I’ve been refining a ‘Base Preset’ for my landscape photography in DxO PhotoLab 9.3.1 Elite, and I’d love to get some professional feedback on the values I’ve chosen. My goal is to create a technically clean, ‘natural’ starting point that maximizes the raw data without looking over-processed.
Here are the core settings I’ve baked into the preset:
Color Space: DxO Wide Gamut.
Exposure & Tone: Smart Lighting (Slight/25), Selective Tone (Highlights -15, Shadows +5) to preserve dynamic range.
Contrast: Microcontrast 10, Fine Contrast 10, and ClearView Plus 15 for subtle depth.
Color: Neutral Color rendering, Vibrancy +10, Saturation 0.
Detail: DeepPRIME XD2s (Luminance 3) and Lateral Chromatic Aberration enabled.
Geometry: Auto Distortion based on DxO Modules.
I intentionally left the Tone Curve linear to adjust it per image, and I plan to handle sky drama using Control Linesrather than global HSL adjustments.
My questions for you:
Do you feel these values are safe enough for a global import preset?
Is ClearView 15 too aggressive as a ‘standard’ setting for foggy or hazy mornings?
Would you recommend any changes to the DeepPRIME XD2s ‘Luminance’ value for a cleaner base?
I think it’s fairly good. You did the right thing, in my opinion, by not over-reaching on most of these values.
I very sparingly use ClearView Plus, so if it was me I’d leave that turned off and only turn it on when it felt necessary. But it’s not like you cranked it up.
My suggestion would be to make a copy of a variety of the types of photos you generally take, just from your past collection, and put them in a separate folder.
Open that folder in PhotoLab and apply your preset to all of them. See if you like the way they turn out enough that you’d make the preset default. If you want to make tweaks, you can reset them all and re-apply.
When you’re done and you’re satisfied, then just scrap that whole test folder – just be sure to do it from within DPL, otherwise you’ll be left with orphans in your searches!
Every photo is different so my default profile only enables camera profile, lens corrections, noise reduction (choose which you want), default Smart Lighting and default micro contrast. I also use DxO’s large colour space.
When I come to edit my photos I first check exposure (including highlights and shadows) and adjust Smart Lighting if required and then go on to other settings.
I’d echo that - generally - Microcontrast is a less appealing effect that Fine Contrast control if you have access to that function through (I think it’s FilmPack for that one?).
I tend to even drop Microcontrast slightly while raising Fine Contrast slightly, then applying masks with increased Contrast/Microcontrast specifically in areas I want to bring out detail in.
If I weren’t masking, I would still leave Microcontrast turned down while bringing in Fine Contrast.
I also fine-tune the Highlight, Midtone, and Shadow contrast sliders.
I’d also consider bringing in depth via the Tone Curve rather than ClearView. It MAY be that ClearView works better for you (and by all means carry on if it does!) but it could also take out some pleasing mist, fog, cloud, or other weather I’d want to keep (personally).
I know you say you do stuff with the sky via control lines but that still leaves the land “un-tone-curved”.
As I say - whatever works for you I think.
Regarding the noise reduction (DeepPRIME XD2s) I tend to keep mine low in all cases unless I’m shooting in very high ISO. YMMV depending on your camera and how much noise you tend to find in your images.
Yes, using the 4 Fine Contrast sliders is generally the much better choice over using a lot of Micro Contrast. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, the Fine Contrast sliders are only available with a FilmPack license which many users have decided not to purchase. A large number of users seem to believe that FilmPack is just about film emulations, but it is so much more. I understand the hesitancy for getting it as it adds a lot to the cost of PhotoLab, but frankly, without both a FilmPack and Viewpoint license, PhotoLab Elite on its own does not provide users with the full PhotoLab experience.
I’m sure you know my thoughts on DxO putting such functionality in add-ons rather than with the main programme (since contrast is more a “main programme” function than a film-simulation one) but that said - I’d absolutely agree it makes FilmPack an unfortunate necessity for optimum control of images, even if (like me) you don’t touch the film simulations 99% of the time!
For me purchasing FilmPack is a no-brainer. I have had a license to every version of it since acquiring PhotoLab 1 in late 2017. While I do not use the film simulations a lot I do use them. I also use a number of the other features in FilmPack, some more often than others. I have absolutely no use for the stand-alone versions of VP or FP and do not have them installed.
I have often advocated here for DxO unhiding all the ViewPoint and FilmPack features available within PhotoLab and selling it as the only version, without including the stand-alone versions of ViewPoint and FilmPack. They could then sell this complete version of PhotoLab, with everything included, at some reasonably higher price that would not be excessive for most users. DxO could then sell the standone versions of VP and FP separately to those who do not own or use PhotoLab as their primary raw processor/editor. I do not expect this to ever happen, but I think it would resolve some of the negative feelings people have about DxO.
Frankly speaking, I have to modify 95% of the RAW images. There is no special reason to use always any set of filter. I use the “2 - DxO Standard” Preset as an starting process. It is include CA correction, basic noise reduction, Lens distortion, etc. a lot of individual setting to compenstae the camera and lens weakness. It is enogh to judge, what additional setting I have adjust.
I never use DeepPrimeXD on landscapes, only with wildlife. If ISO is highI would rather use DeepPrime3 which is more appropriate. But by default I use the basic denoise, since I do not often have high ISO for landscapes - wildlife is a different story. I would also leave ClearViewPlus off by default, since it can alter the feel of the image quite a bit, it is more of an edit choice based on the scene than something that is always needed. Finally depending on your taste you can play with the saturation of the blue and green a little bit since those are often dominant colours In landscape and you may have a specific taste for those. Cheers.