![]() PhotoLab 6’s local adjustment tools deserve a mention too. It can smooth out, sharpen up and restore detail to high-ISO images so successfully that you’re left checking the image EXIF data to make sure there’s been no mistake – it will change your mind about what you think your camera is capable of. The DeepPRIME XD processing is pretty spectacular. The more ‘average’ your camera and lenses, the bigger the improvement. We’re used to software correcting lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration automatically, but PhotoLab 6 goes further in correcting edge softness too – the difference in quality, especially at the frame edges, is clear to see. Its lens corrections are applied automatically as the images are first viewed and the previews are generated, so you rarely have to get involved in that at all – except to download new profiles when prompted. PhotoLab 6 really is the best, or at least one of the best programs out there for raw processing quality. It's especially effective when photographing interiors thanks to its distortion control and its Smart Lighting, Selective Tone and Tone Curve adjustments. PhotoLab 6 isn't just for rigorous, technical adjustments, as it's equally adept at subtle and artistic effects. There’s even a search field at the top to help you quickly find a panel you already known the name of.Īlong the top of the window is a set of tools for cropping, perspective correction, zooming and panning, adding a local adjustment and more. There are quite a few, but they have been arranged in tabs which are loosely themed as exposure, color and detail adjustments, for example. A vertical toolbar on the right side of the screen shows all the available tools panels. If you double-click on an image it opens in the Customize window, which is where you do the serious editing work. They are a way of collecting images together without moving them on your computer. This is basically DxO’s word ‘for ‘albums’. What you see is a full directory tree of the folders on your computer, and you can use this to move images around as required or organize them into Projects. You can view them as thumbnails or as larger previews. The first, the PhotoLibrary window, is where you browse and organize your images. It also offers saved searches and support for a wider range of EXIF and IPTC tags. With the ability now to 'nest' Projects (left panel), PhotoLab 6 has suddenly become a much more serious tool for image organization. So what is PhotoLab 6? You could look at it two ways – as a massively more powerful Adobe Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw replacement, or as a Lightroom alternative with better tools, better output and no tedious import process. It offers ‘soft proofing’ for different output devices too. PhotoLab 6 has a new, wider working color space too – an indication that DxO takes color management very seriously. ![]() A key feature of this is that you can now rotate, scale or transform your clone ‘source, so that if you need to replace a window in a building, say, and the only source you can use is a smaller one nearby, you can now manipulate it to fit the dimensions of the window you want to replace. ![]() (Image credit: Rod Lawton)ĭxO has also introduced new, upgraded Retouch tool. Here, we've cloned out an ugly drain cover using a flagstone pattern closer to the camera that's been scaled to match the area being repaired. The new ReTouch tool solves an age-old cloning problem – matching the scale and perspective of your clone source. It’s not quite in the same league as Lightroom, say, but it may be all that most photographers need. This is boosted by support for additional EXIF and IPTC data tags. Before, they were useful perhaps for short term tasks but little more, but the new ability to organize and structure Projects means that overnight the PhotoLibrary module has changed from being a simple Adobe Bridge style folder browser into a proper organizing/cataloguing tool. Previously, you could only have a simple linear list of Projects. One of the key new features in PhotoLab 6 is the ability to ‘nest’ Projects in the PhotoLibrary window in a hierarchical folder system. PhotoLab 6 is primarily a high-end raw processing and editing program, but some steady evolution through successive versions means that its turned into something more. Version 6 now includes perspective correction controls (at last!) but there's also a DxO ViewPoint 4 standalone program for much more advanced corrections – and once installed it integrates with the PhotoLab 6 interface.
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