DxO PhotoLab for Canon

[homebodyMacro]

OK, I just gave the PL9 AI Masking a whirl. I thought it was pretty snappy actually, considering my video card was at minimum spec (RTX 2060 w/ 6GB). I didn't really have to wait a long time for anything to render.

I'll have to watch some tutes to become more proficient at the masks though!

Here's an initial Auto Mask...

I see lots of potential here. :-D

R2

Honestly, I don't know that there's a huge learning curve for it. If the subject selection isn't totally working on first point, you can move the point, or add a few more points and it seems to get it.

You can also right click and invert the selection, then select more points if needed for the inverted space (where the subsequent points are not themselves inverted).

You can also duplicate a mask as well, where I feel like the main use would be to invert the overall mask that you just made (in some cases it's easier to select an object and invert than select everything besides the object).

Certainly I'm interested in what others come up with, but that's the basic functionality that's present at the moment.

Honestly, I think I'll use this functionality quite frequently. I definitely need to invest in some more lighting implements, but in most cases with nature or action, exposures are imperfect and masking can have a major benefit for fine-tuning on the subject(s) (and in special cases like I mentioned above, with depth-based smoke/haze blue-shifting of images). The upgrade was about $120, and considering it will have a moderate to major impact on a lot of photos, well worth it imo.

Also as far as color/tone etc., in my experience with some tests the R5II camera profile in DxO PL8 (and PL9) on various tests I did was essentially a perfect match to my AWB-white priority picture style photos straight out of DPP4. I think Canon/DPP4 do a great job with colors/AWB, so having a functionally identical profile in DxO is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for this!

I did figure out how to add and subtract (hold ALT) to the mask using the brush, but I haven't figured out how to resize the brush or change the hardness/feathering. This is just from 5 min playing around, so I know there's more functionality hidden in there! :-D

R2

Hmm, honestly have never used the brush, but in the top left of the editing view (can be slightly outside the image if you aren't zoomed in far enough) it has feathering/size options if you want to use that to refine your mask. From checking PL8, it appears to have been the same menu there.

With that, I now notice that the AI mask has the same menu, though the options are point vs. area selection (area selection doesn't seem to be showing me the rectangle I'm creating, but it seems to have worked really well on my test just now). After restarting though, it does show a rectangle lol.

There's also an option where you can ask it to scan the image for a specific subject, which could be useful for plenty of cases.

I have had a few cases where it has thrown an error: "Internal error (correction failed on the Excecute stage)". It seemingly needs to restart after this. I haven't had it happen on the normal point selection, but had it happen after it didn't find a subject for me (butterfly not under animal I guess).

Unsurprising that there are some bugs that will be worked out. I will say, the area selection on my butterfly test definitely gave a better selection of the fine details (slightly out of focus antennae and legs) vs. point selection. So that will be a worthwhile option in some cases.

Glad you mentioned this - I have large monitors and might have missed the options until a later time. Seems like the subject type detection algorithm is a bit crashy at the moment though (and failed to detect more obvious animals for me also), so probably best to avoid. I will say, PL9 seems to boot faster than PL8 though.

 

[Tannin]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

In my book, it is also the best raw converter on the market. (Never mind all the other neat stuff it does, that alone is worth the money.)

 

[Love_my_R5]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

In my book, it is also the best raw converter on the market. (Never mind all the other neat stuff it does, that alone is worth the money.)

Thank you. DXO is definitely on my watch list.

In the lower cost category is Nitro which recently added AI masking and lens correction. I've been experimenting with the program. It has a good feature set but, I think, is targeted for a different market than DXO or Lightroom.

 

[R2D2]

OK, I just gave the PL9 AI Masking a whirl. I thought it was pretty snappy actually, considering my video card was at minimum spec (RTX 2060 w/ 6GB). I didn't really have to wait a long time for anything to render.

I'll have to watch some tutes to become more proficient at the masks though!

Here's an initial Auto Mask...

I see lots of potential here. :-D

R2

Honestly, I don't know that there's a huge learning curve for it. If the subject selection isn't totally working on first point, you can move the point, or add a few more points and it seems to get it.

You can also right click and invert the selection, then select more points if needed for the inverted space (where the subsequent points are not themselves inverted).

