New in DxO PhotoLab 6.1 ... Specific to Wide Gamut WCS & Soft Proofing

DxO PhotoLab
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Now, in order to take advantage of PL6’s Protect Saturated Colors Algorithm (which, FWIW, I highly recommend), the user must take active control of selections to determine if/when and by what “strength” the PSCA is applied;

The options for applying the PSCA are implemented as follows;

  • If the Export Protect Saturated Colors checkbox is selected, along with a “matrix-based” ICC Profile - then the Protect Saturated Colors Algorithm is applied with the default strength of 50 (Regardless of the activation state of Soft Proofing and/or of the “strength” specified by its Protect Saturated Colors slider).

However …

  • If the Export ICC Profile = “Same as Soft Proofing” then the Protect Saturated Colors Algorithm is applied at the specific strength as defined by Soft Proofing’s Protect Saturated Colors slider - (Regardless of the activation state of Soft Proofing.)

    • Edit/Correction: I originally said that this behaviour was “Regardless of the activation state of Soft Proofing” - However, @egregious points out here that this behaviour (except for a nuance that I explain below) is dependant upon Soft Proofing being activated.

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In either case …

  • In order to ensure a WYS-is-always-WYG result - Soft Proofing should be activated (Otherwise, what one sees on-screen within PL will not not necessarily be the same as what one sees when displaying the exported image on the very same monitor).

Personally, I plan to work with PLv6.1 as follows; in the process of creating corrected JPG/TIFF images

– 1. My default Preset (as applied to all newly encountered RAW images) will have the following default settings;

  • Soft Proofing activated … because I want WYS-is-always-WYG.
  • Soft Proofing’s ICC Profile = sRGB~ … because that’s my target intention - and, see --2.;
  • Soft Proofing’s “Protect Saturated Colors” slider = 50 … as my default PSCA “strength” setting (which I may change later, for specific images, based on what I see on my sRGB monitor).

– 2. When Exporting-to-disk, I will use the following settings (defined in my Export options);

  • Export’s ICC Profile = “Same as Soft Proofing” - - which will result in;
    i) the Protect Saturated Colors Algorithm being applied at the specific strength as defined by Soft Proofing’s Protect Saturated Colors slider (= 50, by default), and;
    ii) the ICC Profile, as defined via Soft Proofing for this image, being applied to the exported image.

I reckon that will work well for me - but, it doesn’t “just work by default” (as perhaps it should !?) … Rather, one must make specific decisions and take manual actions.

HtH - John M

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