In this DxO Photolab 6 review, we’re looking at DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite, the latest and greatest edition of DxO‘s photo management and editing studio. And with tools such DeepPrime Noise Reduction, ClearView Plus, and Smart Lighting, there’s much to like about DxO PhotoLab 6. Let’s take a look. Jump to Conclusion | DxO Photo Lab 6 Trial
DxO PHOTOLAB 6 ELITE EDITION
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LIFETIME LICENSE
SUPERIOR NOISE REDUCTION
DxO OPTICAL CORRECTIONS
$219
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Table of Contents
- What is DxO PhotoLab 6
- What does DxO PhotoLab 6 do
- Raw Conversion
- DxO PhotoLab Key Features
- DxO PhotoLab Tutorial
- Is DxO PhotoLab 6 worth it?
- DxO PhotoLab 6 Compared
- DxO PhotoLab vs Lightroom
- DxO PhotoLab 6 vs DxO PureRaw 3
- Conclusion
What is DxO PhotoLab 6
DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite is a standalone all-in-one photo studio for PC and Mac. And as an all-in-one photo studio, DxO Photo Lab has features such as Photo Management, Presets, AI Noise Reduction, and Photo Editing.
DxO PhotoLab 6 Release Date
5th October 2022.
How much is DxO PhotoLab 6
US$219
DxO Photolab 6 Trial
Download your PhotoLab 6 Elite free 30-day trial. No credit card is required.
What does DxO PhotoLab 6 do
Photo Management
DxO Photolab 6 has a simple but effective photo management system. For instance, you can manually edit your photo’s metadata, rate your image, and tag your photo with any number of custom keywords.
Furthermore, DxO PhotoLab 6 features a simple but effective search system. For instance, you can type “Nikon D750” to find all images taken with that camera or ‘Bird’ to recover all photos to which you’ve assigned the keyword ‘Bird.’
Moreover, you can combine both searches to find all photos assigned with the keyword ‘Bird’ taken with a Nikon D750. Overall, photo management in DxO PhotoLab 6 can bring order to the most chaotic photo collections.
DxO PhotoLab 6 Presets
Like almost all photo editors, DxO PhotoLab 6 has Presets. While PhotoLab 6 doesn’t ship with many Presets built-in, you can always make your own.
Raw Conversion
DxO PhotoLab 6’s class-cleading raw conversion uses bespoke optical modules for each camera/lens combination to correct distortion, remove aberrations, and fix vignetting. Furthermore, the process is entirely automated and highly effective. However, if you prefer – you can disable this feature and apply the corrections yourself.
Photo Editing
DxO PhotoLab 6 is a traditional photo editor armed with some modern tricks. Thus, for the most part, you’ll be polishing your photos with classical adjustments such as white balance, tone curves, and exposure.
Yet this is not to say that DxO PhotoLab 6 is antiquated. On the contrary, DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite is equipped with DeepPrime – an AI noise reduction tool and one of the best noise reduction software applications you can get.
Plus, there are DxO’s compound effects, namely Smart Lighting and ClearView. Stay tuned for examples of these effects later in this DxO PhotoLab 6 review.
Batch Editing
DxO Photolab 6 batch editing feature is effective and straightforward to use. For example, you can apply a single Preset to multiple images or replicate the adjustments made to one photo to others.
DxO PhotoLab Key Features
DxO Photolab 6 is a well-featured photo management and editing tool with some stand-out features.
- DeepPrime Noise Reduction
- Custom Optical Corrections
- DxO Smart Lighting
- DxO ClearView
DeepPrime Noise Reduction
DeepPrime Noise Reduction is an outstanding photo denoising tool and is up there with the likes of ON1 NoNoise AI and Topaz Denoise AI. In other words, it will denoise your photo while enhancing detail, and the result is truly transformative.
Unfortunately, DeepRRIME only works on Raw files, not JPEGs. Furthermore, you cannot observe the effect of DeepPrime in real time as it is applied only when you export your image.
Finally, you can buy DeepPrime noise reduction separately as part of DxO PureRaw. Read DxO PureRaw 3 Review for more information.
