I’m a previous LR6 user (no longer because of 64bits mehhhh). Even if some things sound familiar, I’d like to follow the DxO tutorials on PhotoLab 4. I’m only interested in the develop aspects as I’ll go on using LR Classic as a DAM.
There are many tutorials, but there are not playlists on DxO Academy - Turorials, Best Practices & Tips that gives a path to follow from A to Z. Obviously, I won’t dive in U-Point right away, but still I would appreciate if someone could point the “logical” order to follow the tutorials.
It shows the main features and some background how to use it.
In french and englisch.
Great first stage knowlegde so you understand the tutorials on web better.
Yoms, there is no one, specific workflow order, but the list below is in the order that I, personally, follow … tho, not always strictly in this order and not necessarily utilising all tools - and I’m sure others will have a different approach … but, it’s probably a good start for you.
… plus the corrections that PL auto-applies (Sharpness, Distortion, etc)
There are loads of tutorials on DxO’s site and a few more on Youtube, also by other authors.
Maybe it’s easiest to search the tube for the topic that bugs you most and see what you get.
And yes, it would be great if DxO could set up a structured list of its own tutorials and make that list sortable by application version, language, experience levels, general or specific content and so on.
I tend to disagree with this. When some writes books about LR, they all choose an order. I thinks it’s because there is one.
For example, I think one can agree that we would teach global exposure adjustments before local adjustments using U-Points.
I don’t think you need to watch the currently available videos in any particular order to learn Photolab.
It’s not like there is a series of integrated training videos that was designed to be viewed in a specific order, like chapters in a school text book.
Videos may be great for understanding some of the subtleties of tool use, but nothing takes the place of getting in there and playing with different combinations of tools.
I also would not wait until you feel confident with the other tools before you start playing with local adjustments. Just get in there, dig in, and play with the tools. Ultimately you will learn much more about the behavior of Photolab that way than you will from any video.
If you find features that are confusing then search for videos that cover it.
I agree, but that wasn’t my point. I used LR for several years so I’m not new to this. But I also take the humble approach and through videos, I can get specific tips, so on and so forth about the DxO PL.
My question is not about feeling confident before developing my pictures, it’s only about knowing the software itself.
I’ve been using PhotoLab almost every day for three and a half years. I’ve looked at maybe a dozen or 15 videos over that 3-year period. If I recall correctly, I didn’t see more than one of two videos in the first six months.
I also came from Lightroom. Many of the tools in Photolab are implemented differently than in Lightroom. It’s best not to try to compare and emulate how you used the tools in Lightroom. To a certain degree you need to unlearn Lightroom. No video will help you with that.
Factual spoken,
Dxopl is a nondestructional software when using rawfiles so doesn’t matter in what order you edit.
But there are some things to be aware of.
Local repair and adjustments are not working well together with perspectieve and horizon adjustments.
(edit: i ment change perspective and the local adjustment doesn’t change with this. so it shifts on the image out of place.)
My order is
Exposure, perspective, some global and local tone/exposure, contrast and sharpening global and local, colorsaturation adjustment global and local.
Then local repair and cloning, cropping.
Video’s are mostly too fast and too specific on the image to learn from it.
It gives a view on possibilities and some tool tips how to use controls.
Best way to learn is create a test folder with images and train your self on those.
(doesn’t matter if there hiddious or compleet ruined by your efforts, reset and your back to base 1.
Non destructive.
Hello @Yoms,
Thanks for your feedback. You are perfectly right: at the moment we do not provide a well-structured series of video tutorials (e.g. “Getting started”, “Interface walk through”, “Importing & Exporting” and so on…). We are aware that this is less than ideal and we want to be better at this, to empower our users.
@mwsilvers, @OXiDant, @platypus when someone starts learning something new, having a “pre-done order” to follow can be useful and it’s often the case (take your camera’s settings for instance, where images settings usually come first because “it’s better to start there”…). I guess for Yoms it’s not about the order of which corrections should be done first when editing an image in PL, but to have a “learning order” to follow to accelerate his learning curve, being sure not to miss the most important things to know…
@yoms if you have any suggestions on how we can do better, please get in touch with me directly through DM!
DxO’s website currently presents 82 tutorials under the “DxO PhotoLab” tab.
Many of these tutorials carry “OpticsPro” in their name, which means that they are either outdated or general enough to be kept - even under an older product name. A few tutorials are webinars, others are reading material etc. the whole thing feels like a box of legos scattered in the room…
There are several ways to present information
Reference, explaining what there is and what it does - basically what’s in the user guide
→ add links to the online guide (or the pdf) that point to specialised tutorials…
Use cases, explaining which tool to use, why to use it and how (my image is flat and noisy…)
Often, there is more than one way, so it might be useful to also show alternatives
Level of detail (surface tutorials vs. in-depth tutorials)
Beginner, intermediate, advanced
Reading vs. Video
Structured presentation vs nonchalant chatting vs length
Key technologies vs. working with them
other
The sheer number of tutorials offered dictates a comprehensive directory with filters/switches for language, length, type, content, depth etc. Adding such a directory is possibly the easiest first step for better accessibility of the content. Define characteristics, assign to available tutorials.
Create a matrix (this is an example, a different structure might fit our needs better)
clicking on a row title creates a list of relevant content from where the user selects a tutorial
→ e.g. Tutorials for new users about general/special etc. features
clicking on a column title creates a list of relevant content from where the user selects a tutorial
→ e.g. Tutorials about Colour for new/intermediate/advanced users
… plus the corrections that PL auto-applies (Sharpness, Distortion, etc)
!
