From Lightroom to Photolab 5: slider adjustments

[PhDekker]

Currently I'm using Lightroom but I want to get rid of the subscription by switching to DXO Photolab 5. So I installed the trial version of the latter.

So far I'm specifically impressed with the results that DeepPRIME delivers, this is really good since I shoot with APS-C, i.e. have to deal with noise quite a lot.

But the thing that bothers me is the following:

In Lightroom, when doing slider adjustments (saturation, contrast, sharpness etc) the effect is immediate, which makes it very easy to tweak a setting to just the right amount.

In PL5 however, when moving a slider, the image becomes blurry and the change is only shown when the slider stops. This way finding an optimum setting is much harder to do.

Is this normal behavior or could this also be impacted by for instance the hardware used?

 

[Digital Nigel]

Currently I'm using Lightroom but I want to get rid of the subscription by switching to DXO Photolab 5. So I installed the trial version of the latter.

So far I'm specifically impressed with the results that DeepPRIME delivers, this is really good since I shoot with APS-C, i.e. have to deal with noise quite a lot.

But the thing that bothers me is the following:

In Lightroom, when doing slider adjustments (saturation, contrast, sharpness etc) the effect is immediate, which makes it very easy to tweak a setting to just the right amount.

In PL5 however, when moving a slider, the image becomes blurry and the change is only shown when the slider stops. This way finding an optimum setting is much harder to do.

Is this normal behavior or could this also be impacted by for instance the hardware used?

Yes, the hardware certainly makes a difference. It also matters if you're zoomed in or not, as the effects of some detail adjustments are only shown in the preview if you're zoomed in.

 

[IanYorke]

Currently I'm using Lightroom but I want to get rid of the subscription by switching to DXO Photolab 5. So I installed the trial version of the latter.

So far I'm specifically impressed with the results that DeepPRIME delivers, this is really good since I shoot with APS-C, i.e. have to deal with noise quite a lot.

But the thing that bothers me is the following:

In Lightroom, when doing slider adjustments (saturation, contrast, sharpness etc) the effect is immediate, which makes it very easy to tweak a setting to just the right amount.

In PL5 however, when moving a slider, the image becomes blurry and the change is only shown when the slider stops. This way finding an optimum setting is much harder to do.

Is this normal behavior or could this also be impacted by for instance the hardware used?

I have never experienced that. What hardware are you using?

Ian

 

[BertIverson]

...

In PL5 however, when moving a slider, the image becomes blurry and the change is only shown when the slider stops. This way finding an optimum setting is much harder to do.

Is this normal behavior or could this also be impacted by for instance the hardware used?

On my 5 year old Lenovo Laptop (i7 16GB), it takes about 1/2 sec to get rid of the blur. But, as you say, it does seem to wait for the mouse button release to render the image. Most of mine are just presets so not an issue for me but you might try clicking the sliders instead of dragging them.

my 0.02
Bert

 

[Gam3r01]

I dont click and drag sliders in PL5, instead I hover over them and scroll my mouse wheel, while there is technically a delay its close enough to instant (i7 8086k, 6700XT).

 

[PhDekker]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

 

[Gam3r01]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

 

[Digital Nigel]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

I don't think the GPU affects the interactive editing performance. It's mainly used when exporting using DeepPRIME.

 

[Gam3r01]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

I don't think the GPU affects the interactive editing performance. It's mainly used when exporting using DeepPRIME.

My live previews certainly improved after my upgrade

 

[Digital Nigel]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

I don't think the GPU affects the interactive editing performance. It's mainly used when exporting using DeepPRIME.

My live previews certainly improved after my upgrade

Do you see a spike in the GPU usage graph after doing some interactive editing?

 

[Gam3r01]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

I don't think the GPU affects the interactive editing performance. It's mainly used when exporting using DeepPRIME.

My live previews certainly improved after my upgrade

Do you see a spike in the GPU usage graph after doing some interactive editing?

Yes, my previous GPU would spike to 100%, plateau for a few seconds, then drop back down.

New one spikes, but not to 100% anymore, thus indicating the hardware barrier was cleared and the slight processing delay now is software based.

 

[Digital Nigel]

With for instance saturation when I move the slider the image gets blurry as soon I start but you can still evaluate the saturation realtime through that, the update is instant. Same with saturation and Clearview for instance. Strange thing is that when I want to zoom in and evaluate a certain area better it gets even MORE blurry when using the slider... like zooming in on an already blurred picture. About 0.5 sec after releasing the slider it is sharp again.

