Philip Wheeler Photography: DxO Optics Pro 9

DxO Labs has released version 9 of their DxO Optics Pro software. Version 8 was impressive, and I'm even more impressed by version 9.0.1. The package now supports about 15,400 camera and lens combinations. I recently bought a Nikon D7100 with the 18-140mm lens. DxO Optics immediately downloaded and installed the correct camera/lens combination based on the metadata captured in the RAW images.

There are two screens in DxO Optics that you switch between. The first is called Organize, and this is where you browse through your folders to find the one containing the images you wish to process. Once you select a folder, the images it contains are loaded into a filmstrip-type display at the bottom of the window. This is similar to the way Lightroom displays images in a folder or collection.

Click on Customize and the list of folders becomes a small version of the image selected along with its metadata. To the right a tools palette appears, from which you can adjust exposure, contrast, color temperature, noise reduction, and much more. Once you are satisfied with the image, click Export to disk as a JPEG, TIFF, DNG file, etc. DNG is a lossless "digital negative" image format.

I've been using DxO Optics Pro 9 on their generous 30-day free trial, and my photographs often scream to be processed with lens correction software such as DxO Optics. Here is an example. This image is from the unprocessed RAW file, originally 6000 x 4000 pixels. You can see a curvature in the marble at the top of the image. Not as obvious is curvature in the ceiling beams. Nikon D7100, ISO 1600, Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6 lens set at 18.0 mm and f/4.0, Nikon SB-910 flash on-camera.

The following version was processed with DxO Optics Pro 9 software using the default settings and saved as a DNG. Now the marble at the top is straight as it should be. The size is the same.

I've found that post processing with DxO Optics is sometimes all that I need to prepare an image for other uses. If an image needs more work, I use Photoshop CC to load and process the DNG file from DxO Optics.

I highly recommend that you visit the DxO Labs Web site and download the free trial of DxO Optics Pro 9.0.1.

Philip Wheeler Photography