Does a module be active in automode if not needed?

DxO PhotoLab
1

Watching some webinairs and tutorials, witch opening up my view of what’s possible in photolab (lot more then what you see at first glans), i am starting to wonder if a preset with a lot of modules/tools turned active on automode is the correct way of starting a basepoint.
would it be better to minimise active tools and manually ad one at the time?

So does a not needed action in a module/tool when on automode be muted/ idle or is it better to turn “off” with the slider?

edit: one turtorial spoke (kirk paulsen i think) of dxo’s automated kicks in of tools in dxo standard preset. So it determines that some tool needs used for correction and activates that and if not needed leaves it deactivated. interesting, But one question pops up: If i uses the standard dxo preset and alter some settings (by activating extra tools) as a personal preset and gererate/store this as “my prest” is that automated proces stil enabled? Or am i stuck to the then autoactived tools for that peticulair image. and then again is this bad? or if all auto bluewant providing tools are active in my preset it got the same outcome as the dxo standard preset?

Like clearview turned down to 15 it adds actually sharpness to al kind of images but can causes moiré in detailed bricking or fabricks.
edit2: i think bluewant microcontrast on is better then default low intensity clearview on in general setup. (because it detect faces and noise with you don’t want to enhance.) So ClearView is only for dedicated things like landscape and or watersurface clearing, postproces polarisingfilter so to speak.
But the more automated ones like lens correction Chromatic aberation tool or vignetting. Or the more image correcting ones like moiré, microcontrast, clearview, smartlighting(semi auto because you control the intensity but not the location.)

Why i ask this? well i am working on my own preset gallery for Landscape, general(mixed images), portrets, inside building pictures, closeups, flowers, animal portret.
So by creating a (good) startpoint from which i start running down the toollist for manual fine tuning on personal preference and also do all local corrections i can safe time and keep track on the uniformitylook in a serie and stil have the best possible image improvement on every image that’s the idea.

When i have those tuned to a good base/startpoint i can just shoose presets and safe a lot of time deciding which way to go.

But i am stil in the process of understanding/learning the pro and cons of each tool (automode or not) and how to use it most profitable.

So back to question in header: Does a auto mode (blue want) be idle/not changing things if there isn’t a need for? Can i have those always active without punishment? (don’t get unwanted/unneeded corrections?)

geesh every tutorial i watch does popup questions wile answering others. :wink:

2

The best way? It really is a matter of taste.
You can try the presets and see if you like the results. Then take the one you like best and change a few sliders to make the result look according to your taste and/or intention. Save the settings as a custom preset and test it on other images.

After a few iterations, you‘ll probably be able to find your way.

3

Hello,

Actually the corrections applied by default depends on the settings you set in Preferences. If you do not want your images to be affected by the auto corrections, just set “No correction” as a default preset.

But for many people the auto corrections are an important part of the application and they start with them and them fine tune them to their own taste.
So it’s up to you to find the most suitable way for you.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

4

Hello Svetlana,
thank you for the reply,

Yes that’s the apeal of DxO photolab, creating a automated preset or more then one in my case for certain images which develop for 90% the image.

What i am trying to discover is if auto correct modes (those blue wants you can activate) are active interact with other selective changes i do?
like the microcontrast added by clearview. Does this %setting just add over the by auto microcontrast in contrast tool calulated percentage by auto microcontrast bluewant algoritmg or does the Auto mode of microcontrast acknowleds that clearview already added microcontrast and react to that?

Or is that all bluewant settings just are like most other presets of raw developers based on initial raw read out ( like noise reduction is iso value based.)

Same as clearview (microcontrast) and the auto contrast sharpening bluewant microcontrast in the contrast tool. (And if moiré supressor is auto active and is actualy suppressing moiré because it is noticing moiré does this influence the autobluewant of microcontrast?

I had a image where the bricks did cause moiré effect on the FHD screen, which wasn’t visible on pc screen zoomed in. The combination of clearview 18% and auto microcontrast and the lenssoftness correction at 50% (default) did over sharpen the brickwall (small bricks which where layed in different layouts) Yess novice mistake i know.
Turning on moiré tool didn’t solve this, so i turn off clearview and lowered global sharpening which did the trick.

Same as detailed steel contruction shot against blue sky, the auto sharpening did zigzag the bended lines, and i needed it to turn down. (Its not a flaw of DxO but more my lack of understanding of the automated corrections and there influences)

I needed a year before i understood the behaviour of an other raw developer application and was able to react accoring to that so i suspect this applies also for photolab.

One other thing i noticed was that Chromatic aberation and purple fringing at full view was visible and when zoomed in was corrected and zoomed out again to full image visible again in preview. (by export to jpeg is ok so i suspect it isn’t a realtime correction viewed in preview like the prime noise which is done in exporting.)

5

Yes i am fine tuning my base presets which i copied from the defaults DxO provided.
The Standard and portret and landscape preset of DxO are the three i use and i added or altered some settings which i safed as “my standard” “my portret” and “my landscape”.
Sometimes one of these presets is overcooking a image and to understand why i need to understand those bluewants auto modes behaviours.
That is why i try to find out how they work.

6

I find many of the ‘intelligent’ tools difficult to use because they work well on some images and all but ruin others. It takes a while to find one’s own way. Regarding “bluewant”: what do you mean? The magic wand sign that usually sits at the right of sliders or the blue switch that simply turns corrections on or off?

The magic wand sets the respectice function or slider to something that dxo’s algorithms deem fit for the image at hand. I understand this as a proposal that I take or modify. Whether it is good/right or not does not matter to me. It’s just a tool.

Regarding clearview: As microcontrast, the tool seems to sharpen images, but it has not the refinements of an unsharp mask tool.

7

The Magicwantsign at the right. (Not the on off slider)
I do find those seperate on/off of every tool very handy ,You can see what every tool does to the image.

yes i understand, i am assumming that the algorithms are made according to imageprocessing experts and give “good advice”. I think i try to test my question, "does a magicwant algoritm only work and be active on the imported raw’s base image or does it also adjust when image is changed by me manually.
for instantce: I have crop and horizon “auto” off, i turn them on when i need so i see what happens if i let DxO decide what is usefull and so i can adjust.

As i understand is that “clearview” add’s microcontrast ad a equal basis across the image, small spots of “black” spread and if you slide towards a higher % the blackdots per inch % gets more, making the image sharper. The microcontrast slider is a intelligent fine structure enhancer. Sharpening the image so to speak by enhancing fine linestructures.
And “fine contrast” slider is what somewhat similair to what clearview does, ad clarity to the image (which also make the image look sharper). Please correct me if i am wrong.
So now i turned “clearview” off by default in my preset, i did had it always on by 18% to give the image more punch but it overcook some images.

(i stil have to read in /learn more about DxO’s possible controletools of contrast and tone. How to get the most out of it by selective adjusting. because contrast is the backbone of an image, the right tonecurve makes a image pop and the wrong one makes a image drop. :slight_smile: )