Jason, you had me worried there for a second. I'll kick in my favorite combination without anyone noticing it: DARKTABLE combined with DxO PureRAW 4, the latter with a denoising system that probably is identical to the one in PhotoLab 8 - but with full screen preview. I also own PhotoLab 7 due to a temporary lapse of reason one year ago. If you download and test PhotoLab 8, be sure to test it thoroughly throughout the trial period. The principle for local adjustments is special. Then buy it - or forget it. In any case download the free alternative, Darktable, learn it and edit RAWs like a pro. Btw. Darktable is very good at improving JPGs too ;O)
Yeah, PureRaw 4 with darktable is a nice option if you want DxO's denoising, which is the same as in Photolab. And don't worry. Nothing could make me leave darktable!
I use Photolab 8 for ease of use, quite efficient lens softness corrections, and SUPERB noise reduction. However, the noise reduction in PL8 only works on raw files, and Darktable's masking abilities are absolutely way superior. Dang, if one could only have the best of both worlds in one app! =)
darktable, compared to DXO, also allows you to visualize your images on a map. In addition, I might be wrong but it looks like DXO doesn' t have a liquify tool but only the clone tool. What is really surprising about DXO is the lack of a waveform. It ha been requested by its users but never implemented so far. darktable has also some basic tethering options for your cameras (it only kind of works on Linux, btw)
There are quite a few darktable modules that don't have DxO analogues. And true, DT has a map. Never used it but it's cool. I don't think even Lightroom has a waveform, but I might be wrong because I don't actually use it.
and what do you use for a raster/bitmap graphics ? it's weird that you've never created a video about that ... Personally I use both DT and RT but I use GIMP for specific tasks that GIMP does better - like in my opinion any contrast adjustments (like for instance sharpening)
Technically I use the GIMP as a program for other things but virtually never for photography. TBH I don't have a need for any raster program at all in photography except focus stacking, where I use Zerene Stacker. Darktable with a combination of the contrast equalizer and diffuse or sharpen seems more than sufficient, at least to my eyes. Or RT with its capture sharpening and its slightly superior denoising.
@@JasonPolakPhotography interesting ... Me as a landscape photographer cannot live without exposures blending and I do it in GIMP using masks .. Also I've found that for to working with/recovering a contrast GIMP is far more powerful and flexible that DT or RT so in general I use DT/RT only for RAW processing which means luminosity and colors and everything else in GIMP (or in general in raster editor) ..
Exposure blending, yeah that's a cool use of it for sure. I don't do that much, but I've tried enfuse. I do some landscapes but most of the time I just do single Raws and live with the dynamic range of my Z6.
Thank you. I now use DxO PureRaw 4 for denoising (in batch). The rest of the editing in Darktable, still learning! So the best of both worlds.
Jason, you had me worried there for a second.
I'll kick in my favorite combination without anyone noticing it: DARKTABLE combined with DxO PureRAW 4, the latter with a denoising system that probably is identical to the one in PhotoLab 8 - but with full screen preview. I also own PhotoLab 7 due to a temporary lapse of reason one year ago. If you download and test PhotoLab 8, be sure to test it thoroughly throughout the trial period. The principle for local adjustments is special. Then buy it - or forget it. In any case download the free alternative, Darktable, learn it and edit RAWs like a pro. Btw. Darktable is very good at improving JPGs too ;O)
Yeah, PureRaw 4 with darktable is a nice option if you want DxO's denoising, which is the same as in Photolab.
And don't worry. Nothing could make me leave darktable!
And Darktable is a very advance fantastic editor
Indeed. My favourite editor for sure! I would be terribly sad if I had to switch to something else.
Man I need to learn more about DT masking, masking in general and how to better interpret waveforms.
Maybe I'll make a video on waveforms.
I use Photolab 8 for ease of use, quite efficient lens softness corrections, and SUPERB noise reduction. However, the noise reduction in PL8 only works on raw files, and Darktable's masking abilities are absolutely way superior. Dang, if one could only have the best of both worlds in one app! =)
Some people use PureRaw which solves the noise reduction at least. And Pure Raw also has basic lens softness correction, too.
DT has better image management and I like its map module.
May I add an important advantage of DT (at least for me)? It runs on Linux
Yes, absolutely. That's a great advantage and I used it on Linux for a LONG time. (Since about 1.6)
darktable, compared to DXO, also allows you to visualize your images on a map.
In addition, I might be wrong but it looks like DXO doesn' t have a liquify tool but only the clone tool.
What is really surprising about DXO is the lack of a waveform. It ha been requested by its users but never implemented so far.
darktable has also some basic tethering options for your cameras (it only kind of works on Linux, btw)
There are quite a few darktable modules that don't have DxO analogues. And true, DT has a map. Never used it but it's cool. I don't think even Lightroom has a waveform, but I might be wrong because I don't actually use it.
and what do you use for a raster/bitmap graphics ? it's weird that you've never created a video about that ... Personally I use both DT and RT but I use GIMP for specific tasks that GIMP does better - like in my opinion any contrast adjustments (like for instance sharpening)
Technically I use the GIMP as a program for other things but virtually never for photography. TBH I don't have a need for any raster program at all in photography except focus stacking, where I use Zerene Stacker. Darktable with a combination of the contrast equalizer and diffuse or sharpen seems more than sufficient, at least to my eyes. Or RT with its capture sharpening and its slightly superior denoising.
@@JasonPolakPhotography interesting ... Me as a landscape photographer cannot live without exposures blending and I do it in GIMP using masks .. Also I've found that for to working with/recovering a contrast GIMP is far more powerful and flexible that DT or RT so in general I use DT/RT only for RAW processing which means luminosity and colors and everything else in GIMP (or in general in raster editor) ..
Exposure blending, yeah that's a cool use of it for sure. I don't do that much, but I've tried enfuse. I do some landscapes but most of the time I just do single Raws and live with the dynamic range of my Z6.
DXO doesn’t support my Leica M8…
They have a system where you can send in Raw files for support. It does work but takes a bit of time between updates.