Editing processes are very selective, and different photographers will have different approaches. Even the same photographer can have different approaches at different times. Just as it’s not always easy to cull your images, it’s not always easy to decide on the best way to edit them.
Local adjustments
Adjustments made only to specific areas in a photo, not the whole picture. You pick out the areas you want to adjust with selections, masks or brush tools.
3 reasons why I edited this in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom
I know Lightroom very, very well. I’ve been writing about it for years. A large part of this site’s content is devoted to Adobe Lightroom tips and tutorials. That means, though, that I also know its weaknesses, and there are plenty. So I thought I’d run through the editing steps I used on this photo and why I did them in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom.
ON1 Photo RAW 2025 has a new Depth Map feature – here’s how it works
A depth map is a mask that can separate objects at different distances from the camera. Some phones have depth mapping built in, but cameras don’t. However, ON1 Photo RAW 2025’s new Depth Mask tool can use AI to analyse the objects in a scene and work out their distance. Imagine a luminance mask, but applied to distance not brightness!
DxO PhotoLab 8 Elite review
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.
Rediscover the lost art of dodging and burning in Capture One
Dodging and burning isn’t just an old-school black and white darkroom technique. It’s just as useful on color images, and Capture One’s Style Brushes update this classic technique with powerful digital enhancements.
Now you can use Curve adjustments with Lightroom masks
This is a new feature introduced to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic in April 2023. It arrived in the same update as the new Lightroom AI Denoise feature, so it would be easy to overlook it, given all the fuss over the AI denoising.
Lightroom vs Photoshop: which program should you use and when?
Lightroom vs Photoshop, which is best? It’s not that simple, as anyone who uses them will know, because although there is some crossover (well, a lot of crossover), they have very different roles and very different strengths and weaknesses. One is not better than the other because it depends on what you want to do. […]
Cataloguing software explained
Cataloguing software can organize your entire photo collection, but how does it work and what do you look for?
Local adjustments explained
‘Local adjustments’ is a bit of a catch-all term. It means picking out an area of an image for adjustment while leaving the rest unchanged. So how do local adjustments work and which software does them best?
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.