Sponsored because we love it and think you will too! Get a free trial of DxO PhotoLab 8 at SDP.io/TRYPL Buy PhotoLab 8 at SDP.io/BUYPL & use 15% coupon TONY
I have owned every version of DXO from Optics Pro 1 to the present.) They are all inferior to Lightroom/Photoshop in every way but noise reduction, where it is now a tie. Handling of highlights and shadows with DXO's so called Selective Tone sliders is a non selective bad joke compared to Lightroom's Develop panel. Any experienced user of PL knows this, which is why DXO would like you to spend yet more money on FilmPack7 to get the workaround, luminosity masking. Now that Lightroom has AI noise reduction, there is no reason for me to blow any further cash on Photo Lab upgrades. Thanks again, Adobe! I'll spare everyone the lengthy laundry list of things you can do with LR/PS that you can't with PL.
@@TonyAndChelsea You've proven yourselves trustworthy over all the years of coaching those interested in photography. You two shouldn't have to explain your decision.
Hope you also cover other softwares such as Luminar Neo/On1 Raw for reviews, since they have 30 days free trials and we as consumers get a very fair and unbiased apples to apples comparison of softwares. Your videos, I feel are the most extensive comparison videos on photography and me choosing the sony a7rv as my recent camera, was thanks to your videos.
Switched from FCP to DaVinci as well. Both program itself as well as the pricing is how software business should be done. They give it away if you buy a camera, meanwhile Sony is trying to charge subscription for their software to use with their camera.
I tried DxO and I did like it. I was able to get nearly the exact same final image as I was with LRC. The only reason I went back to LRC was for the work flow but I'm considering buying DxO 8 and getting used to the workflow in that program. This is mostly a moral choice for me at this point.
I looked on their website and it appears you have to pay to upgrade to each new version. So the initial price is $229for elite then each upgrade you will pay for probably $100 maybe? I am on Photography Lightroom plan $10/month. So my initial purchase breakeven is almost 2 years and then each upgrade every year would be like paying for my photography plan (which includes LR Classic, LR, Photoshop). Unless you are prepared to be stuck on the version you buy in 2 or 3 years it looks like DxO will cost more due to initial up front cost and ongoing upgrade fees. If I am wrong somewhere here somebody please correct me. I was hopeful until I saw the pricing and upgrade fees
@@teamvigod I see your point But how often would you really be updating? Other than the latest AI features, How much is Adobe really changed in the last 2 years?
@@dredigi0 I would update every year most likely. Will DxO always update old version to work on the latest Mac OS version and if not you must upgrade. Also there will probably be big moves in AI features for the next 5 to 10 years most won't want to miss out on.
@@teamvigod that is how Lightroom and all Photoshop products used to be receipt that it was way more than $100. You didn't have to pay for the new version if you didn't want it because unless you changed camera or operating system, your version of the software would work forever. You can't face everything for free and here you have to choose between owning something forever which might become restrictive or useless with age or, pay a monthly subscription.
Moved away when Adobe was moving to subscription model and over to dxo years and years ago. Never felt limited, never missed Adobe at all. Love the "film pack" from them too.
@@bertnase9933 great point but does lightroom integrate with the apple or google photos library? Also you can't do any photomerging on the mobile apps anyway and in my experience dxo filmpack (included in optics pro version) spanks lightroom for professional looks
@@bertnase9933 I don't update every year and I only buy during Black Friday when they do like 50% off. Last time I bought was 4 years ago. They also offer reduced pricing for upgrades.
To me this is one of the worst things about DXO, not being able to download images off my memory card, organise the images downloaded into folders by date, automatically apply keywords, meta data, even presets at import is a massive flaw in the product. I would need to use another product alongside DXO. I want a one stop shop where I can do everything, DXO is too far away from this and has limited editing capabilities like no portrait masking, I can do everything in one place in LrC and only go to PS for occasional finishing, DXO would require me to manually edit every photo one at a time using PS or Affinity whilst I can apply portrait masks across 100's of photos in seconds in LrC
I use Lightroom on my android device and I hated the update when they did it. I prefer to having to import files. This makes easier to track how done you are with a batch of photos.
I don’t mind the sponsorship, since it’s Tony. I don’t think he would hawk junk. He’s getting paid to demonstrate software that is known to be high quality. I appreciated the video.
Yeah my thoughts EXACTLY! They have done so much for the community that they can put these videos in a separate section and we would still watch. But pretending it is not an ad is a bit much
Tony you said, "Don't want to mess with AI" as if it was AI features in Lightroom are a negative. Lack of AI selection tools in DXO is the main thing keeping me from switching. Lightroom helps me isolate areas of the photographs I want to edit. Select Sky, Subject, Objects then intersect with other selections like gradient filters. I'm sick of Adobe's monthly charges and cloud storage nonsense, so DXO is still really tempting even without AI, especially because they have an upgrade policy, so you don't have to pay the full price again, when a new version comes out.
While I don't like subscription either, at the end the "lifetime license" is not much better than a subscription, because if you want your latest cameras and lenses supported, you basically are forced to upgrade as well because DXO blocks new cameras working in older software. E.g. Nikon Z6 III is not supported in PL5 which was launched just 2 years ago and neither in PureRAW 1. Also for PL5 there is no discount when upgrading to PL8, you pay the full price, and again PL5 is only 2 years old. And if you upgrade PL every version there is only a theoretical difference to subscription, maybe peace of mind, but your purse will suffer the same way ... which should be no surprise as the development effort needs to be paid either way.
@@stefanwagenerThere is one big difference between paid upgrades and subscriptions: you cancel your subscription you no longer have access to the software while if you don’t pay for upgrades you still have access to the last version you paid for.
I became Adobe-free about a year ago, replacing LRC with PhotoLab 7 (now PL8) and Photoshop with Affinity Photo 2. Yes, work flow is different, but I think it's worth it.
Bought PL7 10 days ago, had no idea PL8 was about to come out. Was a little miffed and wanted to see how much the upgrade would be. $0 was my cost to upgrade to 8. No longer miffed, and very happy with DxO
@@mltv5736 just logged into the DXO website where it shows my software. It then showed which ones had updates available. Just clicked the link there. Just double checked the email from my photo lab seven order and it was from September 15. So I guess nine days before yesterday.