You can also duplicate a mask as well, where I feel like the main use would be to invert the overall mask that you just made (in some cases it's easier to select an object and invert than select everything besides the object).

Certainly I'm interested in what others come up with, but that's the basic functionality that's present at the moment.

Honestly, I think I'll use this functionality quite frequently. I definitely need to invest in some more lighting implements, but in most cases with nature or action, exposures are imperfect and masking can have a major benefit for fine-tuning on the subject(s) (and in special cases like I mentioned above, with depth-based smoke/haze blue-shifting of images). The upgrade was about $120, and considering it will have a moderate to major impact on a lot of photos, well worth it imo.

Also as far as color/tone etc., in my experience with some tests the R5II camera profile in DxO PL8 (and PL9) on various tests I did was essentially a perfect match to my AWB-white priority picture style photos straight out of DPP4. I think Canon/DPP4 do a great job with colors/AWB, so having a functionally identical profile in DxO is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for this!

I did figure out how to add and subtract (hold ALT) to the mask using the brush, but I haven't figured out how to resize the brush or change the hardness/feathering. This is just from 5 min playing around, so I know there's more functionality hidden in there! :-D

R2

Hmm, honestly have never used the brush, but in the top left of the editing view (can be slightly outside the image if you aren't zoomed in far enough) it has feathering/size options if you want to use that to refine your mask. From checking PL8, it appears to have been the same menu there.

With that, I now notice that the AI mask has the same menu, though the options are point vs. area selection (area selection doesn't seem to be showing me the rectangle I'm creating, but it seems to have worked really well on my test just now). After restarting though, it does show a rectangle lol.

There's also an option where you can ask it to scan the image for a specific subject, which could be useful for plenty of cases.

I have had a few cases where it has thrown an error: "Internal error (correction failed on the Excecute stage)". It seemingly needs to restart after this. I haven't had it happen on the normal point selection, but had it happen after it didn't find a subject for me (butterfly not under animal I guess).

Unsurprising that there are some bugs that will be worked out. I will say, the area selection on my butterfly test definitely gave a better selection of the fine details (slightly out of focus antennae and legs) vs. point selection. So that will be a worthwhile option in some cases.

Glad you mentioned this - I have large monitors and might have missed the options until a later time. Seems like the subject type detection algorithm is a bit crashy at the moment though (and failed to detect more obvious animals for me also), so probably best to avoid. I will say, PL9 seems to boot faster than PL8 though.

Thanks for the pointers! I'll have to dig into the Local Adjustment features some more.

I had a shoot last weekend and the new AI Masking really sped up PP (works really well on people). What I especially like is that the default feathering is about perfect, and hasn't required any tweaking (local adjustments look completely natural and don't bleed over).

Detailed selections that I used to have to perform in Photoshop can now be very quickly done with DxO. PL9 is a very large step up.

R2

 

[R2D2]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

This is technically true. However there is one caveat...

If you buy a new body after the year of free updates expires, you won't get the new Profiles unless you update the software as well.

I end up updating every year anyways, as the upgrades between full versions have been (IME) quite significant and impactful with every iteration.

In my book, it is also the best raw converter on the market. (Never mind all the other neat stuff it does, that alone is worth the money.)

Indeed. Head shoulders above! :-D

R2

 

[Alastair Norcross]

1. R2D2 wrote:

OK, I just gave the PL9 AI Masking a whirl. I thought it was pretty snappy actually, considering my video card was at minimum spec (RTX 2060 w/ 6GB). I didn't really have to wait a long time for anything to render.

I'll have to watch some tutes to become more proficient at the masks though!

Here's an initial Auto Mask...

I see lots of potential here. :-D

R2

Honestly, I don't know that there's a huge learning curve for it. If the subject selection isn't totally working on first point, you can move the point, or add a few more points and it seems to get it.

You can also right click and invert the selection, then select more points if needed for the inverted space (where the subsequent points are not themselves inverted).

You can also duplicate a mask as well, where I feel like the main use would be to invert the overall mask that you just made (in some cases it's easier to select an object and invert than select everything besides the object).

Certainly I'm interested in what others come up with, but that's the basic functionality that's present at the moment.

