DxO PhotoLab control points tested and rated

DxO PhotoLab 5 control points and chroma and luma sliders in action

Here’s a run-through of how PhotoLab control points work, and how and when to use the new chroma and luma sliders.

• 1. This image needs some help

  

  Here’s a sample image I can improve with some selective adjustments. This classic car was in part sun, part shade, so the exposure was always going to be a compromise and the color does look pretty undersaturated. A control point adjustment is ideal here because it can quickly target the color and area I want to fix.

• 2. A regular control point

  

  I’ve placed a control point over a sunlit pat of the car, increased the radius to include the whole car and made some adjustments to reduce the exposure and increase the saturation and vibrancy. It’s not had much effect, though, so I suspect the default mask is too selective.

• 3. Viewing the mask

  

  There is a ‘Check Mask’ box at the bottom of the window to show the control point mask as an overlay to see which areas it’s selecting. It’s not always very clear which areas are selected until you start changing the chroma and luma settings.

• 4. Reducing the luma sensitivity

  

  By default the control point chroma and luma settings are set to 50. If I try reducing the luma sensitivity value I can see the problem – and the solution. The control point wasn’t having much effect on the whole car because it was targeting the sunlit part too tightly.

• 5. Less sensitivity, better result

  

  By reducing the control point’s luma sensitivity, I’ve spread those color adjustments over the whole of the car, including the parts in shade. It’s a much better outcome and it was worth checking the control point settings and adjusting them.

• 6. Another example

  

  This detail shot of a vintage motorcycle is all right, but the exhaust manifold is a bit bright and distracting and the ‘Henderson’ badge on the tank doesn’t exactly stand out.

• 7. First attempt, default control point settings

  

  If I put a control point on the exhaust piping and reduce the exposure, it just looks a bit muddy. Boosting the contrast helps, but doesn’t fix the issue.

• 8. Changing the control point luma and chroma settings

  

  The metalwork I want to tone down has a wide range of brightness values and I suspect the control point’s default settings are not targeting all of them, so I’ve reduced the luma sensitivity to zero. At the same time, I don’t want my adjustments spreading into the blue fuel tank above, so I try setting the chroma sensitivity to maximum.

• 9. The effect on the image

  

  This has worked pretty well. The pipework has toned down rather nicely and now has more contrast and depth, and while the blue pained part of the motorcycle have darkened slightly, it’s not enough to need correcting.

• 10. Another control point for the tank badge

  

• 11. A final example

  

  It proved quite difficult to find images that might benefit from reduced chroma sensitivity, but here’s one. I’ve added a control point to the green leaves of this bunch of narcissi, increasing the exposure, contrast and vibrancy (keep in mind that these adjustments are in different tabs in the U-point controls, so you don’t see them all at the same time). It looks OK, but the yellow petals are still quite dark and subdued.

• 12. Reducing the chroma sensitivity

  

  The issue here is that the control point is targeting the greens of the leaves but not the yellows of the petals – so if reduce the chroma sensitivity to zero, this brings in the yellow tones too.

• 13. Chroma and luma vs extra control points

  

  Now I could have achieved exactly the same thing by creating another control point over the yellow petals, which would have applied the same exposure and vibrancy settings to them – this time it would be targeting the yellow tones. So while the new chroma and luma sliders are interesting and often useful, they are often just another way of working.