@@mltv5736 from DXO help center: "I recently bought DxO PhotoLab, am I eligible for a free upgrade or anything else? This information applies to versions: 7 If you purchased DxO PhotoLab from August 18, 2024, you should have received an email with a personalized limited-time offer if you agreed to receive our offers and announcements (Newsletter). Unfortunately, no exceptions will be made for purchases prior to this date."
I actually like this video because u actually gave Adobe time to fix there problems and they still messed up, this video was posted at the correct time 💪🏿
Been using since DXO 3. Have always been pleased. I've heard that DXO 8 was out and improved. Haven't upgraded yet, but I will very soon. DXO has always been the company for me.
It's true. I love DXO PL but it's not great for subtle edits. I like it because of it's default handling of the RAW, the film pack integration, keystoning correction tools, the denoising, and of shockingly it has the best print module I have found. But the Tony's edits showed how easy it is to get heavy handed with DXO.
The eagle picture for sure. Tone mapping in Corel Paintshop would do the same thing. The gradient mask looks like a handy feature. But all these programs have versions of the same capability. Layers and the same old feathered brush with a layer mask to do the same thing. But it may do some things better than others. Like the noise reduction may be better. So it's good that's it out there for an alternative.
I switched to DxO PL 7 a few weeks ago and left Adobe. Now, I’m using DxO PL8, DxO NIK Collection, Luminar, and Affinity Photo, and it's absolutely fine. The workflow of Adobe LR/PS was a bit better, of course, but it’s necessary to teach Adobe a lesson.
Dear, Tony, I fully agree with you on every editing corrections, made with care and highly intelligent software developed by DxO! I do not have PS but only the Elements so now I will purchase this DxO Photolab version 8! A big THANKS to you for this excellent tutorial! Wishing you and your family every blessing! Cheers from Sweden!
I have been using DXO Photolab 4 for the last couple of years and I am presently using a trial version of Photolab 8. Much easier to use and more powerful than Adobe applications. For one thing - unlike Adobe, there is no new naming convention/workflow imposed on the user every six months.
A few years ago I had DxO for less than a year. Then I got a new camera (from Nikon D610 to Z6) and found out that I needed to buy the latest version to support the new camera's files (customer support told me this). Considering the more than $200 price tag ($200 for the initial version and $200 for the version upgrade) and having the software less than a year, I thought that was a pretty terrible deal. So hopefully they don't that anymore, but they aren't getting my business again.
Yeah I pay $10/month for Adobe Photography plan (LR, LR classic and photoshop). I'll always be behind in terms of out of pocket with DxO versus Adobe with DxO's pricing here. Up front I'm 2 years to breakeven and then any upgrades and I'm once again playing catchup for 2 years almost. I don't see how the no subscription fee is of any benefit vs Adobe here when the total costs for initial license and then upgrades down the road end up costing more
@@teamvigodif you don’t change your camera all the time you don’t have to buy a new product. That’s how the value of DXO is much better. Plus it’s less complicated to setup and use.
looking at its pricing few weeks back it was 230€ and 99€ for upgrade (so maybe 180$/70$ in US as you dont get hit with taxes as much), so its not full price for an upgrade anymore...
DXO obviously took note of the issue you raised and is not the case now, you can go and see the list of supported cameras against DXO version on their website. I think they go back 2 versions.
i do not understand these people when comparing prices : 🤔any decent photographer has Photoshop.... and Lightroom is included in the monthly price so : Lightroom cost nothing
oh boy coincidentally I've been using DXO for the past week, and for the first time ..bro it's a GAME CHANGER and i guess i was just living under a rock all the time
I'm interested in the skin retouching results. In your experience, is it faster and more natural-looking than LR? I want to edit my portraits faster as I do all the work in my business, so I'm looking to speed up things so I can rest from time to time. Much thanks!
Wow these comments are making me question how smart the viewers are because the first frame says “THIS VIDEO IA SPONSORED BY DX0”. Some people just want to argue online.
Maybe the best PL8 review so far, concentrating on the deciding features. I made a personal raw editor comparison when upgrading from SilkyPix (which wasn’t too bad, by the way) and PhotoLab 2 was the clear winner. Best results in the quickest way. What I don’t like: Some of the essential features are upgrades and the more popular it becomes, the more expensive the updates get, now more than 100 €
I'm still using Adobe Lightroom 6, the last stand alone version. It makes me use my skills to go in and do things that new programs do automatically. AND I couldn't be more pleased with your recommendation, Tony. I've felt I could use a worthy upgrade for quite a few years now and refuse to get a subscription to the program I already paid for. (To Adobe's credit, the stand alone version does still work.) I'm sold. Looking forward to seeing what vintage lenses DxO supports. NOT to Adobe's credit at all, the lens profiles in Lightroom 6 are from 2015. If this is really better than Lightroom, lets see some more tutorials on some basic editing steps like your Lightroom videos. This is basically free for me with all the money I have not paid Adobe for subscriptions. (Take that Adobe.)
As someone who edits real estate every day, I still found myself going back to Lightroom because its built in HDR is just better unfortunately. Hopefully that changes.
I have been using DXO since ver 5 remember the pure raw features are also in DXO 3rd tab over it is great software except it will not let you rename files when you export them That is the only feature I wish it had.. It allows you to add a suffix to the file only.. the batch export is great. very good program!!
I use Photolab 6 and I love it! Pretty sure I'll hold off upgrading again (skipped 7) since I am still able to do everything I need in 6 - this allows the monthly expense to go down even more! Note that DXO still supports 6 - I get updates (new lens / camera modules) regularly - I just don't get some of the new features. When a version pops up with something I must have, I'll upgrade then!
Just keep in mind that DXO only offers upgrade pricing on 2 versions back. If you wait for Version 9 you will have to pay full pop for it, but if you upgrade from 6 to 8 you'll still get upgrade pricing.
Even if DXO Photolab 8 is better than LR, the economics are hard. I am still going to use Photoshop, and it's included in Adobe's photography bundle. Photolab 8 would just be an additional cost. It might be worth it, but it is not going to be less expensive.
Love your videos Tony, been watching you and Chelsea for probably 8 years now. You guys are the best! You guys have said many times that you never take sponsorships from photography companies to keep your videos unbiased. While a DXO sponsorship isn't as crazy as Canon or Nikon would be, this does give me a littleeeee bitttt of hesitation. What would have been great is a direct comparison to LR so I can see if DXO accomplishes the same task that Adobe does for less money.
