Yup. No way to get rid of it, and to be fair, I did just see a 2021 message from DXO acknowledging that it is a problem. It simply says “Thanks for letting us know. We agree there is an issue and we’re looking into it.”
I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with such a dumb problem anymore, and I stopped using DXO years ago, right after making this post.
There is no excuse for software to be showing blurry images when they are supposed to look normal. You will always have people like IanS trying to rationalize the whole thing, but they aren’t even on topic, and didn’t understand the complaint or the issue to begin with. Hey IanS, stop trying to imply we are stupid. We know what we were seeing. It’s right in front of our face. NO other software has this defect. Only DXO does.
DxO’s acknowledgement of a problem has nothing to do with the application of sharpness below 75% zoom. It is a totally different issue.
References to Lightroom sharpening suggest applying it at 100% zoom. There is a reason for that. When viewing sharpness edits at less then 100% zoom, any added sharpening is merely an extrapolation and is not accurate. Because it is not accurate, even though Lightroom and other software chooses to display extrapolated sharpness artifacts at lower zoom levels, PhotoLab has opted not to display inaccurate sharpness with the slight accommodation at 75% zoom .The sharpness is applied to exported images and is visible ay lower zoom levels.
Alternatively, one an apply sharpness and other optical corrections like noise reduction, lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic adoration, export the image as a DNG file where sharpness is visible at lower zoom levels, and continue editing from there. Applying and viewing sharpness edits at lower zoom levels might seem preferable to you, but it is not accurate.
I guess it could be argued that everything is extrapolated when editing a photo. It’s all just data that is being parsed in a particular way by software, that is ostensibly rendering the best preview of what the final output will be as possible. Except DXO isn’t doing that and I guess has no option to change it.
If folks are happy to set their sharpening and whatever other settings only when zoomed to 1:1, and are then comfortable with not getting a representative preview when zooming out to view the entire image (yes, extrapolated), then I won’t argue with that. I personally want to see the “best guess” at all times and not have corrections actively disabled. That all said, maybe I will find this as the lesser of evils when compared to the shortcomings of other editors and find myself learning to cope in the DXO world.
I really appreciate the time folks took to add prompt replies here. Cheers to you all and I hope you have a great weekend!
That is the key. Extrapolated sharpness is not a representative preview when zooming out. It is only an approximation which, as a result can often looks very different from exported images. Since extrapolated sharpness is not completely accurate, viewing it at lower zoom settings when editing doesn’t provide a lot of value.
I’m trying to understand this. Does the image have to be exported as a jpg or tiff to see what it truly looks like with sharpening and the other corrections you mentioned?
When editing images using Lens sharpness, the Unsharp mask, Chromatic aberration, and Moire, those edits are only visible when you are viewing an image at 75% zoom and above. This is documented on each of those controls.
To view the effects of these specific adjustments at less than 75% zoom they need to be exported to DNG, TIFF or JPEG.
What a joke. You can rationalize and re-rationalize it, but at the end of the day we’ve got nothing but a bunch of DXO shills handing out pseudo-intellectual trash about “the way DXO works”. There is NO EXCUSE, and it’s still a defective product that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I cannot even recommend this broken product to beginners, not even for the most basic of editing needs.
In reading trough this thread and from using PL4 & 5 I understand how DXO works in this regard. What I’m really confused about is it has been said that to show the corrections at less than 100% in PL or other editors what we see js not accurate. Why can it be accurate (I assume it is) in a DNG, TIFF or JPG but not in the editing view? Is this because most editors don’t demosaic and apply all corrections to the viewed image as you are progressing in edit mode, or because it would be too slow to show the entire corrected image? If this is the case then we really have a false view of our image during the process. (BTW, I love PL! )
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. However, after the release of 16 versions of PhotoLab and its predecessor, OpticsPro, licensed to many, many thousands of happy users, and the scores of professional reviews which always give PhotoLab high marks, it appears that you are in a small minority. Since you indicated that you stopped using DxO products some time ago, I wonder why you still take the time to troll this site.
With regards to your personal remarks, I can only say that the “issue” you describe doesn’t seem to bother many people and it is never mentioned in reviews. I took the time to explain the rational for DxO’s approach to the uninitiated. If educating people makes me a shill, that is fine with me.
Like many I noticed the lack of sharpening below 75% zoom when I started using PhotoLab 1 in 2017. I quickly understood the reason behind it and it has not bothered me since. If you like seeing the effect of inaccurate sharpening below 100% zoom in other software continue to enjoy it.
The preview provided by PL5 at <75% IS IN NO WAY BLURRY. It is a little less sharp than the preview at >75%. Even this can be avoided by exporting to DNG with the "Export with NR and lens corrections only option.
@aaron321 does not know what he is talking about. Ignore this troll or better yet block him.
That’s lovely, but I really don’t appreciate the condescending attitude, as well as your shallow attempts at stepping into this completely legitimate discussion thread (that you have no business participating in) in your personal efforts to derail the thread with nonsense. If you had ANY knowledge, or even respect whatsoever about this topic, or WHY people have something to say about products, you would not be commenting in the way that you do. Next comment from you gets blocked. Just go away.
I have been a user of PhotoLab for well over 4 years. I use it almost every day. I know and regularly use virtually every feature in Photolab, Viewpoint and FilmPack. I have successfully helped others resolve issues hundreds of times over that period. I never suggested that you weren’t having an issue, however it apparently is not a common one. I have never experienced any of my many thousands of raw images becoming blurry. I and others have explained how the effects of sharpening and a few other adjustments are only visible during editing when viewed at 75% zoom or greater. Just as you indicated you know what you are talking about, I can also clearly state I know what I am talking about.
This forum is opened to comments from all members, I have every right to participate in this thread. If facts are “nonsense” I stand convicted. I am genuinely sorry that PhotoLab does not meet your expectations. I have significant experience with almost all of PhotoLab’s competitors and it certainly meets my expectations. At a certain point, perhaps, you should consider moving on.
As I use high pixel density displays I experience the same issue, it’s really annoying. Maybe years ago this would not be a problem but with macbook display it’s a big issue. As I wanted my next move to be a 5k dislpay I’m not sure I will be able to use dxo: it’s bad enough on small laptop screen and I expect it to be a nightmare on something like LG Ultrafine. Really hope dxo will look into it and will allow an option to see corrections on zoomed out preview. I would toggle this function even if it slowed down the editor
I have not bothered by this topic that much so far, as I have been using a low-resolution screen. But now I have a 4k screen, and whooa, that is really bothering me.
It is not only the sharpness that is not correctly displayed. What bothers me even more is that any optical corrections are not applied. Look at this purple fringing in the image, if I want to have a look at the image in the whole view. It is almost impossible to look at, it is that bad.
And I would not say that performance is an argument. The laptop that I am using right now is quite weak and I do not notice much of a difference zooming in from 75% and higher.
Please DXO, do something about this! Give users at least a choice. You are giving users more and more arguments to switch to other software.
Yes, it seems that with 4K/5K screens (which are becoming the norm for professional use) the problem has become very noticeable. Myself, I started noticing (and heavily) exactly since I started using 4K monitors.
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