You may like to read here https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/6759602523421-Why-do-I-need-DxO-ViewPoint-if-I-already-have-DxO-PhotoLab
From the link above:
For users of DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite and newer, DxO ViewPoint 4 will bring beside Perspective tools (which are already embedded in DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite): Anamorphosis correction, Miniature effect, ReShape tool, Flip and Mirror image.
The ‘Anamorphosis correction’ is called ‘Volume Deformation’ in the interface. I use it mainly for the group photos which for some reasons had to be taken with a wide angle lens. It can correct people’s proportions at the edges (so that they don’t look artificially fat) at the price of bending some straight lines. It’s the only VP tool I have ever used, but others find the ReShape tool also very useful.
If you don’t want to bend straight lines, you can limit the correction to either horizontal or vertical. The SW chooses the longest axis to correct for anamorphosis.
Why do I need DxO ViewPoint if I already have DxO PhotoLab?
Good question.
Answer: “Because we want to make more money by selling yet another application.”
Please note that aid article relates to PhotoLab 6 and that users of other versions need to read and test carefully before getting too enthusiastic.
Hi David, I am an amateur that has been shooting pics for many decades, but only last year (in Black Friday sale) bought DXO PL 7. Prior to that I just played a bit with Canon’s DPP software. I had some similar criteria to you - since I am an amateur, I did not think the Adobe subscription was worth it. So I wanted a non-subscription package, and seeing personally how important lens correction was, I required a software that had this included.
I find PL quite easy to use once I got the hang of it (again, I have not tried other software). I have it on a bottom of the line iMac M1, and it runs just fine. I also did not want a software package that had proprietary filing system, as I use Apple Photos as my library. I download photos from my camera to my hard drive (RAW + JPEG), work on them, delete etc., then upload to Apple Photos. This workflow works very well for me - may not work for others I realize.
I personally like pretty much everything about PL, except the following:
- main complaint is that it will not show you RAW pics in full resolution when viewing the full image. So you have to “zoom” to 50%+ to get a portion of the image to have it “pop” into a sharp picture. This is presumably done to save computer power. But I find it quite annoying. I like having the accompanying JPEG file as that is shown in full resolution and I can see if where I want is sharp. That’s my only serious complaint with the SW.
- I have downloaded the Canon DCP color profiles (from Adobe DNG converter), but for some reason it does NOT match the color profile in the accompanying JPEG. This may be my fault, or something wrong somewhere else - so not blaming this on PL - just mentioning it.
But overall, I would definitely by the SW again - good value for the money and allows incredible editing and fantastic noise reduction.
Good luck!
Rob
DCP profiles for Adobe’s DNG Converter have been made to fit the basic DNGC rendering. DPL (and DPP) use different basic renderings and results will therefore differ more or less slightly.
Thanks platypus, that explains it. I like the Canon Landscape as starting point for edits, especially for the pics I don’t intend to spend a lot of time on. I came close by creating a Preset using the Canon DCP as a starting point with some additional tweaks.
Thanks again,
As and old user of DPP, when beginning with DOP (old name of DPL), I tried to mimic the Canon Landscape profile. Using the camera default in PL, I found that contrast +20, microcontrast + 10, Saturation + 2 and vibrancy +10 made something close to the Landscape profile.
I’ve used PL since PL4.
I initially bought PL4 lite, but then quickly realised I had to buy FP and VP to make the feature set meet my expectations regarding the available feature set: in particular, the extra contrast functions, creative vignetting, and volume corrections.
This did annoy me because it meant I didn’t buy the complete set as a bundle, so I ended up paying more.
My version use has been:
v4
v5 (this version bought huge performance improvements for the Apple M processors)
v7
I’m still using the trial version of v8 and I really like some of the new functionality.
I have grudgingly updated my licenses for FP and VP to the latest versions too because DxO keep adding functionality to them that is very useful for my editing (but in my opinion the new functions should sit within PL updates). This is their business model as it is now, so I have to live with it…
What do i like about PL?
Overall I like the interface. It has its quirks, but no software is perfect.
Performance is good on my hardware
Noise reduction is second to none, and the process is simple and easy to do.
Lens corrections are fabulous
I do like the colour and shadow rendering PL offers
Local adjustments are so incredibly useful to apply
What do I not like so much about PL?
I use a Mac desktop and Windows laptop, with images stored on external drives that I plug into both machines. once editing has started on one machine, the applied edits not always appear in PL when the image is viewed on the alternative OS
The keyboard shortcuts are different on the two OS versions
The number of keyboard shortcuts is limited (imo)
Keyboard shortcuts can not be edited by the User (this is probably my biggest issue with PL right now, along with which functions have a keyboard shortcut. Exposure X for example can have virtually any function have a keyboard shortcut applied).
I really wish there was a good file rename option in the image export options. I frequently use two cameras when working, them bring the photos together for editing. I can order then by capture time in PL, but when they are exported I can’t place a ‘counter’ at the start of the filename. I have to then open the images in Bridge and do this task there.
Notes:
I use Photo Mecanic for rating and culling images prior to bringing the selected images into PL for editing.
I don’t use PL as a DAM.
I also have an Adobe subscription for Photoshop and Lightroom. I basically have this just so I can use the AI generative fill functions in Ps.
I do often wonder if using an alternative app would make my image editing quicker, but I’ve never tested this. Also, I know I can edit quicker in PL because I’m not that familer with Lr. However, if I spent time in Lr, I would become quicker. However, in Lr I find masking an item to be more time consuming than simply placing a Local Adjustment somewhere (eg to lighten a single face) so I’m not sure I would actually save time using another app.
I love the final image quality that PL offers.
I don’t use PL for printing images myself.
Over the years I’ve probably spend the same amount of money updating PL, FP and VP compared to having a staedy Lr subscription every year. I don’t consider using PL as costing me less money than an Adobe subscription.
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