Adobe certainly has plenty of competition these days. There seems to be an alternative for most photographers, everything from DXO, Luminar and Affinity. At this stage Adobe is surviving on its history largely and people using it out of habit. Having been the heavyweight in the industry there are so many plugins and actions that many use within Adobe. In my experience the plugins often work with other software, the actions often don't. Once the third party developers start creating for the competition I think Adobe could be in real trouble.
I agree. And my Adobe sub ends next month so, after well over a decade, I am going to break the habit and find an alternative. It's a pain learning a new interface, but I am sick of playing the month sub.
@@QuicknStraight Look at PhotoLab 8, for LR, and Affinity Photo 2, for PS. Both are non-subscription. DxO will generally let you skip a major release, and still get the next release at a discount. PL 6 and 7 users can upgrade to PL 8 at half price. And I've heard some recent PL 7 users got PL 8 for free.
Will try it. Wondering, if DxO PL 8 supports natively .afphoto files, that would make it perfect. I'm also curious, how fast it is on my M3 Mac 24 GB RAM - Sequoia already installed. Besides, I really love your fight against that subscription and spy model of Adobe.
I'm running PL 7 on a MacBook Air M3, with 16GB, and find it satisfactory. I'm generally not doing large batch exports, but a 24MP RAW file with heavy noise reduction generally renders in 100% quality JPEG in 10-15 sec. Less, if the image doesn't need much NR. Upgrading to Sequoyah didn't make a noticeable difference from Sonoma. However, you may have to wait for Film Pack 7, Nik Collection, and other DxO products to install on Sequoyah. PL 8 should be fine, though, and DxO says the other products should be available in October.
DxO can be good software, but never come to close to LR and PS.Adobe has revolutionized the use of AI in its softwares.Yes there are still some deficiencies,bugs,etc. but this is a development will never end.
If you shoot in low-light, high-ISO situations. DxO's denoising is light-years ahead of LR. It's faster, it doesn't require an internet connection, it preserves detail better, and you don't have to send your pics to Adobe. Only Topaz comes close. And that's speaking from experience with PL 7. PL 8 is supposed to be even better.
😀That was also my suggestion in your previous video. DXO builds distorting correction profile for every major lens manufacturer & then applies it to the photo automatically.
Hello Tony! Over the years I have watched many of your videos. Thanks for sharing your review of DXO PL 8! But sorry, please ask DXO why your 15% coupon is not accepted for updates? Best regards!
Hi, Tony! I’d love to see a tutorial on how to make the switch from both versions of LR and how to retain all the photos in huge catalogs (local and cloud).
It's pretty easy. I'm using PL 7. The more complicated adjustments have an "auto" setting. For exposure, just set the highlight and black points to spread the histogram to the max and min, and adjust the shadows and midtone to taste. You have shadow and highlight clipping warnings that you can turn on or off. The Smart Lighting slider is handy for bringing up shadows without blowing out your highlights. The exposure slider has optional highlight priority settings to protect your highlights, too. Color is pretty easy, too. There's a color balance picker tool. Click a neutral point in the image to set the color balance, if your camera didn't get it right. It has color profiles for most common camera bodies, or if you get Film Pack, you can select film simulations for your color profile. Detail is pretty simple. You have four denoise algorithms to choose from, with sliders (the defaults are usually pretty good). I like the lens softness correction profiles a lot. You have an auto option, plus three sliders, global, detail, and bokeh. The lens profile adjusts how much sharpness is applied across your image according to your lens' sharpness - less in the center, more in the corners. I usually find the default pretty good, requiring only minor tweaking. There IS an unsharp mask section, but I never use it. Defaults on chromatic aberrations and fringing are generally good. There is a red eye tool, but I've never used it, because I almost never do flash portraits. I have fast glass, and the noise removal is good enough that I'm ok with raising my ISO. Local adjustments aren't difficult, either. You have linear gradient, control points, which recognize edges, auto brush, which also recognizes edges, regular brushes, and PL 8 adds a hue mask, which masks based on color. If you've worked with LR, or any slider-based RAW file editor, PL shouldn't be hard to pick up.
>Missing: Tool to put different exposed foto’s together. You have a favorite? Can you make video on it? > like it very much: Use it since version 6; now using 8.
There are many RAW developers and YES I have have used it from the first version BUT Lightroom has one huge advantage, the catalog. If DXO could import LR classic catalogs, and process Panorama images YES but not at the moment, I have always used DXO products because they are excellent but without LR catalog compatibility, it’s THE plugin to LR.
I think it depends on how much cloud storage you get. The basic Photography Plan of LRC, PS and 20GB cloud storage is $9.99. I think they charge an extra $10 for 1TB of storage. You really have to look closely on their site to see all the options.
What kills this for me is that it is not available on iPad (as far as I can tell). My workflow involves a lot of sharing between devices for ‘on the go’ plus detailed adjustments with the Apple Pencil which I find so responsive.
Each time you edit, the image pixelates as though the resolution is temporarily reducing, does this happen every time, with every image, for every edit?
My favorite is ON1 Photo Raw....excellent processing of RAW files, including browsing and tagging, local masks, AI based denoise and sharpening, pretty much anything lightroom or photoshop can do, ON1 Photo Raw does.
I use HDR and Panorama merge in Lightroom quite a bit. I also use the HDR & Panorama merge where it's doing both functions on a set of photos. Evidently Photolab 8 does not have these features. Any recommendations on software that can do that? I would love to dump Adobe.
This seems like a good option for those who would try to avoid subscription models and over-reaching user agreements. For the long term, I worry about software companies that insist you pay for future upgrades. Maybe base price could include something like a modest number of version upgrades.
That’s quite an advertisement you’ve made for this sponsor. Glad you disclosed that right up front. I just bought a year’s subscription to Capture One Pro as a LRC alternative, and it offers an incredible array of extremely “professional” I’d call them, perfectionist oriented adjustment tools, too. Of course, it’s also offered only as a subscription based business model. This looks like an interesting compromise I’m going to try as well. Question, where does it store all the adjustment data, given it leaves your RAW files wherever you put them yourself? It must create a database someplace.
It creates a .DOP file for each file you edit.. If you open the DOP. file with a browser, it's a text file with all the settings you changed when you edited the file. It's completely nondestructive. And it's easy enough to keep it with the RAW file and the exported JPG file.
