Processing RAW using DxO - post your samples and tips - Part II

Carl LaFong wrote:

Larry Rexley wrote:

Carl LaFong wrote:

Larry Rexley wrote:

'Tis the season!

DxO's Black Friday sale is already on.

https://shop.dxo.com/en/

PhotoLab 6: now $149 (down from $219) - upgrade price $69

PureRaw 2: $89 (down from $129)

ViewPoint 4 $69 (down from $99)

FilmPack 6: $69 (down from $139) - upgrade price $45

The sale is on for a week, until the end of the day Monday 11/28/2022 (Cyber Monday)

Thanks Larry.

This is both good news … and bad news … for me.

Because I am only (slowly) getting back into (amateur) photograph after decades of absence (from the era of Tri-X and Kodachrome), one of the aspects of digital photography that I am trying to come to grips with is post-processing. I haven’t settled on a solution yet, so Black Friday is creating opportunities … and monetary challenges … for finding one.

I have experimented some with ACDSee Ultimate, but have not mastered it. (And I used Photoshop in the distant past as well - versions 3 - 6). Very few people discuss ACDSee or even mention it, so I have been reluctant to put too much of my limited time into what seems to be a marginal product.

Before getting seriously back into photography two years ago, I used ACDSee to process images with my original Canon T1i. It is surprisingly capable and full-featured.... I used the add-on plugins for adjusting tone curves and perspective correction a lot. (DxO is better at both of those though so I don't use it anymore.) I even used ACDSee for perspective correction when I was using DPP as DPP doesn't do it.

In contrast, DxO gets a lot of press and mention, so my strong temptation is to acquire it and spend the time to learn it. Black Friday is likely to push me over the edge.

My comments above are not completely germane to the thread, so I apologize on that regard. I come here to learn. Thus I thank those who have provided helpful info.

I hope that some day I will be able to post the stuff here that you asked for.

You might consider downloading DxO software and using it as full-featured free trial. This is a great way to experiment. I think you would find that there is not as much of a learning curve with DxO as there is with other software like Adobe products. You might find it straightforward to use. If you started trying it today you might be able to decide by next Monday when the DxO sale ends.

A very reasonable and logical suggestion, but since I am away from my computer until after the sale ends, I can’t do that. So - on the strength of the widespread usage of DxO software by the very knowledgeable members here, I ordered Photolab at its currently-discounted price. I am now looking forward to spending some quality time learning how to use it soon, now that the colder and darker months of winter are closing in.

I think you'll enjoy it. My experience was that the images I got were so clean I ending up spending considerable time going back and re-processing images I had previously done in DPP, always getting better results.

And for good measure, I ordered Viewpoint as well, since my favorite lenses are UWA.

Some pros in the camera club I'm in use DxO just for the ViewPoint module, they say perspective correction is faster and better in DxO than their usual tools (Lightroom and Photoshop).

I use it with the ultra-wides, I like the 'four-sided-square' tool that lets you correct horizontal stretch distortion as well as vertical. Vertical correction helps make buildings look like they're not falling backwards, and horizontal for me can make trains look more like they were taken with 'normal' lenses.

If you're careful shooting and processing, you can even get the Rokinon 8mm f2.8 fisheye images to look like they are not shot with a fisheye, by maxing out the barrel correction or using the fisheye correction, although there is only so far you can push it.

My criterion for success is that I will get some results that I will dare to publish here. Time will tell. In any case, it should be fun and educational to try.

I was a Canon DPP user previously, really liked the results I got out of it. I also started using Darktable to get better de-noise (DPP's de-noise I found only effective to about ISO 1600). I found DxO's de-noise to be amazing --- that's what really sold me on it --- but also I found I could process photos using DxO in a fraction of the time it used to take in DPP, and I always got better results with DxO. I went back months later and tried to get results as good in DPP again as I was getting with DxO, but coudn't without spending a great deal of time.