).

DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s both use denoising and demosaicing in a holistic approach that consists of analyzing image problems in full context, rather than focusing solely on the problems of digital noise.

Advantages of DeepPRIME/DeepPRIME XD/XD2s

While the constraints are similar in terms of machine resources and workflow as DxO PRIME, the advantages of DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s are:

Drawbacks of DeepPRIME/DeepPRIME XD/XD2s

DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD fully exploit the computing power of graphics cards, and having a relatively recent computer is therefore an advantage. However, in the Preferences you can force DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s to use the CPU (main processor), which will increase the processing and export time, while preserving the same image quality.

The computational power requirements mean you should only use DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s on selected images after sorting, not on all of the images from a shoot.

Using DeepPRIME/DeepPRIME XD/XD2s

With DeepPRIME or DeepPRIME XD/XD2s, only RAW files are processed:

If you want to compare the original image with its processed version, you can use the reference image mode to display both images side by side. Please refer to the Interface chapter to find more about the Compare and Reference image modes.

Optimizing the performance of DeepPRIME/DeepPRIME XD/XD2s

DxO DeepPRIME and DeepPRIME XD/XD2s takes advantage of the power of the graphics card (GPU) to perform its calculations and relieve the load on the processor (CPU). If your computer and its graphics card are compatible, the calculations are automatically taken into account. However, in the Preferences, you have a number of options:

  • Any changes to DeepPRIME acceleration preferences require restarting DxO PhotoLab.
  • In case there is any incompatibility, the choices are disabled.
DeepPRIME/DeepPRIME XD acceleration options (top: Mac Intel, middle : Mac Silicon, bottom: PC).

Lens Softness Compensation

About optical sharpness

DxO PhotoLab’s exclusive DxO Lens Softness Compensation tool is one of its major strengths. Lens sharpness is an optical aberration which results in a point being transformed by the lens into a small blurred circle. (This should not be confused with out-of-focus or motion blur, which DxO PhotoLab does not correct.) DxO Optics Modules have been created by measuring the amount of blur for every point in the image area for each supported camera body and lens combination. By combining the shooting parameters saved in the EXIF metadata (aperture, focal length, etc.) and the information provided by the Optics Module, DxO PhotoLab can apply corrections that are tailored to each pixel in the image. These corrections are not uniform, given that lenses are sharper in the center, which means that the pixels closer to the edges of the image will be subjected to a stronger correction than those near the center.

The Lens Softness Compensation sub-palette is visible only for images for which the appropriate DxO Optics Module is loaded. If no module is available, you should use the Edge offset slider in the Unsharp Mask palette to manually adjust the sharpness in image corners.

It is important not to increase the sharpness of a shot that has already been sharpened by the camera, as is the case for JPEG images. So if you intend to post-process your images, you should shoot without any in-camera sharpening.

Unlike the Unsharp Mask tool, enhancing details with the DxO Lens Softness Compensation tool does not create white edges or halos around the sharpened areas.

Lens Sharpness and Unsharp Mask

We recommend that you perform as much of your sharpening as possible using the DxO Lens Softness Compensation tool before using the Unsharp Mask. Of course, for images where the appropriate DxO Optics Module is not installed, you will have to use the Unsharp Mask for all manual sharpening tasks.

Chromatic aberrations

About chromatic aberration

Chromatic aberration results from different colors focusing on slightly different places, In any case, this is a very visible problem, especially along objects and elements in a high contrast image

: green and red fringes (lateral aberrations), just green or purple fringes (longitudinal aberrations). A particular phenomenon that is also mostly due to chromatic aberration, “purple fringing” is when a ghost-like purple image appears along highly contrasted edges.

For most images, correcting chromatic aberrations and purple fringing is unavoidable

Correcting chromatic aberrations

Lateral chromatic aberration (e.g., magenta or green fringes along edges) is automatically corrected only if the appropriate DxO Optics Module is available. In this case, no further manual action is necessary.

The Chromatic Aberrations sub-palette

You can correct the other types of chromatic aberrations (longitudinal or other) using the two sliders in their respective sections of the palette:

You should check the Purple fringing correction box for all backlit scenes, or when shooting with a lens prone to this optical defect.

ReTouch Tool

The ReTouch tool lets you clean the dust from images as well as remove elements.

Overview

The ReTouch tool (formerly known as the Repair tool) not only lets you clean-up marks and dust from the camera’s sensor, but also remove unwanted elements from the image, with a level of control that forgoes the need for retouching software in most instances. The ReTouch tool includes the following:

Interface

The ReTouch tool in the top toolbar of the Customize tab.
The ReTouch tool in the Detail palette.

The ReTouch tool is located in the Customize tab and can be accessed in two ways:

The tools are located in an embedded settings palette to the bottom left of the image. A palette of keyboard shortcuts can also be found to the bottom right or, on Mac, in the toolbar under the image.

Mac version

The tools are available in the lower toolbar under the image, in the form of a palette of settings to the bottom left of the image and a collapsible palette of keyboard shortcuts to the bottom right.

Left: settings palette with the Brush active. Right: with the Transform tool active (Mac).
Left: settings palette with the Brush active. Right: with the Transform tool active (PC).

The tools are available in a palette of settings to the bottom left of the image, and in a collapsible palette of keyboard shortcuts to the bottom right.

The settings palette contains all of the tools, as well as their associated options (from top to bottom and left to right):

The lower ReTouch toolbar (Mac).

The lower toolbar contains the following options (left to right):

The keyboard shortcuts palette (top : Mac, bottom : PC).

The palette of keyboard shortcuts can be opened or closed by clicking on the question mark to the bottom right of the image.

The brush

The Mac version brush (left) and PC version (right).

The circular-shaped brush is activated by clicking on the New Mask button in the floating palette to the bottom left. You can adjust its characteristics using the sliders for Size (diameter), Feathering (edge hardness), and Opacity (transparency of the repair).

Left: size 200 px, featherin 100%, opacity 100%.
Center: size 100 px, feathering 50 %, opacity 100%.
Right: size 100 px, feathering 0%, opacity 100%.

A New mask (first button) is made up of the following elements (from center to edge):

A mask made with a brush stroke.

Add stroke mode (2nd button) lets you enlarge an active mask. It has the same appearance as the brush in New mask mode, but is distinguishable by the following element:

Add stroke mode.

Erase stroke mode (3rd button), lets you erase all or part of the active mask, and appears as follows:


Erase stroke mode.

The masks

Moving a mask by hand.

When you are doing a repair, provided they are set to display, the masks are represented by white outlines (a circle in the case of single click with the brush) with a circular tile in the center which will vary according to the situation:

The shape of the mask is invisible when it is inactive (translucent tile). Move your mouse pointer over the circular tile to see it. This avoids unnecessary cluttering of the image if you have applied lots of retouching masks.

To fine-tune or resume a repair, you can move the repair mask or the sample source, or both, by clicking on their respective patches to activate them. The mouse pointer changes to the Hand tool as soon as you place it on one of the patches.

You can also change the settings of the feathering and opacity sliders. In which case, the repair area mask will display any changes to these settings in real time.

For better clarity and visibility, the shapes of any inactive masks are not displayed. Only the circular tiles are visible, as well as the shape of the active mask.

