I am a long-time Apple Aperture user. Almost 10 years after it was killed I am reluctantly searching for an ideal replacement. I think it will have to be DxO PhotoLab. I am just starting to explore.
In Apple Aperture there is an ‘Auto Enhance’ button. This is explained in the documentation:
“You use the Auto Enhance button when you want to quickly improve your image or preview what the image will look like when adjusted. When you click the Auto Enhance button, Aperture evaluates the image and then applies the White Balance, Enhance, Curves, and Highlights & Shadows adjustment settings in a manner that suits the selected photo. Using Auto Enhance is a good starting point when adjusting an image because you can always fine-tune the parameter settings for each adjustment.”
In DxO PhotoLab 7 I thought this was taken care of by the ‘DxO Style Natural’ preset, but this is not the case. Is there something similar to ‘Auto Enhance’ - enhancing by evaluating the image? I find ‘DxO Style Natural’ overdoes things. I suppose I could create my own, but enhancements based on evaluating an image would be much better.
You can create a default preset which is applied to your photos when they are first encountered by PL. This preset can have any combination of settings you want.
Some settings have a Magic Wand which indicates PL will analyse your photo and make changes it feels will be appropriate for your image. If you select these options and the Magic Wand then you will have an auto enhance preset customised to your own preferences.
@KeithRJ, thank you very much for your response. This is quite helpful - I will investigate the magic wand options and how they can be added to a preset.
The best way to use them in your auto-preset (the one applied to newly encountered images) is to have the “magic wand” activated - with the tool it relates to not-activated … Then you can simply activate the tool, which will auto-apply its settings - and you can evaluate the result.