In the huge “off-topic” thread, I recently created a post about some links I had found regarding the best use of DxO’s “Smart Lighting Tool”. In a few responses to that question, it became obvious that the links I had found were not that good. I thought the best one I had found was a training video by PhotoJoseph.
The purpose of this post is to ask if there is a good on-line explanation of how to use the DxO Smart Lighting tool. Many years ago, @Joanna explained much of this tool to me, and if I could find those posts, which I can’t, I would copy them here.
In those other posts, I read about how useful this tool can be to adjust the lighting on faces, and also how once a good setting for “Smart Lighting” is found, how to apply it to other similar images. I’d like to know more about both of those uses of this tool.
(Please try to keep this thread on-topic. Any replies about other DxO tools should be posted in their own thread. And, please, if possible, try to keep this thread on-topic, with responses ONLY about DxO Smart Lighting.)
You posted here thousands of times over the last four plus years. You must be an expert by now. Why don’t you do the research yourself and let us know what you’ve found. Then you can explain to us in detail why you think you’ve selected a good one.
I’ll start posting dozens of mediocre photos and you can then spend your time explaining to me how to get the best out of each one of them using Smart lighting so I don’t have to waste my time experimenting on my own to learn it. Be aware that I can be a pretty slow learner so I probably will start asking similar questions over and over and over again.
But I promise I will try to keep this thread under a thousand posts.
Now, come on Mike, did you try using the forums search engine? I just did, using the search terms “smart lighting @Joanna” and straight away found half a dozen threads, in which I participated, that talk about smart lighting.
Oh my gosh. Joanna that’s amazing.! You mean there are tools available on sites like this so users can research information from past topics on their own without expecting others to do it for them? It sounds like it would be an often used tool for, let’s say, somebody who’s been here over 4 years. What an interesting new concept, taking the time to search for information on your own.
I was asking about how to find a link to a webpage that explains DxO Smart Lighting, not a bunch of posts on that subject. There are two links that I was able to find, but was told in the off-topic thread that it was the wrong place for questions like this…
My question was not to recover a bunch of question and answer posts here in the forum, but to find a single page, perhaps by DxO, that explains how to use Smart Lighting. Maybe such a page doesn’t exist, other than the ones I found, but was told those pages were not a good/complete answer.
Since this is not the off-topic post, please either answer to the specific question, or not reply at all. It’s not about how well Mike understands searching the forum, which I wasn’t even trying to do. It’s about finding a single page that teaches DxO Smart Lighting.
Perhaps no such page exists, other than the two which I did find, but people here said those were not very good/complete/useful. (If nobody posts anything better, I’ll stick by the Webinar page by Photo Joseph.
I wasn’t looking for posts, I was looking for a full web page on DxO Smart Lighting.
I will check out what you just mentioned - thanks!
…added later, yes, https://tutodxo.com/en/dxo-smart-lighting/ seems to be very helpful. Thank You! I thought DxO might have a complete page explaining Smart Lighting, but I guess not. I’ve also got the other two links, which have a lot of useful information and a “how-to”, even if they’re not complete.
I suppose, I could probably learn how to use my latest Nikon D780 the same way, but I prefer to start with a User Manual.
Well, maybe you should keep searching. and If you can’t find one that satisfies you after a really earnest effort on your own, perhaps someone here will be nice enough to help you out, assuming such a video exists.
Any decent video will need to have a detailed explanation of using the Spot Weighted option for other than face detection, as @Joanna and I have already mentioned. It is not that difficult. You don’t need a video . You just need to spend a couple of hours experimenting on different photos to get a feel for it. Oh, wait. I forgot. You don’t want to spend your time experimenting.
Clearly you are getting pushback here as a result of your continued unwillingness to put very much personal effort to learniPhotoLab . Perhaps the responses you are getting in this thread will , at long last, be a wake up call for you., although I doubt it.
Mark, either I don’t write clearly enough, or you don’t read what I specifically write. Why do you think I’m looking for a video? PhotoJoseph already created a video, but there were comments that he left things out.
I was simply asking for a web page (if one existed) that explains DxO Smart Lighting. In no way was/am/will I be asking how to use Smart Lighting - all I wanted was the DxO web page.
Apparently no such thing exists, or if it does, nobody is aware of it. That’s the end of this discussion.
…probably my fault, thanks to the off-topic threads that wandered all over. I tried to enter a very simple post, looking for DxO’s advice on how to use Smart Lighting. Not even sure why I’m posting this response. Either I can’t write clearly, or you can’t read clearly. Or both.
If I wasn’t specific enough, meaning this lack of communication is my fault, I will try to be more specific in the future, for threads like this at least.
I am fully aware of what you were asking for, and several of us responded. Unfortunately, I have read every word of of every single post you have ever created on this site, all 4320 of them. As and editor of technical newsletters over the years I have a high level of reading comprehension. I understood every word you wrote. What you don’t understand is that that we now expect you to put in a lot more personal effort if you want more help from us.
The issue is that you continue to ignore or misunderstand what others post in response to you. That is the reason I have told you on multiple occasions that you just don’t get it. This most recent post by you is a perfect example of that. It is not an appropriate response to the posts made by others in this thread . I am sorry, but I can’t help you if you have reading comprehension issues.
For the sake of discussion, let’s assume you are correct. I try to be clear in what I post, but I’m obviously not doing a good job of that. People respond to things I neither said, nor meant, even you.
From now on, I will try to be more clear when I post.
Not much in this discussion about “How to get the most out of DxO’s Smart Lighting Tool”, which was the topic. The only person with a useful response was @Joanna. Why you want to discuss my ability, or lack of, to do a search in this forum is beyond me. I tried to enter the post as clearly as I could. I guess I still wasn’t clear enough. I’ll do better next time. All I wanted was a link to an appropriate web page.
Thanks anyway, for trying to help. Next time I enter a new thread, I will be much more specific.
It is not an assumption. I am correct. And clarity is not the issue. We understand exactly what you are asking for and what you want.
I will say this as simply as I can.
When you start to put more skin in the game and spend some significant personal time researching and experimenting with the various features and tools in PhotoLab and are still confused or have specific questions about some aspect of the functionality, then ask us.
PhotoLab is one of the simplest to use and most straightforward post processing programs available, but to master it you need to experiment with each feature to see how it works and how it interacts with other features. If you want to be any more than a casual user, it can be very time consuming. If you are not willing to put in your own personal time experimenting with features then you should no longer expect other users to put in the work for you. How the heck do you think the rest of us leaned how to use PhotoLab, through osmosis?
If you do not understand this post, then it would be useless to discuss this any further.
@mikemyers
Since you want to do a clear topic and this one is already polluted, I would suggest you to do search, and begin an other one which summarize the subjetc and with clear links to help.
And other users may eventually complete it.
Your background as a photojournalist (if I’m not mistaken) should enable you to make a clear synthesis.
Certainly.
Will try again, with a question that is very specific.
Anyone who pollutes it, will, by definition, be a polluter.
In the off-topic thread, there is no such thing as pollution, as the thread wanders all over. This thread was an attempt to find a specific thing, if it exists.