1. I know DxO is a great company but sponsored video kind of hurts the point of the video. 2. One of the things i use all the time on LrC is batch process... Can it do it? 3. AI is very impressive on LrC, i use (rarely) the removal tool and recently have discovered how revolutionising AI denoise is. AI denoise is like having a 10-year upgrade to your camera if not more.
2) Yes it can 3) DxO is supposed to have currently the best denoise on the market by far. Thats not just an advertisement, its basically what everyone comparing different editing software say.
my version does not have split toning of any sort, that's why I can't get myself to let go off Lightroom, as I use a lot of split toning and calibration tools
Around once a year, half price, if you are no more than two versions behind. If you had PL 6 or 7, 8 would be $108. So if you got 8, you could skip 9, and still get 10 for half price.
OK so I'm I interested. But really this video only showed some pretty simple cases. I find that more challenging replace/removal requires Photoshop. The automated AI tools are still hit or miss. Can Dx0 c9mpare with manual replaces down in Photoshop? Also what do I do with my 10+ years of photo edits stored in the LR catalog or to mention caption, keywording, etc?
I don't know anybody who makes software to extract your edits from an Adobe database and translate them to a competitor's format. I suspect that Adobe's license agreement specifically prohibits doing that, and that anyone who did would be swarmed by Adobe's lawyers. Adobe created their "database system" for the specific purpose of chaining users to their products. I suppose you could export your portfolio to 16-bit TIFF. PL can open TIFF files. The TIFF files would have your edits in a lossless format. You could open them, and print them, or export to JPG or other formats. Some adjustments only work on RAW files, but most would be available, and if you are talking about edited files, they should be pretty good as is.
Do you have a code instead of a link? My browser plug-in freaked out for some reason. OOPS! Never mind. I just saw the code at the end of the video. Cheers!
Sticking with lightroom, appreciate the the effort though. The processed photos don't look great, can't tell if that's a delta in our editing style or the way it processes images.
Please explain how to migrate the half or three quarter million images cataloged in Lightroom, preserving the edit history for each of them, since that's a hurdle many photographers would face. To me, the cost for the Adobe Photography Plan, at less than one visit to Starbucks per month, is something no self-respecting photographer would complain about. It's funny how paid sponsorships change people. This blatant infomercial seems like a new CONcept for the Northrups.
So it doesn't suit you. Whoopee do. Stay with Adobe. Not that I believe for one second that you need the edit history for all your photos, if you can actually decide how many you have.
So pay Adobe forever, let them rummage through your photos. LR/PS are a black hole for your edit history. They're DESIGNED that way, to keep you on the Adobe plantation. What you describe is sort of a cautionary tale for those of us that don't have three quarter million images in Adobe's jail.
Sponsored because we love it and think you will too! Get a free trial of DxO PhotoLab 8 at SDP.io/TRYPL
Buy PhotoLab 8 at SDP.io/BUYPL & use 15% coupon TONY
I have owned every version of DXO from Optics Pro 1 to the present.) They are all inferior to Lightroom/Photoshop in every way but noise reduction, where it is now a tie. Handling of highlights and shadows with DXO's so called Selective Tone sliders is a non selective bad joke compared to Lightroom's Develop panel. Any experienced user of PL knows this, which is why DXO would like you to spend yet more money on FilmPack7 to get the workaround, luminosity masking. Now that Lightroom has AI noise reduction, there is no reason for me to blow any further cash on Photo Lab upgrades. Thanks again, Adobe!
I'll spare everyone the lengthy laundry list of things you can do with LR/PS that you can't with PL.
@@TonyAndChelsea You've proven yourselves trustworthy over all the years of coaching those interested in photography. You two shouldn't have to explain your decision.
Does this mean you have switched from Lightroom to DxO PhotoLab 8?
Hope you also cover other softwares such as Luminar Neo/On1 Raw for reviews, since they have 30 days free trials and we as consumers get a very fair and unbiased apples to apples comparison of softwares.
Your videos, I feel are the most extensive comparison videos on photography and me choosing the sony a7rv as my recent camera, was thanks to your videos.
Promo code is not working for the upgrade. Is there another one that works?
I recently quit Adobe and joined DXO and Davinci family. Good by Adobe, you're getting what you deserve!!!
A soaring stock price you mean?
@@TheReillyDiefenbach. Adobe’s stock price has fallen 10.72% in 2024. (1 Jan - 25 Sept).
Switched from FCP to DaVinci as well. Both program itself as well as the pricing is how software business should be done. They give it away if you buy a camera, meanwhile Sony is trying to charge subscription for their software to use with their camera.
I tried DxO and I did like it. I was able to get nearly the exact same final image as I was with LRC. The only reason I went back to LRC was for the work flow but I'm considering buying DxO 8 and getting used to the workflow in that program. This is mostly a moral choice for me at this point.
I looked on their website and it appears you have to pay to upgrade to each new version. So the initial price is $229for elite then each upgrade you will pay for probably $100 maybe? I am on Photography Lightroom plan $10/month. So my initial purchase breakeven is almost 2 years and then each upgrade every year would be like paying for my photography plan (which includes LR Classic, LR, Photoshop). Unless you are prepared to be stuck on the version you buy in 2 or 3 years it looks like DxO will cost more due to initial up front cost and ongoing upgrade fees. If I am wrong somewhere here somebody please correct me. I was hopeful until I saw the pricing and upgrade fees
@@teamvigod I see your point But how often would you really be updating? Other than the latest AI features, How much is Adobe really changed in the last 2 years?
@@dredigi0 I would update every year most likely. Will DxO always update old version to work on the latest Mac OS version and if not you must upgrade. Also there will probably be big moves in AI features for the next 5 to 10 years most won't want to miss out on.
@@teamvigod that is how Lightroom and all Photoshop products used to be receipt that it was way more than $100. You didn't have to pay for the new version if you didn't want it because unless you changed camera or operating system, your version of the software would work forever. You can't face everything for free and here you have to choose between owning something forever which might become restrictive or useless with age or, pay a monthly subscription.
@@teamvigod No. Look at the post above by elac70. He bought PL7 recently and was able to upgrade to PL8 for $0
Moved away when Adobe was moving to subscription model and over to dxo years and years ago. Never felt limited, never missed Adobe at all. Love the "film pack" from them too.
You only get the film pack in the full version right?
But in the end you pay the same while updating every year... And you get PS, LRC, LR, LR mobile for 10 bucks a month....
