I installed the trial version of PhotoLab 6 a few days ago.
I’m sure there are some new features in this version that will appeal to a number of photographers. I’m thinking more of professionals (or semi-pros).
I don’t think I’ll ever need
Wide Gammut
Soft Proofing
This seems to complicate the workflow without any real added value (for an amateur that I am). I have been using PhotoLab since version 1 and this is what I consider to be its ease of use and the results obtained that I liked and made me choose this program.
One may say that I can take PL6 without having to use these “complications”.
There’s the new DeepPRIME XD. I tested with Raws from 6400 to 25000 ISO. Looking at the result (TIFFs) at 100% or 200%, we can see that it is even better than DeepPrime. But, out of 100 photos I have maybe half a dozen with very high ISOs. So, is it really useful and necessary?
The new ReTouch tool still seems to be causing problems (according to some users).
For photo management there is now the possibility to mark images with color labels. It’s pretty. There are 8 colors but you can use only 7. Why is the 8th color (“Grey” or “Other”) not available for marking even though it is in the “sort” tool? When I open a folder in PL6, it assigns automatically (?) and arbitrarily (!) the label “Grey”/ “Other” to some images, sometimes to all, other times to some only. Strange behavior.
I was also surprised that when opening a folder, PL6 made virtual copies of all the files. These virtual copies contained the metadata already registered in the files (with PL5). (It may have been a handling error on my part:, with PL6 and PL5 open at the same time.)
Currently, I am far from convinced by this new version. Especially since some requests for improvement and/or novelties from users have not been taken into account. I have followed the various interventions on this forum and I believe I am not the only one with doubts.
For a hobby user like myself, but with a pretty large numbers of photos, the upgrade is far to expensive for what it gives. A very marginal improvment in quality with Deep Prime XD and larger colour gamut and some improvment of the retouching tools, that my better be done in a pixel editor, is not what I wanted or expected, so I will probably sit this upgrade out, and wait another year…
What I would have liked to se improved was the database functions / Tag managment tools and perhaps some AI selection tools.
I don’t agree that DPXD gives you the same as DP but they are very close. In my testing I can get a very similar look, though XD is giving slightly more detail ( well adding I guess ) in some areas but the standard DP is giving slightly more detail in other areas.
XD seems to be trying to smooth areas of noise a little more while adding a little more detail to others. The problem is it’s not always getting it right and while you can get some nice smoothing you end it with some horrible artifacts in places and more noise in others.
DeepPrime is a great tool, perhaps unmatched, and I see no appreciable gain in DPXD, sometimes I would say it is even worse. Maybe I don’t have enough patience and that’s why it’s difficult for me to give a verdict, there are many controls that can change the result.
With PhotoLab 5’s AdobeRGB colour space I used to get better results than with Lightroom’s ProphotoRGB. Now it will be even better, I don’t know how much.
Integrating new perspective tools without having to buy ViewPoint 4 seems very decent to me, as I found it indecent to have to buy VP3 when I bought PL5.
Reshape is superior to Repair, but as in other programmes it is not able to overcome difficult situations.
I understand the financial needs that, like Capture One, drive you to pay an annual fee for “major” upgrades, whether they are truly relevant or not. I stopped at Capture One 20 and I think I will do the same with Photo Lab 5.
And nobody hypersensitive should get angry, it’s just an opinion.
Agree 100% with OXiDant/Peter. It is what it is and I will definitely upgrade (like I do every year). Especially that wide colour space is very attractive! Don’ t know yet about editing in 10bpc (30-bit).
I don’ t want PL to become a “do-everything-anyone-could-ever-want” piece of software. I like its workflow and very rarely I use Affinity Photo/QimageOne/Pixelmator Pro and ApolloOne next to it. More than 90% of my work can be done inside PL. Printing only in QimageOne.
To me DXO PL performs best of all software I know, in raw developing department.
The biggest problem for AI denoising like DPXD is learning the difference between lost detail by noise and “there wasn’t detail to begin with”
Sometimes it thinks it needs to “copy” detail in to a spot inorder to repair but makes it worse. That’s where the detail slider is for tuning down the XD part abit.
The new colormanagment and the new proofing tools is a start towards more grip on the conversions between colorspaces of the editted image.
It’s not perfect yet in it’s user interface and i am not sure if people who mostly export for srgb web viewing purposes benefit from this feature enough to pay the update.
Everyone must decide for them selfs.
Reshape aka repair/clone 2.1, yes flipping , mirroring, turning does give much more flexibility but it’s not the holy grale of merging images together in selective layers.
I have a workaround, Silkypix v10 there stacking tool.
I am far of from sensitive so hypersensitive is a galaxy away.
So a just assume you ment someone else.
And a opinion backed up with proper reasons is never a thing to get angry about but general shouting it’s cr.p doesn’t help anyone. Right?
I was not referring to you or anyone else in particular. I’m familiar with many names of forum participants, yours too, but I haven’t created a profile for any of them. I’ll check later to see if you are one of them.
I said “hypersensitive” because sometimes I read comments in which those of us who ask to implement some shortcoming seem to be portrayed as disrespectful critics of the programme’s developers’ staff. Sometimes even as capricious guys who don’t understand the reasonable limits of a RAW developer and would be better to switch to another software.
On the other hand, I was interested in your suggestion about the Silkypix stacking tool, but I don’t see a clear relation with the Reshape tool in PL6.
there stacking tool.