Honestly, I think I'll use this functionality quite frequently. I definitely need to invest in some more lighting implements, but in most cases with nature or action, exposures are imperfect and masking can have a major benefit for fine-tuning on the subject(s) (and in special cases like I mentioned above, with depth-based smoke/haze blue-shifting of images). The upgrade was about $120, and considering it will have a moderate to major impact on a lot of photos, well worth it imo.

Also as far as color/tone etc., in my experience with some tests the R5II camera profile in DxO PL8 (and PL9) on various tests I did was essentially a perfect match to my AWB-white priority picture style photos straight out of DPP4. I think Canon/DPP4 do a great job with colors/AWB, so having a functionally identical profile in DxO is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for this!

I did figure out how to add and subtract (hold ALT) to the mask using the brush, but I haven't figured out how to resize the brush or change the hardness/feathering. This is just from 5 min playing around, so I know there's more functionality hidden in there! :-D

R2

Hmm, honestly have never used the brush, but in the top left of the editing view (can be slightly outside the image if you aren't zoomed in far enough) it has feathering/size options if you want to use that to refine your mask. From checking PL8, it appears to have been the same menu there.

With that, I now notice that the AI mask has the same menu, though the options are point vs. area selection (area selection doesn't seem to be showing me the rectangle I'm creating, but it seems to have worked really well on my test just now). After restarting though, it does show a rectangle lol.

There's also an option where you can ask it to scan the image for a specific subject, which could be useful for plenty of cases.

I have had a few cases where it has thrown an error: "Internal error (correction failed on the Excecute stage)". It seemingly needs to restart after this. I haven't had it happen on the normal point selection, but had it happen after it didn't find a subject for me (butterfly not under animal I guess).

Unsurprising that there are some bugs that will be worked out. I will say, the area selection on my butterfly test definitely gave a better selection of the fine details (slightly out of focus antennae and legs) vs. point selection. So that will be a worthwhile option in some cases.

Glad you mentioned this - I have large monitors and might have missed the options until a later time. Seems like the subject type detection algorithm is a bit crashy at the moment though (and failed to detect more obvious animals for me also), so probably best to avoid. I will say, PL9 seems to boot faster than PL8 though.

Thanks for the pointers! I'll have to dig into the Local Adjustment features some more.

I had a shoot last weekend and the new AI Masking really sped up PP (works really well on people). What I especially like is that the default feathering is about perfect, and hasn't required any tweaking (local adjustments look completely natural and don't bleed over).

Detailed selections that I used to have to perform in Photoshop can now be very quickly done with DxO. PL9 is a very large step up.

I have to stop reading your posts about this for the next 12 days! I’m holding out until October 29, which is 30 days before Black Friday, and you’re making me impatient to upgrade.

R2

 

[Sittatunga]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

This is technically true. However there is one caveat...

If you buy a new body after the year of free updates expires, you won't get the new Profiles unless you update the software as well.

Actually it's two years of free updates, and I don't think the lens profiles are tied to particular versions. There have been five or six updates of PhotoLab 7 since January and PhotoLab 7 was first available in Autumn 2023.

I end up updating every year anyways, as the upgrades between full versions have been (IME) quite significant and impactful with every iteration.

In my book, it is also the best raw converter on the market. (Never mind all the other neat stuff it does, that alone is worth the money.)

Indeed. Head shoulders above! :-D

R2

--
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
http://www.pbase.com/jekyll_and_hyde/galleries

 

[R2D2]

1. R2D2 wrote:

OK, I just gave the PL9 AI Masking a whirl. I thought it was pretty snappy actually, considering my video card was at minimum spec (RTX 2060 w/ 6GB). I didn't really have to wait a long time for anything to render.

I'll have to watch some tutes to become more proficient at the masks though!

Here's an initial Auto Mask...

I see lots of potential here. :-D

R2

Honestly, I don't know that there's a huge learning curve for it. If the subject selection isn't totally working on first point, you can move the point, or add a few more points and it seems to get it.

You can also right click and invert the selection, then select more points if needed for the inverted space (where the subsequent points are not themselves inverted).

You can also duplicate a mask as well, where I feel like the main use would be to invert the overall mask that you just made (in some cases it's easier to select an object and invert than select everything besides the object).

Certainly I'm interested in what others come up with, but that's the basic functionality that's present at the moment.