@@bertnase9933 great point but does lightroom integrate with the apple or google photos library? Also you can't do any photomerging on the mobile apps anyway and in my experience dxo filmpack (included in optics pro version) spanks lightroom for professional looks
CAN LR PRESETS WORK?
@@bertnase9933 I don't update every year and I only buy during Black Friday when they do like 50% off. Last time I bought was 4 years ago. They also offer reduced pricing for upgrades.
I like that raw files in folders are ready to be processed and don't need to be imported.
To me this is one of the main reasons to get it.
adobe idea of reinventing cataloges drives me nuts
To me this is one of the worst things about DXO, not being able to download images off my memory card, organise the images downloaded into folders by date, automatically apply keywords, meta data, even presets at import is a massive flaw in the product. I would need to use another product alongside DXO. I want a one stop shop where I can do everything, DXO is too far away from this and has limited editing capabilities like no portrait masking, I can do everything in one place in LrC and only go to PS for occasional finishing, DXO would require me to manually edit every photo one at a time using PS or Affinity whilst I can apply portrait masks across 100's of photos in seconds in LrC
I use Lightroom on my android device and I hated the update when they did it. I prefer to having to import files. This makes easier to track how done you are with a batch of photos.
@shortie8512 having just done a couple of multi thousand image shoots, I couldn't agree more
I don’t mind the sponsorship, since it’s Tony. I don’t think he would hawk junk. He’s getting paid to demonstrate software that is known to be high quality. I appreciated the video.
Yeah my thoughts EXACTLY! They have done so much for the community that they can put these videos in a separate section and we would still watch. But pretending it is not an ad is a bit much
But if he's making all the comparisons with lightroom, and not just reviewing it stand alone, its pretty unfair not to mention capture 1.
Tony you said, "Don't want to mess with AI" as if it was AI features in Lightroom are a negative. Lack of AI selection tools in DXO is the main thing keeping me from switching. Lightroom helps me isolate areas of the photographs I want to edit. Select Sky, Subject, Objects then intersect with other selections like gradient filters. I'm sick of Adobe's monthly charges and cloud storage nonsense, so DXO is still really tempting even without AI, especially because they have an upgrade policy, so you don't have to pay the full price again, when a new version comes out.
In other words, you never had it so good!
I agree... The AI selection is super handy and I also think the AI denoising is better than what I can achieve with DXO.
Some of us don't like the AI tools
While I don't like subscription either, at the end the "lifetime license" is not much better than a subscription, because if you want your latest cameras and lenses supported, you basically are forced to upgrade as well because DXO blocks new cameras working in older software. E.g. Nikon Z6 III is not supported in PL5 which was launched just 2 years ago and neither in PureRAW 1.
Also for PL5 there is no discount when upgrading to PL8, you pay the full price, and again PL5 is only 2 years old. And if you upgrade PL every version there is only a theoretical difference to subscription, maybe peace of mind, but your purse will suffer the same way ... which should be no surprise as the development effort needs to be paid either way.
@@stefanwagenerThere is one big difference between paid upgrades and subscriptions: you cancel your subscription you no longer have access to the software while if you don’t pay for upgrades you still have access to the last version you paid for.
I became Adobe-free about a year ago, replacing LRC with PhotoLab 7 (now PL8) and Photoshop with Affinity Photo 2. Yes, work flow is different, but I think it's worth it.
Bought PL7 10 days ago, had no idea PL8 was about to come out. Was a little miffed and wanted to see how much the upgrade would be. $0 was my cost to upgrade to 8. No longer miffed, and very happy with DxO
I wish On1 would do this as well.
Rly..? How..? I bought it around 3 weeks ago the same as you, and i am beeing charged 109$ US for an upgrade :/
@@mltv5736 just logged into the DXO website where it shows my software. It then showed which ones had updates available. Just clicked the link there. Just double checked the email from my photo lab seven order and it was from September 15. So I guess nine days before yesterday.
@@mltv5736 from DXO help center:
"I recently bought DxO PhotoLab, am I eligible for a free upgrade or anything else?
This information applies to versions: 7
If you purchased DxO PhotoLab from August 18, 2024, you should have received an email with a personalized limited-time offer if you agreed to receive our offers and announcements (Newsletter). Unfortunately, no exceptions will be made for purchases prior to this date."
@@mltv5736 Maybe email them and complain.
I actually like this video because u actually gave Adobe time to fix there problems and they still messed up, this video was posted at the correct time 💪🏿
Been using since DXO 3. Have always been pleased. I've heard that DXO 8 was out and improved. Haven't upgraded yet, but I will very soon. DXO has always been the company for me.
I think those pictures turned out looking like they've been tone mapped, not enought contrast, like an HDR image translated to SDR
My thoughts exactly, all I could think for every edit was "BLEH..."
It's true. I love DXO PL but it's not great for subtle edits. I like it because of it's default handling of the RAW, the film pack integration, keystoning correction tools, the denoising, and of shockingly it has the best print module I have found. But the Tony's edits showed how easy it is to get heavy handed with DXO.
@@jakelindsay6251 I thought that was his fault for going too far with the slider to be fair.
The eagle picture for sure. Tone mapping in Corel Paintshop would do the same thing.
The gradient mask looks like a handy feature. But all these programs have versions of the same capability.
Layers and the same old feathered brush with a layer mask to do the same thing.
But it may do some things better than others. Like the noise reduction may be better. So it's good that's it out there for an alternative.
For me personally I have good respect for the Northrop’s. This is a good alternative to Adobe.
I switched to DxO PL 7 a few weeks ago and left Adobe. Now, I’m using DxO PL8, DxO NIK Collection, Luminar, and Affinity Photo, and it's absolutely fine. The workflow of Adobe LR/PS was a bit better, of course, but it’s necessary to teach Adobe a lesson.
Dear, Tony, I fully agree with you on every editing corrections, made with care and highly intelligent software developed by DxO! I do not have PS but only the Elements so now I will purchase this DxO Photolab version 8! A big THANKS to you for this excellent tutorial! Wishing you and your family every blessing! Cheers from Sweden!
Used DxO Photolab for years now. It's simply better. The noise reduction is way way more efficient and keeps more detail than LR.
No, it doesn't, but don't let that stop you.
How does it compare to Darktable?
The problem was never finding an alternative to Lr. But there's nothing (sadly) that can do everything that Ps does.
