Tutorials DxO PhotoLab by the user

Yes ! That’s the way to go … This feature is yet another example of what makes PL such a versatile tool.

John M

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Very useful indeed.
A pdf version could be convenient

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hi @Pieloe
Thank you for your tutorials.

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Hy all, just for fun, learning and exercise:

i was rereading this section and it hit me in the face, i didn’t build any partial pre-sets for WB/color control.Probably i am not experienced enough, or didn’t had the right images to create a partial pre-set as “tool”.
We where messing about in color, WB, detail, contrast, finecontrast : the “pop” so to speak. (The new colorpicker radius feature got me on this track) .

Which(messing with colors) is on it’s own a good way to train/learn to control WB/color. (essence of a natural looking image is does your brain like/“believe” what it see? Does it equal your memory of the scene?)
Then again i started to see how WB and color and colorcasting(reflection and “shine through”) lightsource effects and multilightsource effects can make your life difficult. One correction brings a new flaw and the other accentuates a not visible one before that.

So i started to think about how you can work your way through this changing path of getting the WB, the feel of a image and the colors optimised in a structured matter using DxO PL.
1 Which tools do you need and or have to your disposal?

  • WB pre-sets (Camera as shot., daylight, tungsten, shade, flash. such pre-sets)
  • color accentuation. hue, vibrance, saturation, lightness)
  • color picker for point out the grey/white and change WB.
  • blacklevel whitelevel (to manage the shadow and bright spots detail.(it’s in essences a lightness tool but no correct lightness no correct color.)
  • local adjustments : controlpoint, masks and such to selectively change a part of the image.
    2 which flow you use?
  • WB first? (and manual "fiddling until satisfied or a preset and fiddle after that?)
  • or first exposure/lightness? bringing color and detail in to the bright and dark area’s?
  • color enhancing? by special color tools as in filmpack, HSL, style-toning,

3- do we miss things at the moment?
more presets in WB selection for instance?
wider fine color controller?
Or more in the way the handling of the present tools work or not work as you like?

  • personal skills? small tutorials?

I have some things id like to change or added in this matter.
like:

  • ETTR ETTL control( whitepoint blackpoint)
  • more WB presets, and tools(automated). (like my earlier mentioned Auto Natural WB and Auto Absolute WB)
  • change preview by hoovering over pre-setlist with the mousepointer. (so you can see which is best before actual choose it by clicking)

and on the Happy scale, things i appreciate in DPL as “unique” feature:
the local adjustment toolkit. very handy and flexible if you got the hang of it.
Preset editor, (i in person, don’t use this enough.)
The auto corrections which pop in after selection.(if you want)
Clearview/smartlighting (great powerfull tools to get your desired image.)

So is it more “everything is possible if you know how to use the present tools?” or are there “holes” and gapes in the DPL toolset?

(end of rant.) :slightly_smiling_face:

Edit:( if any have : difficult lightning or difficult WB images this would be great as test image.)

To be clear, i like to participate a How Can We Control And Adjust Several Kinds Of Problems Caused By Light And Misjudged CameraWB.

  • color casting by reflection
  • color casting by shine through (fabric and glass)
  • Multicolor light source (sunlight and artificial light or TL and Bulb or Halogen or LED
  • multicolor light sources through window light and inside lightsource
  • enhancement of sunset or the green foliage or (multicolored) flowers

in other words how can we use DPL’s tools too the max to get that POP in a image or correct wrong WB issue’s.
Bring a image as start , how you conquer the problem and the final one.
like this:





(exposure in the other controlpointset)

balance global exposure

Have Fun!

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Hy all, new thing a boat in sunset:
ColinG his image is having considerable blue cast of the hole image WB of the camera is way off.
The color picker of DxOPL is not help you to clear the cast completely not keep your other wanted coloration alive. Using my other raw app i can use "Auto Absolute WB"or “Auto Natural WB” this give me a WB color numbers i can fill in in DxO. and then DxO can also have this Wb

What if you don’t have this opportunity?
Well you can have the same in DxO,


colorpicker does help out but never for 100% satisfied.

Boat is more or less white but rest is “off” not natural.
last place:

Still blue boat and dull sky.

So i got to the end doing other techniques which got me this:


It’s not that easy as selecting “Auto Absolute WB” but it can be done in DxOPL.

