I made exposure corrections in Lightroom using two gradient masks and an overall adjustment before exporting to DXO and those corrections didn’t show up in DXO. Turning off automatic DXO corrections shows me the original raw image without lightroom adjustments. Is there something I’m missing?
It sounds as though you may be trying to process your RAW file in both Lightroom and DxO.
If so, it will never work. RAW processors such as Lightroom and Photolab are parametric editors so they do not make changes to the original image but record your changes in a sidecar file or/and a database and leave the original RAW file unchanged. Lightroom keeps the changes made in an XMP file while Photolab does this in a DOP file. As far as I know, there are no standards in terms of recording changes made in any RAW processing software whether that is in an XMP file or elsewhere. So changes recorded in one RAW processor’s sidecar files are unlikely to be understood by another. The only solution is to choose the single RAW processing software you prefer and stick with it. The usual way to go is to make the changes you require to the RAW image in terms of exposure, saturation, noise reduction etc. to the point it is nearest to what you see as the end product. If any further changes are needed that can not be made in the RAW processor due to those features not being available, then export the processed RAW image to a raster file such as a TIF and then use Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Nik or some other pixel editing software to achieve your final image. Once an image is held as a TIF (or JPG) changes can be made by any capable software but you are often editing the original file directly and so, depending on your workflow and the software used, can be a destructive process.
Thanks for the response, Rob. I typically run some basic edits in Lightroom, export to photoshop CC where I make edits using NIK and the final touches within photoshop. The workflow might change if I’m doing intensive edits such as luminosity masks or portrait retouching. This software is advertised as having “seamless integration between Lightroom and DXO” but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Even exporting to lightroom, each image is being opened in a new collection folder with the date and it’s own time, creating a huge list and requiring manual selection of the original folder in libraries to get back to what I’m doing. Certain tools are better for specific images between DXO and Lightroom and it sounds like one needs to know precisely which tools are better for what images before starting an edit to avoid false starts and having to reverse engineer previous edits. This seems silly to me.
Perhaps a read of this tutorial will help you to determine the right workflow for your needs (for Optics Pro read Photolab) :
Thanks again Rob. There is, indeed, a significant difference between the DNG and Tiff exports when exporting to Lightroom. I use noise reduction and exposure as foundational edits and it’s a little disappointing this forces and either/or scenario with the raw file due to this (lightroom play much better with the dng and raw with noise and exposure adjustments). There doesn’t seem to be any info about changing the situation with the cataloging of exports in lightroom and with the amount of time it takes to import and export, that adds even more time to the processing of single photos. I do like DXO but the limitations with these things are a little frustrating.