To move a circular tile associated with a repair mask and/or sampling mask: activate the repair mask by placing the mouse pointer on the tile (which temporarily becomes the Main tool) then reposition it as you wish by dragging-and-dropping. This option to move masks around helps you refine or restart a repair.

To delete a retouch mask:

To remove all the masks at once:

The Transform Source Tool

Fine retouching with the Transform tool.

With the Transform source tool, you can go much further with the precision and finesse of your repairs and retouching. Indeed, you can do the following with the transform tool:

The transform box, once activated, appears as a dashed rectangle that covers the source mask for the repair or retouch. The transform box has 8 anchor points, 3 on each side with 1 on each corner. How the anchor points work will also depend on which keys are pressed:

To invert the transform box, click on one of the flip Icons in the floating palette. To reset it, click on the curved arrow.

Using the ReTouch tool

Cleaning up dust and marks from the sensor

Example of dust cleanup (on a scan from a film).

The ReTouch tool is ideal for cleaning away marks and dust that came from the sensor, on the image. All you have to do is use the following steps:

  1. Activate the ReTouch tool.
  2. Zoom in on the image to at least 1:1.
  3. In the Move/Zoom palette, move to the top left of the image.
  4. For effective cleaning, set the tool to Repair, Feather 100%, and Opacity 100%.
  5. Place the brush over a mark and adjust the size to cover it completely.
  6. Click: the mark is removed, active masks (sample source and repair area) are indicated by an opaque tile connected by an arrow (pointing towards the repair area).
  7. Proceed to the next specks or defects and repeat steps 5 and 6 as many times as necessary.
  8. When you are done cleaning a portion of the image, use the frame in the Move/Zoom palette to move to another spot (you can also move the image by using the Space bar to temporarily enable the Hand tool).
  9. Continue to clean the image one area at a time until you finish at the bottom right of the image.
  10. Click Close to exit the ReTouch tool.

Better visualization of dust and marks

The Microcontrast tool temporarily set to maximum will help you locate the dust and marks.

Sometimes dust that is barely visible on the screen can be seen in the output document, especially when printing. Tip: To more easily identify marks and dust, temporarily alter the contrast, using Microcontrast or DxO ClearView Plus (ELITE edition). With major adjustment, these tools will enhance the contrast of the details and therefore reveal defects that need to be retouched. Once your repairs are made, return the contrast tools back to their default settings.

Retouching skin

Curtailing wrinkles and cleaning the skin of a model.

The ReTouch tool is also useful for cleaning up skin blemishes. For example, you can remove or attenuate details such as moles, freckles, acne, beauty spots, scars, wrinkles, crows feet, rogue hairs, etc.

When retouching a face, you should not attempt to remove details that distinguish the person, that are integral to their visual character, such as a moles or wrinkles. However, you can reduce their visual impact slightly using the Opacity slider.

Repair or Clone?

Example of using Clone mode.

In most cases you will use Repair mode, which takes into account characteristics such as the luminosity, contrast, and color of the image portion for cleaning or retouching, as this will blend well with the rest of the image.

However, Clone mode will copy an element of the image so you can easily rebuild portions of images that contain well-defined structures or textures. Furthermore, the adjustment of mask size, proportion, and inversion offered by Transform mode will help you attain a high level of accuracy in your retouching tasks.

Batch repairing and retouching

Selecting ReTouch tool for batch processing.

If a number of images share the same defect, you can do the following:

  1. Using the ReTouch tool, repair, clean and retouch the first image.
  2. Right-click on the image and then select Copy correction settings from the context menu.
  3. Select the target images.
  4. Right-click on the image selection and choose Paste correction settings > Paste all correction settings in the context menu.
  5. In the dialog box, make sure Detail > ReTouch is checked (as well as the other corrections you want to apply, otherwise select everything else).
  6. Click Paste.
  7. Your corrections and retouching are applied to the destination images.

For best results, only correct defects located in the same location on each image. If there are framing and orientation differences from one image to the next, you will need to change the source sample.

Unsharp Mask

The purpose of the Unsharp Mask tool is to sharpen an image. The tool makes a blurred copy of the original picture, then subtracts the original from the blurred copy, leaving the finest details, which can then be enhanced.

The Unsharp Mask sub-palette

The Unsharp Mask palette includes the following four sliders:

75% zoom is the minimum level for working with the Unsharp Mask palette corrections; however, we recommend that you always choose to work using at least 100% zoom to ensure accuracy and efficiency.

Using the Unsharp Mask

The Unsharp Mask correction is disabled by default. It is unnecessary for JPEG files, as in-camera processing has already sharpened them, and it is usually unnecessary for RAW images for which a DxO Module is available. This means its use is really confined to unsharpened JPEG files and RAW files without a DxO Optics Module. In the latter instance, we advise fine-tuning the Unsharp Mask settings, and then creating a preset.

We recommend that you try fine-tuning the three sliders using these starting values: Intensity = 100, Radius = 0.5, and Threshold = 4. For most images, Threshold should stay within a range from 4 to 10. Radius determines how subtle the correction is: excessive values will result in halos. Finally, you can set the Intensity slider up to 200.

The negative values in the Intensity slider (from -100 to 0) can be used to soften instead of sharpening an image (which can be useful for portraits).

You can deal locally with sharpness and blur with Local Adjustments.

Moiré (ELITE Edition)

Moiré appears as colored artifacts or patterns when fine, high-frequency details interfere with the camera sensor. This is particularly true for cameras with weak or no low-pass filters. The photos they produce are sharper than those taken with traditional digital cameras (which use strong bypass filters), but the risk of introducing moiré will be much higher. Moiré is especially apparent in image details such as tile roofs, wire fences, mesh, feathers, fur, hair, and fabrics.

The Intensity slider helps to reduce or recover these artifacts. Its range goes from 0 to 100, with 99 as the default value in auto mode. After any adjustments, you can reset to the default value by clicking on the magic wand.

The effect of this tool can be previewed only if your image is displayed at 75% zoom or higher.

Correcting red-eye

Red-eye correction is fully automatic, although there is also a manual mode to use in cases when the automatic mode does not detect the problem. You can use the tool with RAW and DNG files, as well as with JPEG and TIFF files. The Red-eye sub-palette in the Detail palette

The Red-eye sub-palette

To activate automatic correction, click on the Red-Eye button, either in the upper control bar or in the Red-eye sub-palette of the Detail palette. The correction is controlled by selection ellipses around each red eye detected in the picture. (with the number of red eyes shown in the sub-palette).

Rolling the mouse over the ellipses activates them to perform the following operations:

If the tool does not detect red-eye because of the orientation of the face or the instance is too small, it will show the message “No red-eye detected” in the sub-palette. In this case, you can make the corrections by hand:

The toolbar below the image allows you to enable or disable the display of ellipses (also called pupil areas), reset corrections, and close the tool.

The Geometry palette

Focal length and Focusing distance

The lens focal length and focusing distance of a photo are recorded in the EXIF data of your images. However, this information is not always accurate. For example, different but close positions of the focal length ring (say, 17 and 18 mm) could result in the same value (say 18 mm) being recorded in the EXIF data. In this case, the distortion correction may be less than optimal. In the same manner, the focusing distance might be recorded in the EXIF data with insufficient precision, and similarly lead to an imprecise correction. In both cases, to improve the effectiveness of the optical corrections, you can provide more accurate values in one (or both) of the sliders that appear in the Geometry palette:

The Focal Distance and Distance focusing sliders are permanently displayed in the Mac version, and appear automatically in the PC version.