With sharpness it's different: it does not get blurry while sliding (or when zoomed in) but updates ~0.5sec after I stop sliding, I can still keep the mouse button pressed. But if I start on the left (unsharp side) and very smoothly slide to the right (sharp side) the picture stays very unsharp until I stop sliding.

In my case it also takes about 0.5sec before the image is sharp after release. Zooming in does make it a tad bit faster to update while adjusting the slider but not really worth it.

Clicking the sliders does not really help, it tends to move larger distances than I want to adjust and still the lag is present.

It just feels weird to me not being able to make fluid adjustments.

Operating system: Win 11

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

RAM: 16Gb

HDD: 1TB SSD

GPU: Radeon R9 280X 3GB

As someone who just replaced their R9 290 last month, your GPU is likely to blame for part of this.

DXO is very heavy on your graphics card, my render times went from 36s on my 290 to 6s on my 6700XT.

I don't think the GPU affects the interactive editing performance. It's mainly used when exporting using DeepPRIME.

My live previews certainly improved after my upgrade

Do you see a spike in the GPU usage graph after doing some interactive editing?

Yes, my previous GPU would spike to 100%, plateau for a few seconds, then drop back down.

New one spikes, but not to 100% anymore, thus indicating the hardware barrier was cleared and the slight processing delay now is software based.

Thanks, useful to know.

 

[BertIverson]

I dont click and drag sliders in PL5, instead I hover over them and scroll my mouse wheel, while there is technically a delay its close enough to instant (i7 8086k, 6700XT).

Hmmm! I am on Win 10 and my mouse wheel does not move the sliders. I have tried holding down Alt, then Ctrl, then Shift. Can you give me suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?

 

[Gam3r01]

I dont click and drag sliders in PL5, instead I hover over them and scroll my mouse wheel, while there is technically a delay its close enough to instant (i7 8086k, 6700XT).

Hmmm! I am on Win 10 and my mouse wheel does not move the sliders. I have tried holding down Alt, then Ctrl, then Shift. Can you give me suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?

Weird, (but not uncommon, certain hotkeys dont work for me no matter what I do).

Maybe click the slider (you can probably click it at 0) then mouse wheel?

 

[BertIverson]

...

Weird, (but not uncommon, certain hotkeys dont work for me no matter what I do).

Maybe click the slider (you can probably click it at 0) then mouse wheel?

Well thanks Gam3r01,
That took care of it and it works when clicking on the little circle/dot anywhere on the slider. Not something I am apt to do since it fills up the "Advanced History" window. I'll just keep hovering and clicking.

Cheers,
Bert

 

[PhDekker]

Had a look at the preferences in PL5, my GPU is marked with a *, meaning I could risk stuttering/freezing when enabling it.

Well I activated it and also ticked the OpenCl box. Voila: Everything reacts a bit crispier now and the deepPRIME exports are about 2x faster now.

Not bad for a 9 year old GPU

 

[Gam3r01]

Had a look at the preferences in PL5, my GPU is marked with a *, meaning I could risk stuttering/freezing when enabling it.

Well I activated it and also ticked the OpenCl box. Voila: Everything reacts a bit crispier now and the deepPRIME exports are about 2x faster now.

Not bad for a 9 year old GPU

Ah yes, I forgot that DXO wont automatically enable GPU acceleration on legacy hardware.

For whats its worth, my R9 290 was unsupported as well, and I never had any issues.

 

[poppyjk]

Sometimes the Cache in DxO gets loaded up and dramatically slows interactive performance.

To clear the cache go to Edit/Preferences/Performance. Click on the "Clear" button on the far right of the "Maximum Cache Size" slider.

While you are there, set the Maximum Cache Size to half of your RAM. In your case, set to 8gb. My system has 64gb RAM and I have the PhotoLab cache slider set to 20gb. But when the program starts using more than 10gb RAM, interactive performance starts to slow. Clearing the cache helps every time.

Also worth checking is the amount of RAM being used by other programs. In particular, internet browsers or other photo processing software. Close them to see if it helps. RAM capacity is critical for interactive performance in PhotoLab.

Glad you found the Open CL option to improve performance.

Good luck.

--
"Well done is better than well said" - Benjamin Franklin
You have my express consent to edit any of my images that I post in DPR forums but not photos entered in Challenges.