Allow Preset creation without Local Adjustments from finished images

DxO PhotoLab Feature requests
1

It would be wonderful if PhotoLab would allow photographers to disable Local Adjustments for the purposes of creating a preset from an a finished image which already had Local Adjustments applied.

The disable switch should be temporary as the image would still need its local adjustments turned back on.

Currently the only way to do this is by editing code in .preset files:

On MacOs the preset files can be found in “~/Library/DxO PhotoLab v1/Presets”.
PL should not be running while the .preset file is changed, otherwise the change may not become effective. I suggest to make a copy of the .preset file before changing it.

While better than nothing, this kind of workaround suits RAWTherapee Linux geeks better than DxO PhotoLab photographers.

2

No more votes left but you have a +1

3 Likes
3

ON1 has that capability. I can see it being usable for more than just creating presets of course. Every other adjustment in DXO Photolab, other than local adjustments, can be disabled and re-enabled with the same settings. The main problems with local adjustments in DXO is that it was added in on top of an existing package instead of being integrated into it.

ON1, for instance, has a separate tab for local adjustments which allows you to create palletes with sliders which can be disabled like any other palette in ON1 or Photolab. And multiple palletes can be created for different parts of the same image and disabled and re-enabled separately. Although I have not tried it, It appears you could even do a what-if scenario by having two sets of local adjustments for the exact same area by enabling one and then disabling it and enabling the other. While I still much prefer using Photolab, and think it’s far superior to ON1, their local adjustments feature shows what is possible.

Mark

4

…you can also reset local corrections, create the preset and then undo (the reset)…

5

or virtual copy, reset local corrections, create the preset and trash the VC. :slightly_smiling_face:

6

That’s the way I’d do it now, but it’s a pretty awkward workaround for what should be a straightforward process: image finished, make a preset excluding local adjustments, keep moving fast through an event, modifying the preset, refining it as you go.

7

well, someone else might like to exclude something else, so the exclude dialog should probably look like the dialog that we get in Lightroom:

LR-dialog
LR-dialog.png874×469 47.9 KB

Note: The image was also flipped horizontally, something that DPL cannot do and also something I cannot exclude in Lr…

2 Likes
8

Like this way as the “Storerooms”?

These are temporaily memoryslots for copy paste purposes.

9

I’m not sure. That’s a very heavy-handed approach. With every other feature one can just turn off that panel and make the preset. Local adjustments have to be completely deleted to keep them out of a preset.

It would be enough if DxO made local adjustments the equivalent of the other panels and allowed us to disable them when creating presets. This solution would be more elegant.

I could live with either approach - simply allowing local adjustments to be turned off when creating a preset or an interstitial list of what panels to include in the preset. If the latter, for love of the heavens, I hope DxO will not automatically check all the boxes like Lightroom but only check the ones which are already active.

Working with DxO PhotoLab is a far more elegant and intuitive process than Lightroom and it’s important to me that those values of elegance and intuitive workflow remain a priority.

2 Likes
10

Well, perhaps it has changed in PL2. At least with PL1 every preset that is created with the current settings has the “LocalParameters” section, regardless if local adjustments had never been applied to the picture or applied and later removed.

Try it:

  1. Work on a new picture in PL, but don’t do any local adjustments.
  2. Create a preset from the current settings. You can make it partial if you wish.
  3. Do some local adjustments to the picture.
  4. Apply the preset created in step 2.
    Result: For me in step 4 the local adjustments are always removed.

The only way to create a preset without LocalParameters section is to start with an empty preset and then edit it and add the tools one by one. I only discovered that function now, and will now use it always to create partial presets.

The easiest way to implement this feature request is to have a tool in the palettes called “Local Adjustments” which doesn’t feature anything more than a disable/enable switch.

Actually I have one palette with all the tools from the toolbar (crop, WB, horizon, …) only for one reason: To disable these tools when I create a partial preset:
54

2 Likes
11

I removed my vote because I think this is now solved in PL3:

This is exactly how it works now. Furthermore I can edit a preset with local adjustments and remove them.

No need to edit a preset file manually in a text editor anymore. :smile:

3 Likes
12

Thanks for the report. This is a substantial improvement to workflow with presets. Was surprised to find I wrote the original detailed request. I certainly knew my preset capabilities at that point.

2 Likes