Horizon

The Horizon sub-palette

The Horizon tool lets you automatically or manually straighten out a slanted image.

You can also right the horizon with the crop grid (Crop tool).

Automatic mode:

  1. Click on the magic wand to the right of the Horizon slider.
  2. To cancel the automatic correction, click again on the magic wand.
  3. To modify or fine-tune the correction, use the Horizon slider.

Manual mode:

This user-friendly tool, also available in the command bar, lets you easily straighten out a tilted horizon.

  1. Click on the Horizon button.
  2. Superimpose the reference line on the tilted horizon by placing the anchor points on the desired areas.
  3. You can also trace a new reference line in the image and refine its position by moving the anchor points to the desired locations.
  4. If you have enlarged the view by zooming in, you can navigate in the image by using the Move/Zoom palette.
  5. Click on the Preview button on the lower right, underneath the image, to return to the default view.
  6. You can cancel the correction and start over by clicking on Reset.
  7. Confirm the correction by clicking on the Apply button.

The Horizon tool is just as practical for applying small rotations (less than 5%) to your image. To do this, you can use the slider or enter a value.

Crop

The crop sub-palette

Automatic cropping

An image whose perspective has been corrected by the Horizon/Perspective tools generally loses some information at the edges – a great deal more if the correction is significant. This is why the Crop palette is set to Auto based on Perspective / Horizon by default, and the aspect ratio is set to Original, meaning that cropping is performed automatically on the corrected image while retaining as much information as possible.

The grid display is activated by default.

Manual cropping

The lower toolbar

Top: PC. Bottom: Mac.

When you activate the Crop tool by clicking on the Crop button in the upper toolbar, another toolbar appears just below the image. This one contains the following options (from left to right):

Straightening the Horizon

Whether you are auto-cropping or manually cropping, you have the option to straighten the horizon directly, without having to go through the Horizon tool:

Cropping manually

If you click on the Crop tool button, a dotted-line crop box will display on the image. You can move or extend this box by dragging its corners. If you have chosen a specific aspect ratio, the box will display the proportions of this aspect ratio, and you will be allowed to change only one of its dimensions, the other tracking automatically. If you have chosen an unconstrained aspect ratio, you will be able to freely change both dimensions of the box.

You can also draw the cropping frame yourself by clicking and dragging on the image while holding down the left button of your mouse. To change the size, simply grab the frame at the side or at the corner. If you grab one of the corners and you reduce the size of the frame to a certain point, it will switch from a horizontal to a vertical ratio.

You can move the frame around the image by clicking the mouse pointer inside the frame and dragging (a quadruple arrow will appear as the pointer).

Clicking outside the box removes the box and lets you create a new box from scratch.

If you have selected Unconstrained in the Aspect Ratio drop-down menu, holding down the Shift key will allow you to preserve the proportions.

From there, you can select a predefined aspect ratio, type in your own values, show or hide the grid overlay, reset and close the tool. When you manually crop, the dimensions in pixels are displayed in the lower-right corner of the frame.

When the crop tool is active, a command bar is displayed below the Viewer pane. You can choose a predefined aspect ratio for your image, or enter a custom ratio, display or hide the “rule of thirds” grid, reset the crop, or close the tool.

You can apply the settings and close the tool by pressing the Enter key, or reset the crop and close the tool by pressing the Escape key.

Custom ratios

The custom ratio will allow you to crop your image according to a format that you would need to (for example) publish on the web, in a book, or simply, for making a print according to the dimensions proposed by a photo lab. In these cases, you will be able to recompose your image exactly as you will see it after publication or printing, without any unexpected surprises. Here, we will use a panoramic format of 175 x 50.

PC

To apply a custom ratio:

To delete a custom ratio:

Mac

To apply a custom ratio:

To delete a custom ratio:

IMPORTANT

If your custom ratio corresponds to an existing ratio, the values of the latter will be automatically selected and displayed (for example, entered for a 75×50 print = 3×2).

If you enter fancy or inconsistent ratios, DxO PhotoLab will display the limit of accepted ratios.

The values can have a decimal (for example: 22.5×5), with a point (Mac and PC) or a comma (Mac).

There is no limit to the number of custom ratios that you can save.

Distortion

The two principal types of distortion: pincushion (left) and barrel (right)

About distortion correction

The geometric distortion introduced by a lens may be in pincushion or barrel form – or sometimes even a mixture of the two. In each case, DxO Labs’ analytical measurements make it possible to correct the distortion such that straight lines in the original scene are correctly reproduced as straight lines in the photo.

The Distortion sub-palette

The Correction drop down menu allows you to select either automatic correction based on a DxO Optics Module, or manual correction. Only the manual option will be active if a DxO Optics Module is not available.

The Intensity slider controls the degree of the correction, with a range from 0 to 100%. The default setting is 100%, and you should only depart from this either to avoid the cropping of important details near edges, or for creative reasons.

Automatic distortion correction

Provided the appropriate DxO Optics Module is loaded on your computer for the image you are working on, DxO PhotoLab will automatically correct any distortions.

Manual distortion correction

Select Manual in the drop-down menu if the relevant DxO Optics Module for your camera/lens combination is not available, or not loaded on your computer, or for creative reasons. In any case, first select the type of distortion you want to correct: Barrel, Pincushion, or Fisheye (for fisheye lenses).

Use the grid to help you manually correct distortion.

Changing a fisheye lens into a super-wide-angle lens

You can automatically turn your fisheye shots into ultra-wide-angle-style photos without circular distortion if the camera/fisheye lens combination is supported by a DxO Optics Module. This will be done automatically if the equipment is supported by a DxO optical module, or manually otherwise, by selecting Fisheye in the distortion type dropdown menu, and by refining the adjustment with the Intensity slider.

If you use the Fisheye correction tool, you can uncheck Keep aspect ratio so as to recover a non-negligible quantity of the angle of view.

Constrain to image

Correcting distortion always requires some degree of cropping. By default, DxO PhotoLab displays the cropped image, with the Constrain to image box checked. Uncheck this box if you want to display the whole image including the black areas around the edges that are the result of distortion correction.

Maintaining the aspect ratio

Most of the time, the distortion correction changes the aspect ratio (i.e., the ratio between width and height) of the image. Since the aspect ratio is of great importance, especially if the photo is to be published, it is maintained by default, resulting in some cut-off (cropped) parts along the image edges. If you want to make sure that the entire usable part of the image stays visible, uncheck the Keep aspect ratio box at the bottom of the palette.

Perspective (ELITE edition)

In architecture, the photographer’s position with respect to a building makes it impossible to shoot it face-on. In such cases, the object will look deformed because of divergent lines that are more pronounced the closer they are to the edges of the image.

The Perspective tool lets you correct vertical parallels, horizontal parallels, force a rectangle, and perform an 8-point correction in a completely independent way on each side.

Perspective adjustment could result in significant cropping of your image, so try to avoid pronounced angles when shooting. Do not frame too tightly either, as you risk not having enough space around the subject for perspective adjustment and cropping.

