Hello.
I am ready to upgrade from PL6 to PL8 and as always it will cost me the equivalent of about 50€ a year, not too expensive.
But i am asking myself how to really take advantage of the enhancements.
Will i apply the new deep prime version to all my photos and if so how to do this ?
It could be the same question with any enhancement in the picture correction…
So what is your advice ? How do you manage that ?
Thank you.
Check with a trial version, which you install in a different folder than your old version.
Although many people seem to think that the various DeepPRIME versions are only intended for high ISO images with obvious noise, from the beginning DxO’s stand on this is they should be used on every raw image. All the versions of DeepPRIME are AI-based and analyze the entire image to identify appropriate areas to apply it. I have used one of the flavors of DeepPRIME on every image I have processed since it was first implemented years ago. My start up presets are set up to default to DeepPRIME.
Mark
Trying out the software is important, because you can experiment with the new features and see how useful (and usable) they are for your images. DeepPRIME has been tricky, because until now it was very difficult to see what the results would be without exporting to TIFF or JPEG and then looking over the exported image. Now, in PhotoLab 8 we can use the new loupe tool to see the results right away - and what I see is that DeepPRIME XD2s is more reliable than DeepPRIME XD was for general use (regardless of ISO). I can also easily see what settings for Lens Softness correction work best for my images.
This forum has helped me to understand the new features - and it still helps to read the user guide first (even though the user guide usually contains errors when a new version of the software is released). But if you really want to understand something, play with it yourself. 
I come from v6 too. So some I say is for v6 to v8.
Hue mask which mix with brush and eraser tool is really efficient is some cases.
Loupe tool is a game changer if you want to find the best denoise/sharpness adjustments for your images.
New tone curve tool allows now really precise work and luma curve is perfect for modifying contrast without altering hue.
I still prefer to have deepprime as base preset denoising, but it seems maybe some prefer XD2s (depends probably of kind of photography you do and subjects).
Instant preview when moving mouse above a list of presets (curve tool, white balance, color rendering, lut, etc …) is a real time saver for me.
Every local adjustment are now more precisely adjustable and some become usable only now (I was unable to make precise white balance adjustments, for example, and now it is as precise as I need. This is maybe hardware related (screen resolution, mouse resolution and speed - I don’t know) since some didn’t complain about it when it was absolutly impossible to acheive for me - and I use to use mouse since long in graphic applications, so …).
You’ll get HSL in local adjustments.
I obviously forget things but all those above really change the way and enjoyment to use photolab.
You’ll have to get used to the new local adjustments layout. But with this new layout comes an enormous gain in precision and new possibilities.