Honestly, I think I'll use this functionality quite frequently. I definitely need to invest in some more lighting implements, but in most cases with nature or action, exposures are imperfect and masking can have a major benefit for fine-tuning on the subject(s) (and in special cases like I mentioned above, with depth-based smoke/haze blue-shifting of images). The upgrade was about $120, and considering it will have a moderate to major impact on a lot of photos, well worth it imo.

Also as far as color/tone etc., in my experience with some tests the R5II camera profile in DxO PL8 (and PL9) on various tests I did was essentially a perfect match to my AWB-white priority picture style photos straight out of DPP4. I think Canon/DPP4 do a great job with colors/AWB, so having a functionally identical profile in DxO is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for this!

I did figure out how to add and subtract (hold ALT) to the mask using the brush, but I haven't figured out how to resize the brush or change the hardness/feathering. This is just from 5 min playing around, so I know there's more functionality hidden in there! :-D

R2

Hmm, honestly have never used the brush, but in the top left of the editing view (can be slightly outside the image if you aren't zoomed in far enough) it has feathering/size options if you want to use that to refine your mask. From checking PL8, it appears to have been the same menu there.

With that, I now notice that the AI mask has the same menu, though the options are point vs. area selection (area selection doesn't seem to be showing me the rectangle I'm creating, but it seems to have worked really well on my test just now). After restarting though, it does show a rectangle lol.

There's also an option where you can ask it to scan the image for a specific subject, which could be useful for plenty of cases.

I have had a few cases where it has thrown an error: "Internal error (correction failed on the Excecute stage)". It seemingly needs to restart after this. I haven't had it happen on the normal point selection, but had it happen after it didn't find a subject for me (butterfly not under animal I guess).

Unsurprising that there are some bugs that will be worked out. I will say, the area selection on my butterfly test definitely gave a better selection of the fine details (slightly out of focus antennae and legs) vs. point selection. So that will be a worthwhile option in some cases.

Glad you mentioned this - I have large monitors and might have missed the options until a later time. Seems like the subject type detection algorithm is a bit crashy at the moment though (and failed to detect more obvious animals for me also), so probably best to avoid. I will say, PL9 seems to boot faster than PL8 though.

Thanks for the pointers! I'll have to dig into the Local Adjustment features some more.

I had a shoot last weekend and the new AI Masking really sped up PP (works really well on people). What I especially like is that the default feathering is about perfect, and hasn't required any tweaking (local adjustments look completely natural and don't bleed over).

Detailed selections that I used to have to perform in Photoshop can now be very quickly done with DxO. PL9 is a very large step up.

I have to stop reading your posts about this for the next 12 days! I’m holding out until October 29, which is 30 days before Black Friday, and you’re making me impatient to upgrade.

LOL! Deep breaths. Deep breaths. :-D

I had/have a lot of shoots this month, so I figured I'd get an extra month's use out of it. Alas.

Deep breaths...

R2

 

[R2D2]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

This is technically true. However there is one caveat...

If you buy a new body after the year of free updates expires, you won't get the new Profiles unless you update the software as well.

Actually it's two years of free updates

Thanks for that. It makes a big difference.

and I don't think the lens profiles are tied to particular versions. There have been five or six updates of PhotoLab 7 since January and PhotoLab 7 was first available in Autumn 2023.

Thanks. I meant body profiles (wasn't mentioning lenses).

I was late to the party, and didn't go with the full PhotoLab until I bought the R5 (5 1/2 years ago). IMHO PhotoLab wasn't quite mature enough until then. Love what they've done since! :-D

R2

 

[homebodyMacro]

OK, I just gave the PL9 AI Masking a whirl. I thought it was pretty snappy actually, considering my video card was at minimum spec (RTX 2060 w/ 6GB). I didn't really have to wait a long time for anything to render.

I'll have to watch some tutes to become more proficient at the masks though!

Here's an initial Auto Mask...

I see lots of potential here. :-D

R2

Honestly, I don't know that there's a huge learning curve for it. If the subject selection isn't totally working on first point, you can move the point, or add a few more points and it seems to get it.

You can also right click and invert the selection, then select more points if needed for the inverted space (where the subsequent points are not themselves inverted).

You can also duplicate a mask as well, where I feel like the main use would be to invert the overall mask that you just made (in some cases it's easier to select an object and invert than select everything besides the object).

Certainly I'm interested in what others come up with, but that's the basic functionality that's present at the moment.

