DxO ViewPoint 6 released with new perspective controls and direct RAW editing
DxO has launched ViewPoint 6, the latest update to its geometric, perspective and distortion correction software. It includes two key changes, one that allows precise and controlled perspective adjustments for individual objects rather than the whole scene and another that completely overhauls the ViewPoint workflow to make it much more useful for many photographers.
DxO ViewPoint is designed to counter some very specific problems you get with wide-angle photography, including lens distortion, perspective distortion and what DxO calls’ volumetric deforrmation’, where objects appear unnaturally stretched at the edges of the frame.
Programs like Lightroom and Capture One can also correct lens distortion perspective distortion, but on a fairly superficial level. Specifically, when you apply perspective corrections for converging verticals on tall buildings, for example, they apply to the whole frame and not just the objects that need correcting.
From an optical perspective (sorry), perspective correction should indeed be applied to the whole image. On a practical level, though, this can often mean cropping off a large part of the image unnecessarily – including areas where the distortion doesn’t really show and has no real impact.
ReShape Fusion, now with AI
ViewPoint’s answer is its ReShape Fusion tool, updated in ViewPoint 6 to include AI subject detection. You simply draw a rectangle around an object and the AI will select it with a mesh grid that not only includes the subject but also handles the transition with surrounding areas. You can then adjust this mesh grid around the subject as necessary.
DxO is keen to point out that with its ReShape Fusion process and AI object selection, nothing is generated, nothing is replaced. It’s simply rearranging existing objects within the scene. It’s not just DxO distancing itself from generative AI processes – Capture One has done the same.
The new Reshape Fusion tools allow you more easily to correct the perspective of a single building in a scene without cropping the image, or to correct any deformation in a single face at the edge of the frame in a group shot, for example.
Selective perspective correction might seem a fairly deep and technical process, but ViewPoint 6 brings another advance that could transform its usefulness in photographers’ workflows.
Now with direct RAW support and editing
Previously, ViewPoint could not open RAW files directly but only as a plug-in for a ‘host’ application that carried out the RAW processing first.
With ViewPoint 6, that’s all changed. ViewPoint can now open and process RAW files directly, applying DxO’s own camera and lens profiles automatically, just like DxO PhotoLab and PureRAW. It goes evn further, with exposure compensation control of up to +/- 4EV and white balance control tool.
All of the perspective corrections and reshaping you carry out in ViewPoint 6 are non-destructive, so you can return later to make further changes. The adjustments are saved in a sidecar file alongside the image file, and it’s in a different format to the sidecar files saved by DxO PhotoLab, so you won’t get conflicting adjustments.
ViewPoint 6 also integrates directly into PhotoLab 10, where its tools can be accessed via PhotoLab’s Geometry palette. It can also be used as a plugin with Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop, and Capture One and, as we’ve seen, as a standalone application.
DxO ViewPoint 6 price and availability + save 15%
DxO ViewPoint 6 is available today from the DxO website (shop.dxo.com) for macOS and Windows. A new license will cost $129.99 / €119.99 / £109.99 and the upgrade price (from ViewPoint 5) is $84.99 / €74.99 / £69.99.
New customers can also save 15% with this exclusive LAP15 discount code at the checkout and, as ever, DxO is offering a 30-day free trial to help you make your mind up, available from https://www.dxo.com/dxo-viewpoint/download.
