Hello, new DxO PL 9 user here. New to RAW editing in general really. Have no experience with Lightroom as I refuse to pay the Adobe tax, a bit of time spent with Luminar Neo but that was mainly preset driven, I’m. moving to DxO to get a bit more hands on.
I’m having a recurring problem where my exports are ending up very washed out and, umm, desaturated? colour wise, especially compared to the embedded camera preview JPEGs.
Here is a g-drive link with a perfect example. In here is the source RAW file (as a DNG), the DOP file from DxO so you can see what I’ve done thus far then two JPEGs. One is a screen capture of the preview window that shows what I’d expect, the other is the actual exported file that is much more subduded.
I can see using the loupe tool that the final processing chain is going to result in this effect, but I cannot for the life of me work out what I am doing wrong to end up here and it is getting really frustrating.
If it is relevant my workflow is to shoot in raw on my EOS 7D mk II, so .CR2 raw files. I import these into Digikam which converts them to DNG files as part of the import process. I then cull via star rating with Fast Raw viewer and then open up in DxO PL9 to edit and export.
This only happens on certain pictures and not others, it seems to mostly be landscapes or similar pictures with a lot of foliage. It’s not happening to bird pictures I take for example.
If anyone could suggest where I’m going wrong with this I would really appreciate the help!
That’s interesting. I just tried exporting your edited DNG file and see the same results you do (a nicely saturated edit in PhotoLab, a desaturated one in the exported JPG).
It might not be relevant but is there a reason you import via Digikam and convert to DNG? PhotoLab is capable of reading .CR2 files and so is Fast Raw Viewer AFAIK, so that could be an unnecessary extra step.
As @Fineus is pointing to, I think the culprit could be the Digikam conversion to DNG.
If I open your DNG file in PhotoLab, and zoom in far enough, the image is indeed desaturated. Why this happens only to certain pictures I can’t say, but check this out:
I believe when the DNG was created in Digikam, the baked-in preview image was saved with certain saturation settings, but the DNG itself is very low-key and desaturated.
As a diagnostic, try putting your CR2 directly into PL instead of the DNG, and apply the exact same settings and do your export. I have a feeling things will match up better then.
Incidentally, I tried applying any of my own presets to @xyleth 's photo and straight away got a far more desaturated image in PhotoLab, much like the the JPG export example he provided.
That would collaborate what you’re saying about the baked in preview.
(I can also replicate your example of zooming in to see a completely different image to what is in the most zoomed out version).
I’m converting to DNG because the manual for Digikam very strongly recommends that as part of the import process for future proofing / archiving. As it was presented as a no-impact change to the image quality I didn’t see any reason not to go with their recommendation.
I’ve added the original CR2 to the gdrive and had a look myself, and the problem doesn’t manifest using that. Which is a relief in a way (I still have all the original CR2s on the CF card so I can re-import them natively) but now I just want to understand why it’s happening, as it shouldn’t. And why only with certain images. Weird.
Oh and editing and exporting the same DNG file with Luminar Neo works exactly as I would expect / hope it would. So there seems to be some odd interaction between the DNG conversion and DxO here
Honestly I would throw that out of the window. I’ve been shooting with Canon .CR2 and .CR3 since about 2007 and have never had a reason to convert to .DNG
It might be that PhotoLab is (as @unchdxoly reckons) taking a pre-generated .JPG that’s baked into your .DNG file and displaying it as what your end result will be. This could well be a bug with PhotoLab (as it seems to generate a new, more realistic one at 50%+ magnification).
If you want a quick-and-easy fix, applying any of the PhotoLab presets to your newly imported image should clear the pre-baked .JPG and force it to create a new preview which will more accurately reflect the end result.
Totally agreed. I can see no reason at all to convert to DNG. Anyway, there are several flavors of DNG - not all are compatible and are far from future proof.
DNG was first defined by Adobe in 2004, yet even by 2011 there was no sign of it becoming a universal standard and replacing each camera manufacturer’s own RAW format. Here we are in 2025, over 20 years on from DNG’s launch, and it’s still not a universal standard.
There’s nothing wrong with converting your CR2 to DNG. I converted all of my back catalogue of PEF (Pentax) files to DNG years ago and now shoot DNG natively in camera. I’ve never had an issue with PhotoLab nor any other software reading those files.
BUT… DxO explicitly state which types of DNG they support. Those include camera-native, any produced by DxO software (PhotoLab and PureRAW), and Adobe’s converter. The latter is part of Lightroom or available as a standalone tool. I used the latter.
So if you want to convert to DNG, use the Adobe converter, not some other software. There are arguments for and against doing this. Everyone has their preference and no-one, in general, seems to have a problem either way.
A final note… DxO’s DNGs are not RAW files, so don’t use DxO software to perform a “straight conversion” because they’re not that at all. Adobe’s are.