For me, DxO Photolab is the best. I have Photolab 7 and will update to version 8 in November when there is a discount.
Oh Yes! I can stop paying Adobe subscription for Lightroom. I don't use cloud storage anyway, so this is perfect.
I use DxO since DxO Optics 6 I think 20 years ago. It was and still is the best raw converter/processor
I have been using DXO Photolab 4 for the last couple of years and I am presently using a trial version of Photolab 8. Much easier to use and more powerful than Adobe applications. For one thing - unlike Adobe, there is no new naming convention/workflow imposed on the user every six months.
A few years ago I had DxO for less than a year. Then I got a new camera (from Nikon D610 to Z6) and found out that I needed to buy the latest version to support the new camera's files (customer support told me this). Considering the more than $200 price tag ($200 for the initial version and $200 for the version upgrade) and having the software less than a year, I thought that was a pretty terrible deal. So hopefully they don't that anymore, but they aren't getting my business again.
Yeah I pay $10/month for Adobe Photography plan (LR, LR classic and photoshop). I'll always be behind in terms of out of pocket with DxO versus Adobe with DxO's pricing here. Up front I'm 2 years to breakeven and then any upgrades and I'm once again playing catchup for 2 years almost. I don't see how the no subscription fee is of any benefit vs Adobe here when the total costs for initial license and then upgrades down the road end up costing more
@@teamvigodif you don’t change your camera all the time you don’t have to buy a new product. That’s how the value of DXO is much better. Plus it’s less complicated to setup and use.
looking at its pricing few weeks back it was 230€ and 99€ for upgrade (so maybe 180$/70$ in US as you dont get hit with taxes as much), so its not full price for an upgrade anymore...
DXO obviously took note of the issue you raised and is not the case now, you can go and see the list of supported cameras against DXO version on their website. I think they go back 2 versions.
i do not understand these people when comparing prices :
🤔any decent photographer has Photoshop.... and Lightroom is included in the monthly price so : Lightroom cost nothing
oh boy coincidentally I've been using DXO for the past week, and for the first time ..bro it's a GAME CHANGER and i guess i was just living under a rock all the time
I'm interested in the skin retouching results.
In your experience, is it faster and more natural-looking than LR?
I want to edit my portraits faster as I do all the work in my business, so I'm looking to speed up things so I can rest from time to time.
Much thanks!
I refuse to use subscriptions. This could be what I'm looking for, thanks.
why?
Looks good, was going to get adobe, but then saw your couple videos so I waited. Patience pays off.
I just downloaded it, I'm excited to trial it!! Love how you edited your photo's!!
Thanks for the tip. By the way, with all due respect, Chelsie looks amazing on the picture!
Kinda glad you made this video. Had no idea DxO had its own editor, I always thought they sold plugins. Good to know.
Wow these comments are making me question how smart the viewers are because the first frame says “THIS VIDEO IA SPONSORED BY DX0”. Some people just want to argue online.
This! 🔥🔥🔥
Happy with Luminar Neo.
Been using this for a few years now. It has been great for me in organizing my pictures.
Maybe the best PL8 review so far, concentrating on the deciding features. I made a personal raw editor comparison when upgrading from SilkyPix (which wasn’t too bad, by the way) and PhotoLab 2 was the clear winner. Best results in the quickest way. What I don’t like: Some of the essential features are upgrades and the more popular it becomes, the more expensive the updates get, now more than 100 €
Capture one is vastly better than lightroom.
Affinity Photo is better than Capture One, IMO.
People always say this but never explained why they think that.
@@mjkleini use both in combination, affinity photo is a competitor of Photoshop, not Lightroom.
I'm still using Adobe Lightroom 6, the last stand alone version. It makes me use my skills to go in and do things that new programs do automatically. AND I couldn't be more pleased with your recommendation, Tony. I've felt I could use a worthy upgrade for quite a few years now and refuse to get a subscription to the program I already paid for. (To Adobe's credit, the stand alone version does still work.) I'm sold. Looking forward to seeing what vintage lenses DxO supports. NOT to Adobe's credit at all, the lens profiles in Lightroom 6 are from 2015. If this is really better than Lightroom, lets see some more tutorials on some basic editing steps like your Lightroom videos. This is basically free for me with all the money I have not paid Adobe for subscriptions. (Take that Adobe.)
Also still using LR6. Agree about having to to be more creative. DxO PhotoLab 8 looks promising through...
Thank you so much for this review. It's so nice to have a real choice.
Thank you so much for taking the time to give me and others options. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
How does DXO work with Fuji Xtrans sensors.
It was incompatible for a long time but since 2021 it has worked and it's good.
I believe I read that DXO 8 Isn't compatible with X Trans sensors yet. But you need to check with DXO.
@@johndwilliams There's a link on the DxO website to a list of camera bodies and lenses they have profiles for.
Yes. Absolutely. I got consistently better results with Photolab. Mainly because of the RAW processing. But my experience is limited..
As someone who edits real estate every day, I still found myself going back to Lightroom because its built in HDR is just better unfortunately. Hopefully that changes.
I have been using DXO since ver 5 remember the pure raw features are also in DXO 3rd tab over it is great software except it will not let you rename files when you export them That is the only feature I wish it had.. It allows you to add a suffix to the file only.. the batch export is great. very good program!!
What do you think about Capture One or Photomator?
I use Photolab 6 and I love it! Pretty sure I'll hold off upgrading again (skipped 7) since I am still able to do everything I need in 6 - this allows the monthly expense to go down even more! Note that DXO still supports 6 - I get updates (new lens / camera modules) regularly - I just don't get some of the new features. When a version pops up with something I must have, I'll upgrade then!
Just keep in mind that DXO only offers upgrade pricing on 2 versions back. If you wait for Version 9 you will have to pay full pop for it, but if you upgrade from 6 to 8 you'll still get upgrade pricing.
@@stevengoetz6773 Thai's fair enough, you can update every 2 years. No need to update every year. That can save alot of money. Isn't it?
Even if DXO Photolab 8 is better than LR, the economics are hard. I am still going to use Photoshop, and it's included in Adobe's photography bundle. Photolab 8 would just be an additional cost. It might be worth it, but it is not going to be less expensive.
I switched to Affinity Photo 2, which is layer based, and does most of what Photoshop does, except the AI stuff. It's a one-time purchase, too.
How would one migrate to DXO? Lr image settings XMP, Keywords.