Interface

Located in the Geometry palette, the Perspective tool consists of the following elements:

The buttons on the top toolbar let you activate the different adjustment modes:

The Perspective subpalette is composed of the following elements:

  1. The buttons correspond to the different adjustment modes.
  2. Cancel perspective corrections button.
  3. The Magic Wand in Auto mode (different Auto modes can be found in the Advanced Settings section).
  4. The Intensity slider, set to 100 by default, which lets you re-introduce a leaning effect and restores a more natural appearance to your correction as the setting is reduced.
  5. The advanced settings section is accessed by clicking on “+” (Mac) or on Advanced Settings (PC).
  6. The up/down, Left/Right and X/Y Ratio sliders turn the image along a horizontal or vertical axis to flatten or stretch the image.
  7. Choice of automatic, vertical and horizontal, vertical only, and horizontal only adjustment modes.

The lower toolbar has the following functionalities:

Control Lines

The function of the Perspective tool is based on control lines, two lines in Force parallels mode, 4 connected to each other in Rectangle mode, and 4 without connections in 8 points mode. Each control line is displayed as follows:

Control lines can be moved with the mouse:

You can draw a new line using the “+” pointer that appears as the mouse passes over the image.

Background cropping

Adjusting the perspective and modifying the geometry of the image in general leads to distortion which is more or less noticeable according to the amount of correction applied, but will inevitably involve some cropping. Background cropping, that is the portion of the image that will disappear on cropping is indicated by the black areas around the image.

When you confirm the correction with the Close button, the image will automatically be reframed as tightly as possible, keeping the maximum amount of the image, after cropping has been into account. Of course, you can reframe afterwards using the Crop tool (Geometry palette).

Fixing perspective

Auto mode

If your image has enough horizontal and/or vertical reference elements, you can use automatic mode, which you can manually redo if you wish.

Here is how to use it:

  1. In the Geometry palette, Advanced Settings, Auto Mode menu, select one of the 3 modes on offer, the default mode takes into account both verticals and horizontals.
  2. Click on the magic wand.
  3. Here, no confirmation is required. Once the correction has been completed, you can switch to another image or another tool.

Forcing parallels

This mode lets you correct simple scenes like a building with an obvious shifting of vertical or horizontal lines:

  1. Go to the Perspective subpalette and click the Force Parallels button.
  2. Two vertical lines appear as overlays on your image.
  3. Position them on two vertical or horizontal elements in your image, preferably in the same plane.
  4. Adjust the position, size and inclination of the control lines.
  5. Click Apply to see the result.
  6. If the correction gives the impression that the building gets wider at the top, you can restore a natural aspect by reducing the adjustment of the Intensity slider (75 is a good compromise).
  7. Click Close to approve (image is automatically cropped).
Perspective of a building or tower that seems to get wider at the top with, intensity set to 100% (top), and a more natural perspective, with intensity set to 75% (bottom).

Forcing a Rectangle

With this mode, where 4 lines are connected to each other, you can easily add a subject such as a painting, window, door, or any frame that you were unable to perfectly align to and whose different parts are on the same plane:

  1. Go to the Perspective subpalette and click the Rectangle button.
  2. 4 connected lines appear overlaid on your image.
  3. Position the disks at each corner of the subject and adjust the position and inclination of the lines using the reference lines from the image.
  4. Click Apply to see the result.
  5. Click Close to approve (image is automatically cropped).

8 points

This mode works like the rectangle mode, but all 4 lines are independent which lets you place them where you want in the image, this is useful if the reference lines are located on different planes and at different distances:

  1. Go to the Perspective subpalette and click the 8 points button.
  2. 4 independent lines appear overlaid on your image.
  3. Position the lines over the reference lines in the image, adjust their slant and length.
  4. Click Apply to see the result.
  5. Click Close to approve (image is automatically cropped).

Advanced adjustment sliders

Horizontal stretch with X/Y ratio slider and rotation in the vertical axis with the Left/right slider.

When you make perspective adjustments and depending on the image and care that was taken with the shot, results can sometimes cause problems with orientation, geometric deformation and, quite simply, the natural look of the image. The following three sliders let you compensate for these problems, but keep in mind that they are intended as subtle adjustments:

The Local Adjustments palette

DxO PhotoLab local adjustment technology takes your photo editing to the next level by letting you target specific parts of the image, either to highlight a detail or to perform precise touch-ups. Whether it’s to brighten the sky, bring out a backlit subject, or enhance the colors or sharpness of a specific detail, the possibilities are endless.

Accessing local adjustments

To access Local Adjustments, simply go to the palette and click on one of the buttons to activate the desired tool. The palette also contains mask options as well as the full set of correction tools that can be used locally.

The buttons are (from left to right):

The palette also contains the following sections:

* You can find the description of these tools in the paragraphs dedicated to the different palettes in the Customize tab. Click on the items in the list to access them.

Expand/Collapse

If you place the mouse anywhere in the Local Adjustments palette and right-click, a menu will allow you to perform the following actions:

Managing the masks

The Local adjustments palette lets you manage and view your local masks and corrections, either together or individually, and also to alter their overall appearance with an opacity setting or mask inversion.

Each time you create Local adjustment masks by using the brush, graduated filter, automatic mask, luminosity mask or control points/lines, the masks will appear in the palette as part of a list. Regardless of the order, the resulting image is the same.

When you move the mouse over the mask list, the line you’re hovering over lights up, and you will see the mask by itself in the image, whether it is active or not, as the other masks are temporarily hidden. This way you can check which mask in the list corresponds to that used in your image, and which mask to concentrate on for fine-tuning.

Opacity slider

After you make your local adjustments, you can fine-tune the intensity and effect of the corrections with the Opacity slider, which is set to 100 by default. This way, if you find your corrections are a bit too strong, you don’t have to fumble around in the palette to figure out which setting(s) to change or reduce, or (worse) start again from scratch.

The Opacity slider shows up automatically in the palette by using any of the local adjustment tools.

Setting the Opacity slider on the Graduated Filter applied to the sky: 100 (top) and 0 (bottom).

Mask selectivity sliders

Example of brightness and color tolerance reduction.

You can use the Mask Selectivity sliders with Control Points or Control Lines, which allow you to adjust the tolerance range of the color that a Control Point or Control Line covers. This will allow you to include variations of hue and brightness level in your correction (such as in order to take into account variations in skin tones; see example below).

Show/Hide mask

You can enable/disable the display of the color mask and/or associated corrections in the following ways:

The display mask color by default has changed to red, and you can customize it. However, the user guide screenshots show the previous default color (cyan).

Inverting the mask

Inverting a graduated filter

The Invert mask button lets you invert a local adjustment and the rest of the image with just a single click. For example, if you make an area darker with the Brush, by clicking on Invert mask the area will return to its original brightness, and the rest of the image will become darker. Another example: if you draw a graduated filter from the top of the image to the bottom, and click Reverse Mask, the graduated filter will be applied from the bottom of the image upwards.

Renaming a mask

Renaming of masks in the list of the Local Adjustments sub-palette.

By default, the masks in the list of the Local adjustments palette are named after the tool used. You can rename a mask whatever you like to help recall, at a glance, what type of correction it is and/or where in the image you have used it, in relation to your workflow for example, etc.

Simply click on the mask name in the list, and enter the new name. There is no need to confirm using the Enter key. To change another name, simply go to the next mask in the list.

On a PC, you can right-click and select Rename from the context menu (you can also press the F2 key).

Changing the name does not change the order of the masks in the list.

