I tested a bunch of raw camera files in different development programs in search of the ultimate developer tool. This time it’s DxO PhotoLab 6’s turn. Lightroom is good and Capture One is better. How does Photolab 6 compare and is it worth the investment?
Quick recap of DxO Photolab 6 Elite
DxO Photolab 6 is a completely different program from the others that I have tested before. It appreciates its ability to produce outstanding image quality, with the added power of its lens configurations. How does it compare to Lightroom Classic?
It is a premium program. There’s no subscription, but it costs $219 to purchase. That’s $80 less than the purchase price of Capture One and slightly less than double the price of the Adobe Photographer Plan. But when it comes to making your money, Photolab 6 also includes the awesome Nik Collection. It also features the much appreciated built-in Deep Prime noise reduction.
Also, like Capture One that I compared with Lightroom last time, I’m new to PhotoLab 6. I find Capture One’s catalog feature easier to use, but it’s not as intuitive as Lightroom and it doesn’t have the same functionality. digital asset management (DAM) functionality.
However, the purpose of these articles is to consider only raw conversions that are unchanged for different camera brands. However, I’m also lightly testing the shadow recovery and highlighting details and precision of the adjustment sliders.
The results right out of the camera were impressive across the wide variety of camera raw files I tested. The developed visuals are also much better than anything I was able to achieve in Lightroom Classic. The photos seem to have more presence than those produced by Adobe’s raw tool. It’s hard to see why, but they jump out more. Colors are more vibrant, skin tones look healthier, and images are cleaner.
When developing raw files, the most accurate adjustment slider I’ve ever tried. The shadow slider can be pushed further than in Lightroom, giving more editing scope before adjusting the tonal curve.
Lens correction in PhotoLab 6
Photolab 6 has access to DxO extended lens test data. This makes a significant difference to how profiles are applied to different cameras and lens types. They state: “DxO’s corrections are unique and specific to each camera and lens combination.” This is because they have “analyzed hundreds of cameras and thousands of lenses, across tens of thousands of combinations, all using the most extensive testing protocols in the industry”. For comparison, other software uses generic data. Why is this problem? If you take, for example, newly released Canon 15-30mm STM, it has bold textures at 15mm. Other software applies the same cropping to remove that part, not just at 15mm but across the entire focal length range. So from 16-30 mm, a 15 mm vignette cropping correction is applied, although not necessary.
The following example, provided by DxO, shows the same image file with Lightroom on the left and Photolab on the right. Lens profiles apply sharpness correction only where needed and not across the entire image.
Shot at 16mm, note how the image on the left produced by Lightroom has been automatically cropped to remove the corner shadows that are only present at 15mm. The version on the right is from PhotoLab 6.
DxO PhotoLab 6 . Test Results
DxO Photolab 6 and Nikon
With the Nikon images, I noticed that the highlights in PhotoLab were much brighter than in Lightroom, while the neutral tones and shadows were a bit more saturated and saturated. However, both are recoverable.
Dragging the highlight slider back, the details of the sky are restored, and unlike Lightroom, the blues between the clouds are visible, although they are dimmer than they were in Capture One.
There is no loss of detail in either. The default sharpening feature delivers fine detail without creating unsightly digital artifacts. As I see with Capture One, details are much more defined in PhotoLab than in Lightroom. There is a clear sharpness in the green pine needles on the trees in the test image that is better than Lightroom and on par with Capture One.
The default AI noise reduction settings from its DeepPRIME engine are very effective and don’t make images look muddy like Lightroom’s.
DxO Photolab 6 and Canon
Similarly, Canon’s raw images are brighter in Lightroom and have less noise. It is equal to the result of ON1. Highlighted details can be restored and shadows raised without noise. Again, the colors in this program seemed more vivid than any other program I tested. Similarly, colors are more accurate than in Lightroom.
Details are clear and sharp, and skin tones appear pleasing.
DxO Photolab 6 and OM . systems
With the OM-1 raw files, the colors in the midtones and shadows in some photos seemed to match Lightroom very well. The highlights in PhotoLab are a bit darker and so the colors look a bit more saturated. The big difference is in the details. Like other camera brands, the OM System’s photos in this program appear to be more impressive than others I’ve tested.
As you can see in the following image, since Lightroom (left) seems to be constantly underexposing the images from ON-1 and its previous Olympus camera raw files, I have continuously added in-camera exposure compensation to your photos to make them appear correct. Using PhotoLab (right), it won’t be necessary as the photo appears much brighter.
