PhotoLab 9 Might Replace Lightroom for Me

DxO PhotoLab
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I’ve never really objected to Adobe’s subscription plan, and they are the most popular photography solution. Still, I wonder if the subscription model makes them less motivated to add and improve features? And I’ve never really been comfortable with its interface. But it has done what I needed to do better than the alternatives.

Although many prefer using PhotoLab as the central hub of their photography workflow, with separate applications for DAM and printing, I’m looking for an all-in-one solution with tight integration and a uniform interface. PhotoLab 9 seems (after a couple of days with the trial) to have hit the sweet spot in capabilities for my needs.

The Key New Features

HEIC – I often take iPhone pictures I’d like to improve
AI Masks – What else do I have to say?
Stacks – This is an important feature for keeping my library tidy
Noise Reduction in preview – Working with what will be the final image is important

And with AI masking now provided, can it be long before we’ll have content-aware spot repairs?

This Missing Pieces

Printing features are still basic. There are no effective print presets (to save paper size, margins, paper type, etc.) or paper and size-specific sharpening options. And I would really like to have metadata presets for assigning common IPTC information. And, dang it, the keyword pane is still limited in height, even as a separate panel!

It’s a bit much to ask, but I do create panorama images from time to time, and it would be nice if I could merge those images in PhotoLab.

PhotoLab is not an inexpensive application. At $240 for the application, it’s about $60 more than a year’s subscription to Lightroom and Photoshop. If you add in FilmPack (to provide creative vignettes, microcontrast control, split toning, luminance masking, and a bunch of film looks) and ViewPoint (for horizontal/vertical flip and excellent perspective corrections, and the ability to warp and stretch), you’re up to $370 if you get the package deal. Annual upgrades for PhotoLab are $120 currently, almost the price of that Lightroom/Photoshop yearly subscription.

Regardless of which application you use, the cost is far less than just one nice lens. So I don’t make too mcuh a deal of cost, but I can’t ignore it, either.

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Depending on what one is looking for, DPL can replace Lr - or not.

My main gripes are in the following fields

  • so-so reliability of DPL, specially concerning DB-health maintenance
  • lack of plugins other than DxO’s FP and VP
  • lack of migration tools, e.g. to import a Lr catalog into a PL database
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Experience says no. All the AI masking has arrived in the subscription era. Intersecting masks relatively recently. AI noise reduction is recent, too, and got a boost just in the last few months from a “PureRAW style” create-new-image approach to a true adjustment level feature.

Andy Hutchinson did a round up recently of panorama stitching software and concluded that none of the “do everything” apps did anywhere near as good a job as the dedicated tools. The best one, picked by Andy, is free! I tried it, myself and I agree that, user interface aside, it’s impressive!

First, there is now a Lightroom-only subscription. (Something I only learned here recently). Second, if you keep on the upgrade train, either every year or every second year, the difference reduces. Two years of Lightroom is exactly twice the price of one year. Not so with PhotoLab.

Well said.

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I know that you want an all-in-one solution, and for some professional use cases it’s perhaps good enough. Not for a diary style personal collection of life-long photos and video clips, however.

My DxO PhotoLab workflow is:

  • Import the RAW images and videos into a folder. I’m using a script I wrote myself for that, that also prefixes the file names with creation date+time and puts them in a per-day-per-camera folder, but that’s optional.
  • I open the the folder in PhotoLab, apply my default preset and go through them to tune exposure, straighten horizons, adjust whitebalance, etc.
  • I press Cmd+A to select all files and Cmd+K to render them as .jpg files in the same folder without a prefix, so IMG_0123.CR3 is rendered to IMG_0123.jpg, etc. Then I quit PhotoLab.
  • Then I organize everything in DigiKam. Put them in folders, cull, etc. I have configured it to treat RAW files and .dop files as sidecars, so in DigiKam I will only show IMG_0123.jpg, but if I move it or rename it it will also move or rename IMG_0123.CR3 and IMG_0123.CR3.dop automatically. (In the “Extra Sidecars” option in DigiKam settings, enter CR3 CR3.dop ARW ARW.dop RAF RAF.dop etc.)
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Which on did he pick? I’ll want to try it.

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I think printing is more a ‘already working great’ area. Few days ago question come up like: ‘How can i export to Epson Print Layout’. I also use Epson Print Layout for ages, i don’t go to another (at least for my printing requirements).

Regarding my workflow (please note: i have a very-very slow PC):

  • i do all or near everything for the photo main editing in PL. Color, Masks, NR, ReTouch, etc. So, its the main driver for many years now.
  • For culling / pre-cullinig use simple tools like XnView (for few tens of photos), or in the cases of few 1000 photos in use ExposureX (still works fine). Som cases i do final culling in PL (example: if i has only 12 photos after pre-culled from a 100)
  • I export from PL to Tiff.
  • And do in exported tiff’s some style version with FilmPack - i like Provia 100, AGFA Vista 200, 1827 Niepce, Ilford Pan 400, Photo '60, etc or in ExposureX do some additional editing, and style versions, for a few reason: i miss Radial filter from PL, and use a lot. I also like different grain strength in highlights/mid/shadows (i really miss it from PL).
  • I still has a pretty old (pre CC) version of Lightroom (5.x). Use occasionally on PL exported tiffs. etc. - usually when i realize after PL export like i miss a one (1) ReTouch for a spot - and i not start, change, export again in PL. Some cases for printing.

Exported Tiff’s provide me later in the workflow faster style versions, or faster editing - as my PC very-very slow on CPU and GPU. And with Tiff’s all thing fast.

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The other day, I renamed an image file in the file manager while PL was open – and dang – the corresponding DOP file was also renamed!

I’m not entirely sure if this is a lucky coincidence or a reliable solution, but maybe it’s worth a try…

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Search out the video, but the top pick was Hugin.

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Yes, PhotoLab can do this, also on Mac, if the folder containing the file that’s being renamed is selected in PhotoLab’s browser.

Thin Ice Warning: The sidecar is renamed - but can be deleted if focus is switched to a different folder or if a different version of PL is used. More conditions might apply and your best shot is to rename files in PhotoLab only.

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Yes, absolutely! – It was for something very special and I was going to rename the corresponding dop-file as well when I noticed … :slight_smile:

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As long as you either only use the automatic virtual copy stacks, are okay with not being able to migrate manually-created stacks to another computer (or share them between multiple computers when images are on shared filesystem), and don’t remove the database to deal with the issues that @platypus alluded to.

Like projects, stacks live only in the database, so not as useful as they seem IMO.