Duplicating a mask

Duplicating a mask

Duplicating a mask is a quick way to add a mask that uses the same corrections. There are two ways to do this:

The duplicated mask will be superimposed on the original mask; to move it, click on the disk and drag it with the mouse. You can duplicate a mask as many times as you like; PhotoLab keeps the name of the original mask (which you can change if you wish).

Deleting a mask

To remove a mask from the list, select it by clicking on it in the list, then click on the Remove Mask button in the bottom right corner of the sub-palette. You can also do this via the right-click context menu.

To delete a mask in the image, activate its disk by clicking on it, then press the Delete (PC and Mac) or Backspace (Mac) key.

Using masks

A local adjustment is simply a retouch or correction that you apply to a specific area or element in the image. The retouching is applied on top of any general corrections, which you do using the preset option or the manual and automatic correction tools in the Customize tab.

When you use one of the local adjustments tool, you create a mask over the part of the image you want to retouch, and then you use the different sections in the palette to make adjustments to the mask. You can choose to highlight the retouched areas with a blue mask, which makes it easier to see the parts of the image that will be adjusted.

Common interface features

After you select a mask, the interface will display the following common features:

Mask display options (PC)

When the Local Adjustments are active, and if you hover with the mouse, the 2 following options will show up in the top right corner of the image:

Toolbar and mask display options (Mac)

Local adjustments toolbar (top: brush/auto mask/eraser, center: control point/ line, bottom: graduated filter)

When you activate the local adjustments, a toolbar below the image displays a number of options, depending on the tool selected:

Show cropped areas

The uncropped display option lets you show the totality of a cropped image, and to position masks (brushes, control points, graduated filters, etc. or to take control line samples from outside the frame. To enable it:

The out-of-frame areas are indicated by a dark translucent mask.

Comparing the image with and without local adjustments

The Reference Image tool in DxO PhotoLab lets you judge your photo with and without local adjustments. This will show you the impact of the local adjustments on your image and help you decide whether you want to make further adjustments.

To see the image with and without local adjustments:

To deactivate the comparison, go back to the Compare menu and uncheck All Corrections Except Local Adjustments.

Local Adjustments tools

The local adjustment tools are presented in the order of the buttons in the palette.

Control Point

Control point technology is now available in DxO PhotoLab.

This is a local adjustment tool with a special function: when the user clicks on the image to set a control point, the tool will take brightness, contrast and color characteristics of the pixels where the control point is placed into account, in order to apply the correction across pixels with the same characteristics within a user-defined radius.

For example, if you place a control point on a bright red mug with a contrasting background and adjust the area so that it includes the mug, the corrections will only be applied to the mug, and not to the background.

If the image contains another red object and you don’t include it in the defined area, the second object will remain unchanged. However, if you include it within the defined area, it will be affected by the same changes that are applied to the red mug. If you apply another control point mask to the object, any adjustments you make will not affect the first control point mask.

When to use control points

Control points let you make selective adjustments to areas defined by the control point’s radius of action, without affecting portions of the image that are either outside the radius of action or within the radius of action but concerning pixels with different characteristics from those covered by the control point.

You can also use Control points and Control lines in the same mask.

This also applies to Protection Control points and lines.

Activating Control points

As with the other local adjustment tools, go to the Local Adjustments palette, and click on the Control Point button.

If you are already working with local adjustment tools, right-click in the image to display the radial menu, then select Control Point. You can apply as many control point masks as you want. You can also use them in an image that already has other types of local adjustment masks. 

Once you have activated local adjustments, you can switch from one of the other tools to Control Points using the keyboard shortcut Shift+C.

Using Control points

After you activate a control point mask, the mouse pointer changes to crosshairs when you roll over the image. Click inside an area or on a part of the image that you want to correct. The control point mask is represented by a disk with a plus sign in the middle and a larger surrounding circle. As with the other tools, the blue border indicates an active mask.

Control points can be interconnected, allowing you to apply the same correction to several places in the image. To do this with the active mask, click on the image as many times as you want. Secondary control points are represented by a simple crosshair icon and a circle indicating the area where changes will be applied (you can adjust the size for each secondary control point separately). Apply the desired adjustment using the Equalizer. The effect will be applied to all control point masks belonging to the same mask — that is, to the first control point and to all its secondary control points.

Note that you will need to create a new control point mask each time you want to apply a different adjustment.

Adjust the area covered by the control points by clicking on the outside circle with the mouse and then using the Equalizer to apply the settings you want.

Moving control points

Click on the central disk to drag a control point to wherever you want.

Displaying the mask in grayscale

To better visualize the corrections and settings made with the active control point, you can activate a grayscale mask by hitting M (PC) or Shift+M (Mac).

Once you’ve activated the mask, the content of the active control point is displayed in monochrome. The areas and elements most affected by the correction are white, the unaffected areas are black and the variations in gray indicate the areas more or less affected. This lets you see and control the applied control point corrections with much greater precision.

Protecting part of an image

You can apply a protective Control Point, which prevents another Control Point from applying its correction to a portion of the image. Press the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key, then click to place the protective Control Point where you want it (on Mac, in the toolbar below the image, you can also click on the Control Point icon with the “–” (minus) sign). Make your corrections with the Equalizer: they will not be applied to the protected area.

You can also combine one or more protective Control points with a Control line.

Control Line

Control Lines use the same principles as Control Points, and to some extent, the same principles as the Graduated Filter, with the advantage of covering the entire width of the image. Pixel analysis is not done with a Control Point, but with an eyedropper that you move around the mask to select the portions of the image to be corrected.

A good example is correcting a blue sky with clouds. If you are using Control Points, you will need to place several of them and make sure they overlap and are grouped together to ensure a consistent correction. With the Control Line, you simply draw it over the entire sky and then, with the reference dropper, click on the blue sky so that the correction is applied evenly to that portion of the image.

Activating a Control line

As with the other local adjustment tools, go to the Local Adjustments palette, and click on the Control Line button.

If you are working with local adjustments, right-click on the image to display the radial menu, then select Control Line. You can apply as many Control Lines as you like, and combine them with other local adjustment masks, except for the Eraser.

Using Control lines

After activating the Control line in the radial menu, go to the image. The mouse pointer changes to a “+”, and all you have to do is draw the Control line so that it covers the portion of the image to be corrected. The Control line is located between two dashed lines. The bottom line can be tilted or moved to increase or decrease the size of the area to be corrected.

Select the reference area using the eyedropper near the disk: grab it with the mouse and drag it to wherever you want in the image. Then all you need do is make your corrections with the available tools.

Moving the Control Line

You can move a Control line by grabbing its disk. You can move the eyedropper at the same time, even if you have positioned it somewhere else, by pressing the Ctrl (PC) or Cmd (Mac) key.

Displaying the gray mask

To better visualize the corrections and adjustments made with the active Control Line, use a grayscale mask, activated with the M (PC) or Shift+M (Mac) keys, or by checking Show mask, below the image. 

The white areas indicate the maximum level of correction, the uncorrected areas are black, and the gray variations indicate the various intensities of the corrections. This allows you to see the reference areas and corrections applied using the Control Lines with greater precision.

Protecting part of an image

Just like with Control points, you can apply a protective Control line that prevents another Control line from applying a correction to a location in your image. Press the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key, then click to place the protective Control Line where you want it (on Mac, in the toolbar below the image, you can also click on the Control Line icon with the “–” (minus) sign)., then draw the line in the image and use the eyedropper to sample the reference area to be protected. Then make your corrections using the Equalizer, they will not be applied to the protected area.

