Verdict: 4.5 stars PhotoLab 8 is the latest update to DxO’s flagship photo organizing, image enhancement and editing software. The changes in this version are incremental but still very useful. If you’re upgrading from a previous version you might want to look closely at what’s new before you take the plunge. But if you’re new to PhotoLab then here’s the low-down. If you want to get the best possible quality from your RAW files and you’re prepared to put in a little time and effort, PhotoLab 8 is quite simply in a class of its own.
Lens corrections – digital
No lens is perfect. All lenses display aberrations to some degree, including distortion, chromatic aberration (colour fringing) and vignetting (corner shading). These are worse with cheap kit lenses or zooms, and eliminating them optically is both difficult and expensive.
So it's often more effective to put up with these slight optical imperfections in the original lens design and fix them digitally instead.
An increasing number of programs now offer automatic lens corrections which can identify the lens used to take a shot and apply a specially-calibrated correction profile from that lens. The better the software, the better the corrections and the more lenses are supported.
DxO Optics Pro was the first in this field (now DxO PhotoLab), though Lightroom's lens corrections are really good too and Capture One Pro has profiles for a large number of consumer and professional lenses. These are probably the top three simply because they are RAW conversion tools you'd use at the start of your image-editing workflow anyway, but there are plenty of other programs which will fix your lens defects for you too.
Capture One lens correction profiles: why they seem to keep changing
Capture One can apply automatic lens corrections to fix all the common lens aberrations – distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting. But then why does it sometimes show Manufacturer Profiles or Generic profiles instead?
DxO PureRAW 4 review
Verdict: 4.3 stars DxO PureRAW 4 is the latest version of DxO’s RAW ‘pre-processing’ software. That’s how I think of it, anyway. It applies DxO’s legendary lens corrections and DeepPRIME denoising to your raw files and outputs a part-processed Linear DNG file which can still be edited like a RAW file in other programs. Alternatively, you can use PureRAW 4 to output sharp, corrected, denoised, ready-to-use JPEGs from your RAW originals. PureRAW 4 is extremely good at correcting image defects and noise, but you do have to decide whether you need it enough to modify your workflow.
How to apply corner sharpening in Lightroom with a simple preset
Lightroom Classic has built-in lens correction profiles for fixing distortion and corner shading in countless camera lenses. It also fixes chromatic aberration, or color fringing, via a separate checkbox. The one thing it doesn’t have is corner softness correction – but there is a way around that.
Can you use DxO PureRAW with Capture One? Yes, and here’s how
DxO PureRAW integrates really well with Lightroom. You can send a RAW file to PureRAW from within Lightroom for processing and it’s returned to your catalog ready to use. It will even have any edits you’ve previously applied in Lightroom. Capture One does not offer an equivalent workflow, but there is still a simple way to send raw files to PureRAW and get them returned to your catalog.
DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite review
Verdict: 4.5 stars PhotoLab 6 has important improvements over version 5 which make it even better for quality fixated photographers. The PhotoLibrary organizing tools are catching up at last and the new DeepPRIME XD processing is superb. Add in the excellent editing tools and local adjustments, and you have perhaps the best RAW processor of all.
10 myths about RAW files – and why they’re wrong
Almost any photographic expert will tell you that you should shoot RAW files not JPEGs, and that RAW files are innately superior. The trouble with this kind of wisdom is that it’s repeated and passed on without question.
DxO PhotoLab vs Lightroom vs Capture One – which is best for RAW files?
Which is best for processing RAW files, DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom or Capture One? Here’s a set of eight image comparisons that aims to find out.
DxO Perspective Efex review
Verdict: 4.5 stars Perspective Efex is a really nice addition to the DxO Nik Collection 3. It offers geometric perspective, distortion and tilt-shift corrections in a simple, user-friendly interface.
Lens aberrations and what you can do about them
Aberrations, or optical imperfections, exist because no lens is optically perfect. Almost all lenses show aberrations from the ‘perfect’ image.