Optical Corrections
DxO Photolab 6 downloads specific optical modules for each camera and lens combination you use. For instance, PhotoLab 6 will use separate optimized optical modules for a Nikon D750 + 50mm F1.8 and a Nikon D750 + 35mm F1.8 combination. As a result, DxO PhotoLab 6 has some of the best optical corrections in the game.
Therefore, you can expect class-leading sharpening, distortion, vignetting correction, and chromatic aberration removal. Best of all, it’s entirely automated. But, if you prefer, you can switch it off and apply the corrections yourself.
Smart Lighting
Smart Lighting is an automated scene-relighting tool that rebalances shadows and highlights for an overall brighter image. For example, Smart Lighting is very effective at brightening up back-lit subjects, but you can use it on almost anything.
ClearView
ClearView is a sharpening tool that cuts through haze and mist, restoring washed-out details. A sort of modern-day Clarity tool.
DxO PhotoLab Tutorial
Is DxO PhotoLab 6 worth it?
DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite is feature-rich, well-priced, and straightforward to use. Its bespoke optical modules offer class-leading optical corrections, and its AI-powered DeepPRIME noise reduction is about as good as noise reduction gets.
Performance
As a traditional photo editor, DxO Photolab 6 is very capable. The interface is attractive, responsive, and straightforward to use. As you would hope, PhotoLab 6 features all the standard tools for adjusting contrast, color, and brightness.
Ergonomics
Ergonomically speaking, DxO PhotoLab is good. For instance, you can save your edits as presets; thus, you’ll never have to repeat your best work. You also have the option to divide your toolset by category or view it as a single long list. However, you are more likely to use ‘Favorite Corrections’ – a list to which you can assign all your favorite tools. Lovely.
However, there is room for improvement. For instance, DxO PhotoLab’s color wheel enables you to target your adjustments by clicking on and sampling a specific area of your image. In contrast, many other adjustments are entirely slider driven.
And while it is easy to enable or disable any given adjustment – many of the adjustments cannot be reset to default. Instead, you’ll have to take the time to drag the sliders back to their home position. While this is a small complaint, it applies to every edit you’ll ever do.
One area in which DxO PhotoLab 6 offers plenty of on-screen adjustment is masking. Specifically, its iPod-style Radial menu provides an easy way to bounce between different brushes and control points.
On masking, the Auto Brush is impressive but slightly confusing as the mask overlay is applied without edge awareness, but the actual adjustment is edge-aware. Nether the less, it gets the job done, but in this day and age of one-click object-recognition-powered automatic selection, it feels a little quaint.
Features
DxO PhotoLab 6 has all the usual tools and adjustments, such as exposure, white balance, and tone curves – plus Presets and an effective photo management system. However, DxO PhotoLab 6’s more advanced features demand attention.
First, DeepPrime noise reduction is terrific and one of the best noise reduction software applications there is. And while difficult to measure, I consider DxO PhotoLab 6’s camera-lens-specific optical corrections class-leading.
Combined, these two features will dramatically improve your photo’s image quality, and that’s before you’ve tried Smart Light and ClearView.
However, aside from these features, DxO PhotoLab 6 does lack in terms of automation. For instance, DxO PhotoLab 6 does have presets, but they lack the sophistication of the one-click-and-done presets seen in other applications.
Nor does DxO PhotoLab 6 feature modern-day super-adjustments that intelligently enhance your sky or blur your subject’s background. Instead, you must achieve these effects manually.
As for photo management, DxO Photolab 6 is well-presented, straightforward, and good enough. But if you’re looking for advanced photo management features such as geotagging, intelligent searches, AI-based keyword tagging, and face recognition – you’ll need to look elsewhere.
DxO PhotoLab 6 Compared
In this part of our DxO PhotoLab review, we’ll compare DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite against similarly priced alternatives. Namely,
- Lightroom
- ON1 Photo Raw
- ACDSee Ultimate
- Luminar Neo
DxO PhotoLab vs Lightroom
DxO PhotoLab and Lightroom are similar in use, producing wonderful-looking images. Thus the most significant difference between the two is that you can buy DxO PhotoLab 6 outright, whilst Lightroom is available by subscription only.