You can also combine one or more protective Control points with a Control line.

Graduated Filter

When to use the Graduated Filter

The graduated filter simulates the effect of an optical graduated filter fitted to a lens. They are especially useful for balancing the exposure of landscape photos and reducing the extreme contrast between a brightly lit sky and dark ground.

 

Activating the Graduated Filter

As with the other local adjustment tools, go to the Local Adjustments palette, and click on the Graduated Filter button.

When local adjustments are enabled, you can switch from any of the other tools to the graduated filter using the Shift+G keyboard shortcut.

Applying the Graduated Filter

Once you’ve activated the graduated filter, the mouse pointer changes to a cross (Mac) or to a gradient icon (PC). Position it at the top of the image, then move the mouse down.

The graduated filter includes the following elements:

To apply corrections, use the tools in the palette. You can layer several graduated filters in the same area with a new adjustment each time, or simply combine several corrections in the same graduated filter.

Managing the Graduated Filter

Add or subtract from the graduated filter

When applying a graduated filter to an image, e.g. to darken or enhance the sky, you will not want the effect to apply in equal measure to all other elements, such as buildings, landscapes, statues, etc. below it, and this is where the Eraser can help you to subtract from the selection. On the other hand, you may want to add certain elements of the image to the graduated filter, because it does not cover them. In this case, you can use the Brush tool to add to the selection.

Luminosity Mask (DxO FilmPack installed)

The Luminosity Mask is only available with DxO FilmPack installed and activated.

The Luminosity Mask allows you to correct an image based on a range of brightness that you can adjust with very high precision, including at the transition level.

When you activate the Luminosity Mask, open the Mask Options sub-palette to access the tools.

Selecting the luminosity range

To select the luminosity range, you have the following tools:

In the picture, the Luminosity Mask is shown by a color mask and a disk, as every Local Adjustments tool.

Refining the Luminosity Mask

No matter which method is used to determine the luminosity range, you can refine it using the following tools:

Thus, by acting on the position and extent of the trapezoid, as well as the extent of the fall-off, you will arrive at an extremely precise selection of the range to be corrected. In addition, the Opacity slider, set to 100 by default, allows you to reduce the intensity of the Luminosity Mask and the local adjustments associated with it.

If you move the Luminosity mask disk in the picture, the mask, the trapezoid and the values will be updated accordingly.

If you move the trapezoid, the disk in the picture will be repositionned to match the values.

Add to or subtract from the Luminosity Mask

You can go even further in the precision of the Luminosity Mask by adding to the selection with the Brush, or by subtracting from the selection with the Eraser:

The Hue Mask tool

The Hue Mask tool allows you to correct an image based on a color range that you can adjust with great precision, including transitions.

Description of the Hue Mask Sub-palette

The Hue Mask Tool

Available in local adjustments, the Hue Mask sub-palette consists of the following elements:

  1. Opacity: The slider allows you to adjust and refine the intensity of the hue mask and the associated settings. By default, it is set to the maximum value of 100; moving it to the left will gradually reduce the correction. You can also enter a value or adjust it using the up/down arrows.
  2. Hue Channels: There are eight predefined channels available for an initial selection of a range of hues, which can then be refined using the trapezoid:
    •  Red
    • Orange
    • Yellow
    • Green
    • Cyan
    • Blue
    • Violet
    • Magenta

When you click on one of the channels, the trapezoid displays the corresponding range of hues, and in the image, you will see the associated indicator and the overlay mask display if the “Show Masks” option (toolbar under the image) is checked. 

  1. Hue Selection eyedropper: When the Hue Mask tool is activated, the mouse pointer turns into an eyedropper when hovering over the image. Click on the image to select a range of hues; you can click and resample as many times as you like. After selecting the range of hues, it is represented in the trapezoid and in the image by an indicator and a color display mask, if the “Show Masks” option (toolbar under the image) is checked. 
  2. Trapezoid: In addition to indicating the selected range of hues, you can adjust it by moving it along the scale. Regardless of the method used to determine the range of hues, you can refine it using the following tools:
    • The black triangles above the trapezoid, along with the associated dotted lines, represent the boundaries of the selected hue range. The hue values—ranging from 0 to 360*—are shown in the top fields. You can also adjust the values by clicking the arrows or by direct input.
    • The gray triangles below the trapezoid indicate the hue transitions at each end of the selected range. Moving these triangles away from the dotted lines widens the transitions and dilutes the hues. Moving them closer to the dotted lines narrows the transitions, making them more abrupt. You can also use the lower value fields to set chromatic values from 0 to 360.
    • If the hue range you have selected is located at each end, you can move the color scale for more convenience.

By adjusting the position and extent of the trapezoid, as well as the extent of the transitions, you can achieve an extremely precise selection of the hue range to correct using the local adjustment sliders. This allows you to lighten, darken, saturate, etc., the portion of the image corresponding to the hue range represented by the trapezoid.

  • *The values from 0 to 360 simply represent the color wheel, a circular representation of primary colors and their complementary colors. You can find the same representation in the HSL tool in DxO PhotoLab.
  • **If you move the Hue Mask disk within the image, the mask, trapezoid, and values will be updated accordingly.
  • ***If you move the trapezoid, the disk shown on the image will be repositioned to correspond to the hue range.

The trapezoid after selecting a hue range (blue)

Extending the range of hues

Extending transitions

Giving more depth and impact to the sky with the hue mask and a combination of exposure and dehaze corrections.

The trapezoid can be moved in the hue range and, if you reach one end, you can also move the hue range with the mouse.

Automatic mask

The automatic mask tool lets you paint and apply adjustments in specific areas of the image without going beyond edges, defined by a difference in luminosity, contrast, and color.

Aside from this automatic edge-detection capability, you use it in the same way as the brush. You can even go over an edge, as the adjustment will only be applied inside.

When to use the automatic mask.

You can use the tool to change the color of a vehicle to make it stand out from the surrounding environment, for example. The automatic mask is particularly good for objects or specific elements. To change the appearance of a sky, opt for control points or the graduated filter.

Activating the Automatic Mask

As with the other local adjustment tools, go to the Local Adjustments palette, and click on the Auto Mask button. You can use the automatic mask on an image that already has other local adjustment masks.

When local adjustments are enabled, you can switch from any of the other tools to the Auto Mask using keyboard shortcut Shift+A.

Using the Automatic Mask

Once activated, the automatic mask tool will turn into a brush with a blue circle with a plus sign in the middle.

Click inside the image to place the mask disk containing a brush with an “A” label. The blue border indicates that it is an active mask.

You can apply adjustments using the Equalizer before or after you paint.

You can also apply brush strokes by clicking several times. Even if you brush outside an element in the image, the correction will generally not go beyond its edges. However, if the correction does go beyond the edge (which can occur if certain parts of the element you are retouching blend into the background), use the keyboard shortcut Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) to activate the Eraser.

If the element is textured, the coverage will not be perfect, so use the brush again if this is the case.

The inner circle (dark blue) defines the automatic mask.
The outer circle (light blue) detects the edges.

You can adjust the size of the brush with the mouse wheel by holding down Ctrl (PC) or Cmd (Mac).

To view the active mask, check Display Selected Mask in the toolbar below the image.

You cannot use the automatic mask brush to apply a feathered effect.