Honestly, I think I'll use this functionality quite frequently. I definitely need to invest in some more lighting implements, but in most cases with nature or action, exposures are imperfect and masking can have a major benefit for fine-tuning on the subject(s) (and in special cases like I mentioned above, with depth-based smoke/haze blue-shifting of images). The upgrade was about $120, and considering it will have a moderate to major impact on a lot of photos, well worth it imo.

Also as far as color/tone etc., in my experience with some tests the R5II camera profile in DxO PL8 (and PL9) on various tests I did was essentially a perfect match to my AWB-white priority picture style photos straight out of DPP4. I think Canon/DPP4 do a great job with colors/AWB, so having a functionally identical profile in DxO is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for this!

I did figure out how to add and subtract (hold ALT) to the mask using the brush, but I haven't figured out how to resize the brush or change the hardness/feathering. This is just from 5 min playing around, so I know there's more functionality hidden in there! :-D

R2

Hmm, honestly have never used the brush, but in the top left of the editing view (can be slightly outside the image if you aren't zoomed in far enough) it has feathering/size options if you want to use that to refine your mask. From checking PL8, it appears to have been the same menu there.

With that, I now notice that the AI mask has the same menu, though the options are point vs. area selection (area selection doesn't seem to be showing me the rectangle I'm creating, but it seems to have worked really well on my test just now). After restarting though, it does show a rectangle lol.

There's also an option where you can ask it to scan the image for a specific subject, which could be useful for plenty of cases.

I have had a few cases where it has thrown an error: "Internal error (correction failed on the Excecute stage)". It seemingly needs to restart after this. I haven't had it happen on the normal point selection, but had it happen after it didn't find a subject for me (butterfly not under animal I guess).

Unsurprising that there are some bugs that will be worked out. I will say, the area selection on my butterfly test definitely gave a better selection of the fine details (slightly out of focus antennae and legs) vs. point selection. So that will be a worthwhile option in some cases.

Glad you mentioned this - I have large monitors and might have missed the options until a later time. Seems like the subject type detection algorithm is a bit crashy at the moment though (and failed to detect more obvious animals for me also), so probably best to avoid. I will say, PL9 seems to boot faster than PL8 though.

Thanks for the pointers! I'll have to dig into the Local Adjustment features some more.

I had a shoot last weekend and the new AI Masking really sped up PP (works really well on people). What I especially like is that the default feathering is about perfect, and hasn't required any tweaking (local adjustments look completely natural and don't bleed over).

Detailed selections that I used to have to perform in Photoshop can now be very quickly done with DxO. PL9 is a very large step up.

R2

Yep, honestly it seems to be VERY good in terms of subject selection, between the point and box selection options.

I've been a stickler about not getting photoshop because I despite Adobe lol (plus I've only been doing this a bit over a year and a half), but PL9 definitely gave me the feeling "yeah I can see why people use it though" lol. Frankly for a lot of scenarios, masking is the only real solution, so it is a huge upgrade for me. Having it integrated into RAW processing is just so nice.

 

[Sittatunga]

DXO seems like a good choice but I still find it a bit pricey for my needs. Hoping for a substantial Black Friday discount.

The thing with DXO is that you only pay once. One payment and you own the software forever.

This is technically true. However there is one caveat...

If you buy a new body after the year of free updates expires, you won't get the new Profiles unless you update the software as well.

Actually it's two years of free updates

Thanks for that. It makes a big difference.

and I don't think the lens profiles are tied to particular versions. There have been five or six updates of PhotoLab 7 since January and PhotoLab 7 was first available in Autumn 2023.

Thanks. I meant body profiles (wasn't mentioning lenses).

Release notes for PhotoLab 7 lists the new bodies added at each update but not the release dates, PL7_release-note_win_EN.pdf

I downloaded PhotoLab 7.0 on 7/10/23 and have deleted a lot of the intermediate upgrades but got 7.12 on 27/2/25, 7.14 on 14/5/25 and 7.17 on 1/10/25. DxO were up to version 9.1 the last time I looked, and I'm now waiting for the November sale notification.

I was late to the party, and didn't go with the full PhotoLab until I bought the R5 (5 1/2 years ago). IMHO PhotoLab wasn't quite mature enough until then. Love what they've done since! :-D

R2