Capture One still offers more latitude to push some of its tools, with a view to being creative rather than “accurate”. Unlike Capture One, which is built around layers for adjustments or masks, DxO PhotoLabs hides away the various layers in the "Local Adjustments" tab and employs some quirky floating menus to access the tweakable options.įor the most part the interface is intuitive, and the tools do what you want them to do. Some things are clunky compared to Capture One, such as the extra keystroke required to output a final image, but switching between programs is always going to require relearning some keystrokes and looking for tools in menus. Things such as dropping in a gradient to pull back dynamic range in the sky, or brushing in a layer across a subjects face to lift the highlights, are easy to complete in DxO PhotoLabs. Version 6 of DxO PhotoLabs now has a keystone tool as well, which was something I struggled to live without for the precise nature of our studio work. DxO keeps up with Capture One’s functionality very nicely. The power tools for me when using Capture One were its superior application of healing brushes, and the ability to create layers and masks to seriously fine tune an image. This means when I open a new folder of RAW files I can have my personal style of defaults applied right out of the gate. I created my own set of defaults, which DxO let you set in the preferences. Too much contrast, too much sharpening and too much vibrance. Some of the tools are very heavy handed, and indeed the default settings were too pimped up for my tastes. I wish they just put the stuff that works into a single edition and stop with the malarkey. There’s a touch too much marketing in play here, with fancy names for various “modules” and the option to upgrade to the “elite” version where all the best modules are already loaded. There's room to simplify the tool range in my view – even the noise reduction interface offers four different engines to choose from. At times the interface is cluttered with options that I don’t really care about, especially the automated features that try to make your image jump off the page with the click of a button. The range of manipulation tools available are impressive. When you edit a file those changes are stored into a local file next to your RAW file, making it easy to take your work from one computer and move to another. You point the software at your folder of RAW files and it builds a quick and dirty index of the contents, which are stored locally on your machine. Once you get control of the sheer variety of tools on offer, DxO starts to look like a genuine alternative to Capture One or Lightroom.ĭxO PhotoLab ditches the catalogues and libraries, in favour of more simplified editing. But it does deliver professional results. The defaults tend to be a little heavy handed for my style, and need dialling back for practical use. It also plays nicely with LUMIX cameras – but more on that later. What’s on offer is a lot of good technology, a half decent user interface and some simple pricing advantages. Today there are tonnes of options on the market, admittedly most of them "not quite right".ĭxO PhotoLabs is feature rich and quick to learn. Capture One was a clear winner back then. Back then Aperture on MacOS was the main alternative, or you had to pull images through one by one in Photoshop. We’re talking more than two decades ago when version 3 hit the internet and Lightroom didn’t even exist yet. I’ve been a Capture One fan since the early days. After an appalling lack of camera support from Capture One in 2022 I started looking seriously at my alternatives. Lightroom and Capture One get most of the attention when shopping for RAW Workflow software, but in recent years both have moved towards subscriber only pricing.
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