Love your videos Tony, been watching you and Chelsea for probably 8 years now. You guys are the best! You guys have said many times that you never take sponsorships from photography companies to keep your videos unbiased. While a DXO sponsorship isn't as crazy as Canon or Nikon would be, this does give me a littleeeee bitttt of hesitation. What would have been great is a direct comparison to LR so I can see if DXO accomplishes the same task that Adobe does for less money.
There are so many "other" options. Sponsored videos are not independently reviewed.
I don't know why people shy away from using Darktable.
Adobe certainly has plenty of competition these days. There seems to be an alternative for most photographers, everything from DXO, Luminar and Affinity.
At this stage Adobe is surviving on its history largely and people using it out of habit. Having been the heavyweight in the industry there are so many plugins and actions that many use within Adobe. In my experience the plugins often work with other software, the actions often don't. Once the third party developers start creating for the competition I think Adobe could be in real trouble.
I agree. And my Adobe sub ends next month so, after well over a decade, I am going to break the habit and find an alternative. It's a pain learning a new interface, but I am sick of playing the month sub.
@@QuicknStraight Look at PhotoLab 8, for LR, and Affinity Photo 2, for PS. Both are non-subscription. DxO will generally let you skip a major release, and still get the next release at a discount. PL 6 and 7 users can upgrade to PL 8 at half price. And I've heard some recent PL 7 users got PL 8 for free.
Will try it. Wondering, if DxO PL 8 supports natively .afphoto files, that would make it perfect. I'm also curious, how fast it is on my M3 Mac 24 GB RAM - Sequoia already installed. Besides, I really love your fight against that subscription and spy model of Adobe.
I'm running PL 7 on a MacBook Air M3, with 16GB, and find it satisfactory. I'm generally not doing large batch exports, but a 24MP RAW file with heavy noise reduction generally renders in 100% quality JPEG in 10-15 sec. Less, if the image doesn't need much NR. Upgrading to Sequoyah didn't make a noticeable difference from Sonoma. However, you may have to wait for Film Pack 7, Nik Collection, and other DxO products to install on Sequoyah. PL 8 should be fine, though, and DxO says the other products should be available in October.
I'll have to check it out. I do a lot of compositing and use third party software. Hopefully the play nicely together.
DxO can be good software, but never come to close to LR and PS.Adobe has revolutionized the use of AI in its softwares.Yes there are still some deficiencies,bugs,etc. but this is a development will never end.
If you shoot in low-light, high-ISO situations. DxO's denoising is light-years ahead of LR. It's faster, it doesn't require an internet connection, it preserves detail better, and you don't have to send your pics to Adobe. Only Topaz comes close. And that's speaking from experience with PL 7. PL 8 is supposed to be even better.
I couldn't agree more. PL8 is masterful.
I left Photoshop for DXO many years ago (DXO2) and would never go back to Adobe products
Absolutely agree. Switched to it a couple months ago
😀That was also my suggestion in your previous video.
DXO builds distorting correction profile for every major lens manufacturer & then applies it to the photo automatically.
I've DXO for a while, been going to there church, makes it easy on me for my style. ❤
Hello Tony! Over the years I have watched many of your videos. Thanks for sharing your review of DXO PL 8! But sorry, please ask DXO why your 15% coupon is not accepted for updates? Best regards!
I'm curious what your thoughts are on Luminar neo? I think doing a series of looking at LRC alternatives would be great
I just saw an Adobe Ad halfway through your video!
What about using a 2nd monitor? How does it compaes with Lightroom? Can you make the same use of that 2nd monitor (loop, compare, survey etc...)?
Hi, Tony! I’d love to see a tutorial on how to make the switch from both versions of LR and how to retain all the photos in huge catalogs (local and cloud).
is DxO Photolab 8 good for beginners and is it auto like lightroom just as good
It's pretty easy. I'm using PL 7. The more complicated adjustments have an "auto" setting. For exposure, just set the highlight and black points to spread the histogram to the max and min, and adjust the shadows and midtone to taste. You have shadow and highlight clipping warnings that you can turn on or off.
The Smart Lighting slider is handy for bringing up shadows without blowing out your highlights. The exposure slider has optional highlight priority settings to protect your highlights, too.
Color is pretty easy, too. There's a color balance picker tool. Click a neutral point in the image to set the color balance, if your camera didn't get it right. It has color profiles for most common camera bodies, or if you get Film Pack, you can select film simulations for your color profile.
Detail is pretty simple. You have four denoise algorithms to choose from, with sliders (the defaults are usually pretty good). I like the lens softness correction profiles a lot. You have an auto option, plus three sliders, global, detail, and bokeh. The lens profile adjusts how much sharpness is applied across your image according to your lens' sharpness - less in the center, more in the corners. I usually find the default pretty good, requiring only minor tweaking. There IS an unsharp mask section, but I never use it. Defaults on chromatic aberrations and fringing are generally good.
There is a red eye tool, but I've never used it, because I almost never do flash portraits. I have fast glass, and the noise removal is good enough that I'm ok with raising my ISO.
Local adjustments aren't difficult, either. You have linear gradient, control points, which recognize edges, auto brush, which also recognizes edges, regular brushes, and PL 8 adds a hue mask, which masks based on color.
If you've worked with LR, or any slider-based RAW file editor, PL shouldn't be hard to pick up.
@@careylymanjones thank you for the reply appreciate that
It would be nice to see the process and results for the same images with Lightroom too. Then we could see if this is indeed better.
>Missing:
Tool to put different exposed foto’s together.
You have a favorite?
Can you make video on it?
> like it very much:
Use it since version 6; now using 8.
Promising. How is the raw converter compared to Adobe's for colour rendering, speed and detail?
There are many RAW developers and YES I have have used it from the first version BUT Lightroom has one huge advantage, the catalog. If DXO could import LR classic catalogs, and process Panorama images YES but not at the moment, I have always used DXO products because they are excellent but without LR catalog compatibility, it’s THE plugin to LR.
Been using DxO for years quite Adobe in 2016
Where do you get $20 a month, I pay $9.99 month for Lightroom and Photoshop
$20/month was what Adobe charged me for LRC and PS. $10/mo was for web-based LR, alone.
I think it depends on how much cloud storage you get. The basic Photography Plan of LRC, PS and 20GB cloud storage is $9.99. I think they charge an extra $10 for 1TB of storage. You really have to look closely on their site to see all the options.