That being said, for US$9.99 per month, you get 1TB worth of cloud storage, an endlessly updated version of one of the best photo editing applications, and the ability to view, edit, and distribute your images over the web. It’s very impressive stuff – but, only if you need it.
If you don’t need it, Lightroom is reduced to being a very good photo editing application you’ll never stop paying for. In contrast, you buy DxO PhotoLab 6 outright and own it forever. Read Lightroom Review
DxO PhotoLab 6 vs DxO PureRaw 3
DxO PhotoLab 6 is a feature-rich photo editing and management application. In contrast, DxO PureRaw 3 is just a raw conversion tool. However, DxO PureRaw 3 includes two of DxO Photolab 6’s best features in DeepPrime Noise reduction and camera/lens bespoke optical corrections.
Therefore, DxO PureRaw 3 represents a more affordable way to get your hands on Photolab 6’s outstanding image correction and denoising tools. But if you already have DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite, DxO PureRaw 3 is redundant. Read DxO PureRaw 3 Review.
DxO PhotoLab 6 vs ON1 Photo Raw
DxO PhotoLab 6 and ON1 Photo Raw are all-in-one photo management and editing suites combining traditional photo editing with modern super-features.
However, ON1 Photo Raw is one of the most feature-packed photo studios you can buy. For instance, it includes adaptive presets, effects, AI-upscaling, AI noise reduction, Portrait enhancement, Sky Replacement, AI Keyword tagging, and, crazy as it sounds, much more.
But as a side-effect to all of this functionality, ON1 Photo Raw can be a little clunky, and I’m not particularly fond of its effective but somewhat dated-looking interface.
Therefore, if you prefer speedy hands-on editing, try DxO Photolab 6. Anybody else, ON1 PhotoRaw. Read ON1 Photo Raw Review.
DxO PhotoLab 6 vs Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo is a photo editor who begs you to do all the work. For instance, Neo’s Presets are second to none. Its effects-oriented tools, such as Golden Hour Glow, Foliage Enhancer, and Skin AI, enable you to edit photos without knowing anything about photo editing.
But thanks to Luminar Neo’s enhanced AI, it tends to run slower, and I would not use it to edit large batches of photos. And while Luminar Neo has an AI-powered noise reduction application in Noiseless AI – it’s nowhere near as good as DxO PhotoLab 6’s DeepPrime. Read Luminar Neo Review
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Conclusion
DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite is an excellent traditional-style photo editor with modern perks. When editing your photos, DxO Photolab’s attractive, straightforward, and responsive interface gets out of your way, resulting in a smoother workflow.
As for modern perks, DxO PhotoLab 6’s DeepPrime Noise Reduction is merely World-class and easily worth half of PhotoLab 6’s asking price. And thanks to DxO’s custom camera/optical lens models, your images will look better when you open the file.
But there’s no getting around it; one no longer has to be nudging exposure, fondling tone curves, or stroking white balance to polish their image to perfection. Instead, AI-powered applications such as Luminar Neo are stocked with tools such as Sky Enhancer, Auto Mask, and Golden Hour glow, enabling you to edit photos without knowing anything about photo editing.
However, you may prefer to have it your way and do all the heavy lifting yourself, and, in this regard, DxO PhotoLab 6 is a good option topped with stunning noise reduction and optical corrections.
Overall, DxO PhotoLab 6 is effective and enjoyable and includes class-leading optical corrections and noise reduction. Thus, I highly recommend you give DxO PhotoLab 6 a go. Try DxO PhotoLab 6 free for 30 days.
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DxO PHOTOLAB 6 ELITE EDITION
BUY DXO PHOTOLAB
LIFETIME LICENSE
SUPERIOR NOISE REDUCTION
DxO OPTICAL CORRECTIONS
$219
TRY DXO PHOTOLAB
30-DAY UNLIMITED TRIAL
NO CREDIT CARD IS REQUIRED
FREE TUTORIALS
$0
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