Managing Automatic Masks

To delete an automatic mask, activate it by clicking on the disk and then pressing the Enter key. If you need to create a separate automatic mask, first deselect the active mask by clicking on the disk, then click on the desired location in the image.

Finally, just as with the Brush, you can move the Aut

Brush

When to use the brush

The brush is a mask that lets you retouch parts of the image by simply painting using your mouse pointer (or graphics tablet, trackpad, etc.).

This universal tool lets you perform a range of tasks, including lightening a backlit subject, enhancing the color of a single flower, or increasing the sharpness of a model’s eyes. The applications are endless, especially since the brush lets you paint continuously (e.g. for lightening an entire silhouette) or subject by subject (e.g. highlighting one eye at a time).

You can also create several brush masks in the image.

Activating the brush

In the Local Adjustments palette, click on the brush tool.

As soon as you have activated local adjustments, you can switch from one of the other tools to the Brush with the keyboard shortcut Shift+B.

Using the brush

The brush tool appears as a blue disk with a brush icon. Click on the part of the image you want to retouch. The active disk for the mask and Equalizer will appear. At this point, you can continue to paint and apply adjustments afterwards, or make your adjustments first and then paint on the image.

Of course, you can use multiple adjustment tools from the Equalizer on the same part of the image. For example, you can lighten an object and also increase its sharpness and micro-contrast.

Brush settings (top: PC, bottom: Mac).

When you use the brush, a blue mask will appear where you’ve applied the tool to help guide you as you retouch the image.

Zoom in for more precision or to paint along an edge. When you are not painting, you can activate or deactivate the blue mask display by clicking on the Display Selected Mask checkbox in the toolbar below the image (macOS only).

Creating and managing masks

You can create as many masks as you want, to retouch specific subjects or to paint separate parts of an image. You can also layer your corrections.

To create a new brush mask, deselect your current mask by clicking inside the circle. Then, place the blue disk with the plus sign wherever you like and then click: a new active mask is created, and you can paint to make your adjustments. To move a Brush Mask within the image, click on the disk of the mask in question, which will automatically activate it, and then drag it with the mouse.

If you want to remove a mask, activate it and then hit backspace (Mac) or the Delete key (PC) on your keyboard.

If you accidently go over an outline or want to fix an error, activate the Eraser by pressing Alt (PC) or Option (Mac), then go back over the active mask. The blue mask helps you see where to erase. You can also adjust the size and feathering.

Finally, to switch back to brush mode, release the Alt/Option key.

Eraser

The eraser lets you refine your local adjustments and correct any errors — for example, if you go over the edges of an object with the brush or the automatic mask. You can also delete or add adjustments depending on the type of mask you’ve selected.

Note: To see examples of using the Eraser with other local adjustment tools, refer to the paragraphs (sections) concerned.

Activating the Eraser

There are two ways to activate the eraser:

In the first case, the mouse pointer turns into an eraser. To change its size, use the mouse wheel while holding down Ctrl (PC) or Cmd (Mac). Hold down the Shift key and use the mouse wheel to change the feathering effect.

Using the Eraser

Select a mask by clicking on its disk. To better see where to apply the eraser, activate the blue mask by checking Display Selected Mask in the toolbar below the image.

Apply the eraser to the local adjustments you want to modify or alter. If you erase an adjustment by mistake, temporarily switch to addition mode by clicking while holding down the Alt key (PC) or Option key (Mac). This will allow you to restore the adjustment. If you want to edit it, you can change the settings in the Equalizer.

To erase something in a different mask, deactivate the active mask (click the disk), then activate the other mask (click the disk to turn the edge blue).

Reminder: The Eraser is always available with the Brush and Auto Mask, by pressing the Alt key (PC) or Option (Mac).

The Watermark palette

Purpose and usefulness of watermarks

DxO PhotoLab lets you add a watermark to your images in the form of text, graphics, or both. The DxO Instant Watermarking tool offers the advantage of a live preview of the watermark in the image, during creation and alteration. Then it is up to you to decide whether or not to add the watermark to your exported images.

The purpose of a Watermark is to:

The text or image, if embedded judiciously (avoiding placement too close to the edges), will discourage theft, reuse, or unauthorized republication of your images. On the other hand, an overly conspicuous watermark can also alter and even discourage others from viewing your images.

If you choose an Image watermark, you will need to create it first in an image editing or graphic design program. DxO PhotoLab does not let you create logos and other graphic elements.

A watermark is not a substitute for the author and copyright information in the image metadata; we encourage you to continue to fill in these fields, particularly the Metadata palette.

The Watermark palette

The Watermark palette is located at the very bottom of the right pane of the Customize tab (DxO Advanced workspace) or as a sub-palette at the bottom of the Basic Tools palette. Inactive by default, it is activated as soon as you click on one of the modes (Image or Text); the tools displayed depend on your choice.

When you apply a watermark to an image, it will always be visible, both in the Viewer and in the image browser thumbnail. Although the look of the watermark can be undone — in other words, you can change or replace it at any time — its application will be permanent in exported images.*

* Watermarks will not be applied to images exported using the Export to DNG option (denoising & optical corrections only).

Embedding an image

To embed a watermark image:

  1. Display your photo in Fit to Screen mode so you can check the size, proportions, and appearance of the watermark in real time.
  2. In the Watermark sub-palette, select the image mode by clicking the Image button.
  3. In the Preview window, click on Browse.
  4. A system dialog box allows you to locate and select your image. Click on Open.
  5. The watermark image will appear in the Preview window as well as in your photo, depending on the selected position. The name of the file is displayed below the preview window.
  6. The checkerboard lets you position the image in the center, top, bottom, left, right or corners of your photo; click on one of the 9 blocks to place it where you want it.
  7. When you select a position other than the center, margin sliders activate in the palette: for example, Left margin for the left position, or Left margin + Top margin for the top left position, etc. These sliders (set to 0 by default) allow you to position your image exactly where you want it in the photo.
  8. The Rotate watermark button, to the left of the positioning grid, allows you to rotate your image in 90° increments with each click.
  9. Adjust the image size** with the Scale slider, between 1 and 100 (default value: 15).
  10. The Blending Mode menu lets you select how the embedded image will blend into the photo. 7 blending modes are available (see section on Blending modes below).
  11. Use the Opacity slider to play with the transparency of the watermark and thus its presence in your photo.

** Make sure your image file is of a size and resolution high enough to avoid edge potential cropping and degradation of its appearance.

Embedding text

Text is the easiest way to mark your photos with your name or your company name if you are a professional, for example. Unlike images and logos, which you need to create outside of DxO PhotoLab, DxO PhotoLab lets you enter your text directly thanks to the pre-installed fonts of your operating system.