Next problem: getting a landscape scenery from average to interesting:
ive used only DxOPL v1.2.2 so no NIK Color Efex or such, ive seen some marvelles tutorials about that but i am not “in control” in NIK’s toolset yet.
My basic preset:


And with some local things and global things i got this:

Any thoughts how to improve more?
16-9 crop
i enlarged saturation and vibrance (to give the detailed front section some punch, lifted exposure in the front section with gradient filter and added some extra highlights in vibrance on the red/orange
young trees and purple bush.

lowered the sun highlight with -33 to avoid HDRlooking sky not more.

Did i over shoot vibrance/saturation? Or gives it the image it’s details for the eye?

Second one: shot straight into the sunlight, and this underexpose the landscape a lot.
but some Smartlighting, gradientfilter and controlpoints got me to this:


could me just me but i still find this amazing that i can pull the shadow this far up.

normal pulling shadows ruins the color and contrast but with local adj you can save those easy.

Ok last one: ive got two images which one is more or less the “real light and WB”


And one which i warmed up to simulate sundown sunglow “golden look”
somehow i don’t like the grass looked, so i took a magic brush and lowered the exposure a bit and cool down the grass color to this:


does the clouds look natural or too yellow? So i made a virtual copy and cooled one down:
one is 8891K and second (right) i cooled down is 6455K

Which do you prefer?

I think I missed the point here: What are these other techniques? I understand there is no good reference for the WB in the picture since even the white surfaces are reflecting the sky colors.

What happens if you pick the back of the boat, pointing towards you, near the door, as a reference for the WB picker? It seems to not reflect colored light from the sky but more grayish light from the other side.

Also other software can do nothing but guessing. Probably there is no “correct” WB here anyways. It is more about the mood that you want to see captured in the picture.

The point is that the present WB functionallity can’t cope well with this kind of color mishits.
is used other tools to correct;


get the blue cast out.

correct even more.

get some color back in sky.

much more steps then when i can use the auto absolute wb preset in SP.
It is possible but less default steps, and more image related. (which colorcast is present)


water and sky is “off”

Well the Auto absolute and Auto natural are quite good in “guessing” from Sp7pro.

The point is by using other tools other then the WB tool you can overcome color cast.

FYI …

Color Efex Pro (part of the Nik Collection) has a filter called Pro Contrast, which includes a setting to Correct Colour Cast … I have had success using this.

Its White Neutraliser filter is also useful (eg. for wedding dresses).

John M

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John,

You the man! I did not realize that I have this great tool for removing color casts at my disposal in Color Efex Pro! I have done some limited testing and the results are indeed very good.

Regards,

Joseph

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Pro Contrast is also helpfull in landscape detailing.
it brings out a nice contrast which is a smart look of clearview.

Hi ColinG,

why not trying it this way…

I do like that approach. What I liked about the subject matter in the first place was the pastal type colours of the flowers around the door. That said, this works for me also. Well done :slight_smile:

Doing most of my shooting at the moment with a Fuji X camera so PL does not appear in my workflow so much at present.

Thanks Pascal for taking the time to show newbies like myself tips and tricks its appreciated .:+1:

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Hello,
I wrote three tutorials dedicated to the use of DxO PhotoLab.

As a DxO user, I give you my tips and tricks which might make you more efficient.

1- Discovering DxO PhotoLab
A quick overview for users used others development software

2- Local Adjustments with DxO PhotoLab
A user guide to Enhance the visibility of your photos

3- Efficiency with DxO PhotoLab - The means to get quickly to better results
Intended for experienced users, it explains the functioning and gives some recipes for more efficiency.

I hope you will enjoy these tutorials.

[Edit june '19]
New skin and more informations.
Site updated for DPL2.3 release.
See the page “Efficiency with DxO PhotoLab”.

Pascal

http://dxo.tuto.free.fr/

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Merci Pascal!:boom:

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Vielen Dank!

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no DxOPL thing but when you upgrade your Win 10 OS to Win10 1903 then Raw Image Extension by appstore is available to use which gives you the image thubnails back again for a lot of camera’s…:grin:

Proof G80 rw2’s

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Thank you very much for your work and time. Because there is a lack of (printed) books about DxO PL2, these informations are incredibly useful!

Lothar

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