Struggling with high iso/ Low Light photos [SOLVED]

DxO PhotoLab
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TL;DR: The exported file quality is (way) better than the in app preview and in every cases PL images are cleaner, sharper and with better colors than LR. I will post a complete answer in 11h due to Forum restrictions.

Hi, I just began the trial of photolab 9 so, please, be indulgent.

I am very impressed with the quality of the pictures taken in daylight, but I tested some low light/high iso photo (4000)and I was disappointed by the result, especially when compared to lightroom: The photos are not sharp, and if you look at the screenshot, DxO doesn’t even render a straight line.
I have tried to play with some setting but I am running in circle here so maybe you could help find what I am doing wrong.

Thanks!

Screenshots taken after importation, no editing, zoomed 400%. the more a “tweak” (contrast, sharpness,…) the worst the result :’(

mosaic
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Have you turned on Lens Correction and/or Deep Prime (for denoise) ?

The camera and lens modules available with PL can make a huge difference in the image quality.

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Yes I did. It slightly improved the sharpness but it still remain sharper in LR. :slightly_frowning_face:

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Is the exported image the same or better ?

Do you have these options turned on in Settings (note that this screen capture is for a Mac system, Windows may be different) ?

Screenshot 2025-12-11 at 5.47.37 PM
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Note: there was an update to PL 9.3 today for MacOS that affected lens correction during export.

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If you’re finding LR gives a better result than PL (!!) then there’s definitely something not-quite-right somewhere in your set-up or application of corrections …

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Ok, I’ll check that tomorrow. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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I find that even with these options turned ON, the photo has to be exported to see the final result.

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I think that depends on the size of the final image. I have my display set at 2560x1440 and the images from my 50mp (8640 Ă— 5760) camera look fine in preview.

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I would definitely recommend comparing results from both applications of the exported file rather than the in-app on screen render.

Personally, I find the exported results are better with both Lr & PL than the render presented during editing.

Again, personally, I find the PL noise reduction in PL to be superior and quicker (depending on computer spec) than LR’s.

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I’d second that. I found NR/overall image quality in Lightroom to be slower (to render) and less impressive.

It’s one of the reasons I’m still here.

1 Like
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That was it:

When DeepPRIME rendering is enabled, the preview is much closer to the exported TIFF, whose quality is outstanding (see the first row of the screenshots).

I also tried other users’ suggestions:
I exported TIFF files from both PL and LR using exactly the same settings (no compression, 16-bit, etc.) and then compared the images. In every case (with and without white balance correction, low and high ISO), PL images are cleaner and sharper than those from LR. The colors are also closer to reality in PL.

In the second row of the screenshots below, the only adjustments I made were white balance correction, lens correction, and noise reduction (although I reduced it slightly in PL, as I found the default value a bit stronger than Lightroom’s). Apart from the noise reduction in PL, I didn’t adjust anything else.

To be honest, I’m sold on PL.

pano
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