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 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.
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.
I want to like Darktable, but it's definitely a weird animal. The fact it doesn't support Nikon's raw HE is a big issue for me, too. In fact, I'm not sure how much support there is for the recent Z cameras, as metadata seems misinterpreted, which forces me to reconstruct each image from scratch, and I can't get the same sharpness that NX Studio gives, despite being more basic.
The normal Raw should work, at least for the Z8 and the Z9. Not sure about the Z6 III and I'm guessing the Z50 II is not supported at all, yet, but should be soon. As for sharpening, darktable needs some special treatment to get good results but the secret weapon is the diffuse and sharpen module.
@@JasonPolakPhotography The lossless raw works for the Z6III, too. The lossy HE raw would require a codec, which isn't free and whose algorithm is patented, so it may never come to a free open-source tool like Darktable, but it's available in Photolab 8. The Z6III - as other recent cameras - still needs to be integrated into Darktable, but it's already possible to use it to some extent by modifying the camera.xml file manually (GitHub issue #17075, for reference).
Makes sense. I'm just going to shoot lossless anyway with my Z8 when I get it in 2025 (would get it now but I'll only be back in North America then). I've never liked lossy anyway even though it probably won't make a difference, except psychologically. Hah.
@@JasonPolakPhotography So true, we never know what's going to be dropped. HE star is very good and about half the size, though, so it's tempting. But that depends how much you shoot, and those memory cards have a lot of space anyway. If you ever want to try, one easy bridge to Darkroom is converting them to .dng with Adobe's dng converter (a bit of a hassle, I know). Have fun with your Z8 when you get it (lucky you)!
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.
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)
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
DT has better image management and I like its map module.
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.
I want to like Darktable, but it's definitely a weird animal. The fact it doesn't support Nikon's raw HE is a big issue for me, too. In fact, I'm not sure how much support there is for the recent Z cameras, as metadata seems misinterpreted, which forces me to reconstruct each image from scratch, and I can't get the same sharpness that NX Studio gives, despite being more basic.
The normal Raw should work, at least for the Z8 and the Z9. Not sure about the Z6 III and I'm guessing the Z50 II is not supported at all, yet, but should be soon. As for sharpening, darktable needs some special treatment to get good results but the secret weapon is the diffuse and sharpen module.
@@JasonPolakPhotography The lossless raw works for the Z6III, too. The lossy HE raw would require a codec, which isn't free and whose algorithm is patented, so it may never come to a free open-source tool like Darktable, but it's available in Photolab 8. The Z6III - as other recent cameras - still needs to be integrated into Darktable, but it's already possible to use it to some extent by modifying the camera.xml file manually (GitHub issue #17075, for reference).
Makes sense. I'm just going to shoot lossless anyway with my Z8 when I get it in 2025 (would get it now but I'll only be back in North America then). I've never liked lossy anyway even though it probably won't make a difference, except psychologically. Hah.
@@JasonPolakPhotography So true, we never know what's going to be dropped. HE star is very good and about half the size, though, so it's tempting. But that depends how much you shoot, and those memory cards have a lot of space anyway. If you ever want to try, one easy bridge to Darkroom is converting them to .dng with Adobe's dng converter (a bit of a hassle, I know). Have fun with your Z8 when you get it (lucky you)!