With PhotoLab, images are much sharper than in Lightroom Classic. Furthermore, there are no ugly over-grinding artifacts. Pushing the shadow slider up introduced clear details in the shadows without noise. For comparison, in Lightroom, there’s an annoying purple tint in the increased shadows.
My previous testing with Capture One showed it could not produce light blues and reds reflected in water, while Lightroom Classic could. PhotoLab 6 not only improves color detail at default settings compared to Lightroom, but it also restores this detail with more accurate colors than Adobe products.
You can see this in the following example of a heavily cropped image. On the left is Lightroom’s transition, which increased the exposure to +2 EV so that faint reflections can be seen on the left side of the screen. On the right is the DxO Photolab version 6 at the default value. Photolab also has much better noise control.
DxO PhotoLab 6 and Sony
The results with the Sony image are the same as the results I found with the OM-1. With PhotoLab, the resulting images are clearer, with better colors than in Lightroom or Capture One. Skin tone is very good. Photos of people of color have better skin tones, although a bit more yellow than Lightroom. I tried matching the white balance in Lightroom Classic with PhotoLab 6, and still, the subject’s face appeared more yellow in the back, but not as much as when I used Capture One. I note from the comments from the previous post that other photographers have not had this problem. Therefore it could be something specific to my source image.
All images seem to be almost one stop brighter in PhotoLab. This means that right-exposed photos need underexposure, while Lightroom previews overexposed photos as if they were correctly exposed. Correctly exposed images need an incremental exposure slider in Lightroom. The following are also exported at default settings, with Lightroom on the left.
DxO PhotoLab 6 and Fujifilm
I have to wait to finish this article because Photolab has not released optical module update for X-T5 yet. I suspect the long wait is because DxO has done significant additional tests.
I started testing with images from the X-T3 and X-T4. At default values, the photo opened in PhotoLab 6 is very similar to the one produced by Capture One and is far superior to the Lightroom image, giving it a bleached appearance in comparison. The green foliage in PhotoLab is more defined and overall sharper.
Switching to the image that I used in previous programs from the X-T5, there is a marked difference in the results at the default values. The grass, in the dark, is a lot brighter, and the detail on the leaves doesn’t show the weird artifacts visible in Lightroom.
Detail restoration in sky highlights works well, and the three stops can boost blacks and shadows without creating noise.
What I like and what can be improved with DxO PhotoLab 6
Each program has its advantages and disadvantages, but I had a hard time figuring out many of the problems that were developing with PhotoLab 6. At defaults, it outperformed Lightroom in most ways and also performs slightly better than Capture One. However, the latter has a very small advantage with Fujifilm images, especially when dealing with green foliage.
I know that I am testing using a high-end camera with noise-free images. So, out of interest, I opened an old photo taken with a 10-megapixel 2007 Four Thirds camera. I was able to recover the shadows in Lightroom, but the result was very noisy. However, PhotoLab 6 gives much clearer results. Furthermore, where Lightroom needed 2.9 stops of correction with the exposure slider, it only needed 1.3 stops in DxO PhotoLab 6 to show details.
This comparison mainly looks at one aspect of the show: picture quality. There are some functional differences. For example, I love that I can zoom in when cropping in PhotoLab 6. This is a godsend when I shoot seascapes and want an accurate flat horizon, which can sometimes be a small part of the frame. Figure. Then again, PhotoLab 6 failed to flip the photo. That functionality requires purchasing ViewPoint 4 or opening the image into an external editor.
Even so, its visual development results are first-class.
There are more programs than those; I will continue to see results from other raw processing software. Very rarely do I review something and be convinced to give up on what I’m using and adopt something different. The last time that happened was when I reviewed the Benro Tortoise Tripod and was so impressed I bought it. Most of my work takes place only in raw development, and image quality is of paramount importance. Therefore, DxO PhotoLab 6 is currently my top choice. I’ll still use Lightroom’s catalog functionality, or maybe On1 Photo Raw’s, but PhotoLab 6 is now a big part of my workflow.
I would like to once again thank my fellow writers for generously sharing their images for me to play with: Used with permission of Peter MorganCanon; Gary McIntyre, Fujifilm X-T5 and Nikon Z 7II; Andy’s DaySony a7 III and John Ricard, Sony A1 and Nikon Z6. Crop the comparison image with permission from DxO.
