DxO Photolab v9 / PureRaw v5

[Gandalf]

Hi All,

Merry Christmas.

I am thinking of moving off of the adobe subscription based LR PS and was considering trying DxO Photolab v9 (I am using the trial version).

Does anyone use it as their main editing software, and how does it compare to LR, PS ?

Also do I need to purchase PureRaw v5 to edit the RAW files before I transfer to Photolab or can Photolab handle this also ?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Box Brownie]

Good morning and Merry Christmas to you too

Photolab is the full meal whereas PureRaw is by degrees a subset "snack " (simplified?) product.....very capable but if you get PL9 perhaps PR of lesser use...... i.e. if you have PL you should not need PR

FWIW I used LR in the past before they went subscription and thought it's image management was good.

Photolab has an image management function but is IMO not that mature but, and this IMO is not a downside, it doesn't rely of the likes of LR library because it does import the images, it simply uses your folder structure. Of note the first time PL accesses any folder of images it will 'scan' the folder, so to speak, to build it's preview database.

I have used PL since version 4 when I relied on it to handle my mFT files noise.

In PL9 I have found the AI masking very beneficial though a tad fussy to use......all being well that will mature over the next few 'dot' releases.

HTH

 

[LCPete]

I am on photolab 8 I went with the ‘elite’ version as you get full adjustment for all the sliders , I would definitely check that you have that functionality with whatever version you get as for example the sharpening settings definitely need reducing from the standard settings
I don’t think you need the pure Raw as well as the photolab they both do Raw conversion
You can trythem out for a month though to see if it suits you

 

[firewireguy]

I've been using PL 7 Elite for a couple of years and just upgraded to PL9. You won't need Pure Raw if you use Photolab.

I've been really enjoying it. I never understood Lightroom database imports, so PhotoLab just makes sense to me.

I find it very easy to use and get excellent results from. The noise reduction is excellent and I love the automatic lens corrections.

It also has the colour control point technology that used to be in Nik Capture NX which I used to use and find very easy to use. The AI masking in v9 enhances this further.