Discovering DXO Photolab 9

While exploring different techniques for creating masks in darktable, the latest YouTube video by Ian Worth popped up, talking about the new DXO PhotoLab 9. Since I had recently purchased DXO Pure Raw 6 to enhance darktable's noise reduction capabilities, I almost did not watch the video as I know that darktable is on par with any paid alternative.

Getting dry after having a wash.

Being a fan of Ian Worths work I watched the video anyway and was immediately taken with the usefulness of the AI based masking technology. As are many people I am concerned about the misuse of AI within the creative arts, but in my opinion this appears to be an application of AI that supports the artist as opposed to trying to replace them.

This mallard knows he looks good.

In short the masking can be fully automated and tasks that were taking me hours to perfect in darktable take me mere seconds in Photolab. This leaves much more time to focus on the artistic corrections that I want to employ.

In addition to the masking I was also taken by the preset adjustments that can be applied to the fresh RAW file. Although I will not rely on them totally these are very useful for putting the image "in the right ballpark" before customising it to reflect your own style. Again this simply speeds up the editing process as opposed to taking it over. Both the pictures accompanying this post are based upon the DXO standard preset. Finally, and by no means least, DXO sell their software to you and not rent it to you as Adobe do.

Long story short I have now bought Photobab 9 and from now on I will be basing my editing around that from now on. I stand by my statement that darktable is on par with any software in terms of colour editing and is quite likely the best and most flexible package. However the time saving tools in Photlab means that I can spend much more time taking photographs as opposed to editing them.