What kills this for me is that it is not available on iPad (as far as I can tell). My workflow involves a lot of sharing between devices for ‘on the go’ plus detailed adjustments with the Apple Pencil which I find so responsive.
Each time you edit, the image pixelates as though the resolution is temporarily reducing, does this happen every time, with every image, for every edit?
My favorite is ON1 Photo Raw....excellent processing of RAW files, including browsing and tagging, local masks, AI based denoise and sharpening, pretty much anything lightroom or photoshop can do, ON1 Photo Raw does.
I use HDR and Panorama merge in Lightroom quite a bit. I also use the HDR & Panorama merge where it's doing both functions on a set of photos. Evidently Photolab 8 does not have these features. Any recommendations on software that can do that? I would love to dump Adobe.
This seems like a good option for those who would try to avoid subscription models and over-reaching user agreements. For the long term, I worry about software companies that insist you pay for future upgrades. Maybe base price could include something like a modest number of version upgrades.
I have used DXO Photolab and DXO Optics Pro it’s former iteration for many years. It’s better than the Adobe ACR etc.
And how often did you use a current Adobe version? Probably you didn't!
@@karlgunterwunsch1950 actually once in a while. I have the subscription for Lightroom and Photoshop so now and then I try ACR.
How would you compare to options like Capture One?
Do a review on Capture one. IMO their color fidelity is better than anything else
I move to C1P years ago and i havent upgraded to their subscription based one yet. I moght look into DXO when i reach C1P's limitations. Nice video 🖐🏻
Thank You Tony!
Hi, Tony is there a toll to level the horizon ?
So is this photo editor a raw editor or an image editor?
Does it do anything that I couldn't do with RawTherapee and Gimp ?
Been on PhotoLab 7 for few months now... The only issue I have is with loading images/photos in the Library... it's way to slow to load photos.
That’s quite an advertisement you’ve made for this sponsor. Glad you disclosed that right up front. I just bought a year’s subscription to Capture One Pro as a LRC alternative, and it offers an incredible array of extremely “professional” I’d call them, perfectionist oriented adjustment tools, too. Of course, it’s also offered only as a subscription based business model. This looks like an interesting compromise I’m going to try as well. Question, where does it store all the adjustment data, given it leaves your RAW files wherever you put them yourself? It must create a database someplace.
It creates a .DOP file for each file you edit.. If you open the DOP. file with a browser, it's a text file with all the settings you changed when you edited the file. It's completely nondestructive. And it's easy enough to keep it with the RAW file and the exported JPG file.
1. I know DxO is a great company but sponsored video kind of hurts the point of the video.
2. One of the things i use all the time on LrC is batch process... Can it do it?
3. AI is very impressive on LrC, i use (rarely) the removal tool and recently have discovered how revolutionising AI denoise is. AI denoise is like having a 10-year upgrade to your camera if not more.
He knows it. But money is sweet.
Why not just try it? There's a free trial before you buy
2) Yes it can
3) DxO is supposed to have currently the best denoise on the market by far. Thats not just an advertisement, its basically what everyone comparing different editing software say.
@@anupew3276 That was the case until Adobe came up with denoise. The Adobe algorithm is in another league against the inconsistent mess from DxO...
@@xdrew707x I will. I am on a subscription detox program
My Adobe subs end next month, so I am on the lookout for an alternative. I do find the Abode need to import really annoying.
Hi Tony! How does dxo menage edits on multiple images?
No subscription... sounds like a massive improvement already.
my version does not have split toning of any sort, that's why I can't get myself to let go off Lightroom, as I use a lot of split toning and calibration tools
Does it work with my existing preset portfolio?
I don't dispute DxO being a good program but I still had a slight hope that Tony would take the long game and start recommending open source software.
I'm sure when there is open source software as good as Photolab or Lightroom he will recommend it.
Thank you Tony.
What about Raw ON1 - Is this a good alternative to Lightroom?
I need face recognition this app probably doesn’t do that… I’m trying LrC but it’s tedious. Any suggestions?
How often do they roll out an paid upgrade? I'm trying to compare this to a subscription...
Around once a year, half price, if you are no more than two versions behind. If you had PL 6 or 7, 8 would be $108. So if you got 8, you could skip 9, and still get 10 for half price.
OK so I'm I interested. But really this video only showed some pretty simple cases. I find that more challenging replace/removal requires Photoshop. The automated AI tools are still hit or miss. Can Dx0 c9mpare with manual replaces down in Photoshop? Also what do I do with my 10+ years of photo edits stored in the LR catalog or to mention caption, keywording, etc?
I don't know anybody who makes software to extract your edits from an Adobe database and translate them to a competitor's format. I suspect that Adobe's license agreement specifically prohibits doing that, and that anyone who did would be swarmed by Adobe's lawyers.
Adobe created their "database system" for the specific purpose of chaining users to their products. I suppose you could export your portfolio to 16-bit TIFF. PL can open TIFF files. The TIFF files would have your edits in a lossless format. You could open them, and print them, or export to JPG or other formats. Some adjustments only work on RAW files, but most would be available, and if you are talking about edited files, they should be pretty good as is.
Do you have a code instead of a link? My browser plug-in freaked out for some reason. OOPS! Never mind. I just saw the code at the end of the video. Cheers!
How's it for skin retouching?
Is it faster than Lightroom in that regard?
If you mean blemishes, it's pretty similar. Healing brush, with the opacity dialed down just a little to minimize, but not obliterate it.
is One time purchase of this have patches & updates?
Sticking with lightroom, appreciate the the effort though.
The processed photos don't look great, can't tell if that's a delta in our editing style or the way it processes images.
Please explain how to migrate the half or three quarter million images cataloged in Lightroom, preserving the edit history for each of them, since that's a hurdle many photographers would face.
To me, the cost for the Adobe Photography Plan, at less than one visit to Starbucks per month, is something no self-respecting photographer would complain about. It's funny how paid sponsorships change people.
This blatant infomercial seems like a new CONcept for the Northrups.
So it doesn't suit you. Whoopee do. Stay with Adobe. Not that I believe for one second that you need the edit history for all your photos, if you can actually decide how many you have.
So pay Adobe forever, let them rummage through your photos. LR/PS are a black hole for your edit history. They're DESIGNED that way, to keep you on the Adobe plantation. What you describe is sort of a cautionary tale for those of us that don't have three quarter million images in Adobe's jail.