To insert a text watermark:

  1. Display your photo in Fit to Screen mode so you can check the size, proportions, and appearance of the watermark in real time.
  2. In the Watermark sub-palette, select text mode by clicking the Text button.
  3. Click in the input field just below the Image/Text buttons and enter your text, which will also activate all the other tools in the sub- palette. Enter your text and validate with the Enter key; the embedded text will appear in the image.
  4. Select your favorite font from the drop-down list below the input field (the default font is Arial).
  5. You can also change the default white of the font by clicking on the white tile, which opens the operating system’s color picker where you can select another color.
  6. The menu to the left of the tile lets you change the style of your font (bold, italic, etc.).
  7. The checkerboard lets you position the text in the center, top, bottom, left, right or corners of your photo; click on one of the 9 blocks to place it where you want it.
  8. When you select a position other than the center, margin sliders will activate in the palette: for example, Left margin for the left position, or Left margin + Top margin for the top left position, etc. These sliders (set to 0 by default) allow you to position your text exactly where you want it in the photo.
  9. The Rotate watermark button, to the left of the positioning grid, allows you to rotate your text in 90° increments with each click.
  10. Adjust the size of the text with the Scale slider, between 1 and 100 (default value: 35).
  11. The Mode menu allows you to choose how the embedded text will blend in relative to your photo. There are seven blending modes available (see below).
  12. You can use the Opacity slider (set to 100 by default) to play with the transparency and presence of the text in your photo.

For watermarks, there are no prohibited characters, no incompatible fonts, and no limit to the number of characters.

Blending modes

You can control how the embedded watermark, text or image, appears in the image, depending on the colors, brightness, opacity or background you choose. The use of blending modes requires a little experimentation on your part; the result depends largely on the type of watermark, its settings, and the image in which it will be embedded, of course. There are seven different blending modes:

Embedding an image and text

The Watermarking tool offers great flexibility by giving you the possibility of embedding both an image (logo or other) and some text:

  1. In the Watermark sub-palette, click on the Image button and then follow the same steps as in the Embedding an Image section above.
  2. Once the image is embedded, click on the Text button, then repeat all the steps in the Embedding Text section.

Creating, applying, and managing watermark presets

If you want to use more than one type of watermark, the sub-palette allows you to create, save, apply, and modify as many watermarks as you want, as presets.

Creating and saving a preset

  1. Create an image and/or text watermark* by following the instructions detailed in the Embedding an image and/or Embedding text sections above.
  2. In the sub-palette at the bottom, click Create Preset.
  3. Enter a unique name in the dialog box that appears and confirm by clicking OK.
  4. The name of the watermark is displayed in the Preset list at the top of the sub-palette: This is the preset you just created, and it is active.

*You can create a preset that includes both image and text, no matter whether you are in Image or Text mode, both will be taken into account. There is no limit to the number of presets that you can create.

Applying a preset

  1. In the Preset list, select the desired watermark.
  2. The watermark will be embedded in the photo.
  3. The sub-palette shows the settings for the selected watermark.

Changing a preset

  1. In the Preset list, select the watermark you want to change.
  2. The watermark will be embedded in the photo.
  3. The sub-palette shows the settings for the selected watermark.
  4. Change the settings as desired. To return the settings to the original watermark settings, click on the round-arrow (reset) button.
  5. To keep the watermark with its changes, click Update.
  6. To keep the original watermark and its modified version, click Create Preset and enter a new name.

Deleting a preset

  1. In the Watermark sub-palette, choose the watermark you want to remove from the Preset list.
  2. Click the trash can button on the right side of the Preset menu.
  3. A dialog box will ask you to confirm the deletion. In this case, choose OK.
  4. The watermark disappears from the Preset list.

Applying, exporting, and printing a watermarked photo

Applying a watermark to one or more photos

When you create a watermark, the watermark is displayed in real time on the photo in the Viewer and in the image browser. To apply the watermark to multiple photos at the same time, select the photos in the image browser (in which case, the first selection will be displayed in the Viewer).

Exporting one or more watermarked photos

Whatever export mode you choose – disk, application, etc. – the watermark will be applied to your photos, with the following exceptions:

Printing a watermarked photo

These are the options when it comes to printing your watermarked photos:

A few tips

Whether or not you should embed a watermark is a matter of much debate. Does the watermark really protect your images and your rights? Does it interfere with the look of your photos? If you decide to embed a watermark, here are some tips:

The DxO ViewPoint palette

About the DxO ViewPoint palette

– This palette only appears if the DxO ViewPoint plugin license has been activated.

– For a complete description of the plugin tools, consult the DxO ViewPoint user guide. Nonetheless, given that the Perspective and ReShape tools reside outside the DxO ViewPoint palette, you will find more about them in your DxO PhotoLab user guide (after this section).

When you install DxO ViewPoint, a specific palette appears in the Customize tab, which offers you the following tools:

The DxO ViewPoint Guide tool is only available in the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, as well as the standalone program.

The DxO ViewPoint palette

From DxO PhotoLab 6, the Perspective tool is available natively and so is no longer displayed by the DxO ViewPoint plug-in. You can find the Perspective tool in the PhotoLab Geometry palette.

Correcting volume deformation

The deformation of subjects situated on the edges of images is a geometric flaw that is frequently seem in interior, event, and wedding photos. Known as volume deformation, it frequently occurs when using a wide-angle or wide-angle zoom lens to photograph objects, people, or groups of people. The elements on the edges appear elongated or stretched out. The DxO ViewPoint palette lets you correct this phenomenon as well as horizontal/vertical and diagonal distortion.

For more information about the different tools available depending on the version, see the DxO ViewPoint user guide.

Miniature effect (since DxO ViewPoint 3)

The miniature effect simulates a tilt-shift lens that moves the plane of sharpness in an image, lending it the appearance of a scale model or of a diorama in a landscape photo. This effect is even more dramatic in images of urban landscapes when shot from above. The Miniature Effect tool provides great flexibility in the positioning and intensity of the focus areas.

When you activate the Miniature Effect, two gradients of blur appear on the screen (you will see 4 superimposed on the image): the solid lines delineate the area of the image that will remain sharp (generally in the center), and the dotted lines mark the transition zone between sharp and blurry at the top and bottom of the image. You can reposition the miniature effect anywhere in the photo, and you can also rotate it up to 360°.

The intensity of the shape and the blur are adjustable, and you can also deactivate the symmetry between the positions of the two blur gradients, as well as the intensity of the blur symmetry (meaning that you can have a different blur for each gradient).

ReShape Fusion Tool (since DxO ViewPoint 5)

The ReShape tool allows you to modify one or more elements in the image using a deformable point grid. It can be used for a variety of applications:

Additionally, Reshape Fusion offers tools that allow you to make local adjustments to shapes, volumes, horizon, and perspective, while controlling the propagation of corrections and preserving the original framing if you need it. 

Flip horizontally/vertically (since DxO ViewPoint 4)

Activating DxO ViewPoint installs two inversion tools into DxO PhotoLab:

These commands are available either in the Image > Orientation menu, or in the right-click context menu > Orientation. You can combine, as well as reset, them.

Features specific to using DxO ViewPoint in DxO PhotoLab

A certain number of tools and features are specific to using DxO ViewPoint in plugin mode:

The DxO FilmPack palette

This palette is displayed only if a DxO FilmPack plugin license has been activated.

The DxO FilmPack palette integrates the film emulations and editing tools specific to DxO FilmPack with your usual workflow in DxO PhotoLab.

The DxO FilmPack palette

Several palettes and tools are at your disposal:

For more information on the different tools available, depending on the version and/or edition, see the DxO FilmPack user guide.

Time Machine is an illustrated history of photography by decade, going from the 19th century through to the years 2010-20. In addition to consulting this history, the Time Machine window allows you to directly apply the proposed presets:*

* Time Machine renderings are also available via the Presets button, in the top right-hand corner of the Organize and Customize tabs.

The DxO FilmPack Time Machine window

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