Dxo OPTICS PRO V5.1 User Manual
Table of content
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Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5
A typical image enhancement session
DxO Optics Pro v5
Reference Manual
The Main Program Overview & Preferences
File / Edit / Workspace / Help Menus
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‘Select’
“Prepare”
‘Process’
‘Review’
How to go further
The Select Tab
The Prepare Tab
The Process Tab
The Review Tab
DxO Optics Pro plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop
DxO Optics Pro plug-in for Adobe® Lightroom
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Table of Contents
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4 Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5
4 A quick session overview
4 First in your workflow!
Chapter 1
5 The Photographic Workflow
6 Ultimate flexibility and ease of use
Chapter 2 7 ‘Select’
7 Add Your Photos from Various Sources
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7 Adding images
8 Import plug-ins
8 The Project window
8 Star-ranking and Stacking
8 The thumbnails and their buttons
9 Fully automatic mode
Chapter 3 10 “Prepare”
10 Sort and Fine-Tune Your Images
10 A new look and a more powerful workflow
10 A gradual complexity
11 Control and corrections palettes
11 Adapting your workflow
12 The Correction Palettes
Chapter 4 13 ‘Process’
13 The Whole Batch
13 The ‘Process’ tab
13 Output formats
14 Start the process
Chapter 5 15 ‘Review’
15 Control the Results
15 Check the before and after
5 A typical image enhancement session
Chapter 6 16 How to go further
16 Your workflow & one final note
Chapter 7 17 The Main Program Overview & Preferences
17 Three Basic Concepts
17 Concept #1: DxO Optics Pro is part of a larger post-production workflow.
18 Concept #2: DxO Optics Pro is made up of correction modules
and each image is treated as a unique file within a project.
18 Concept #3: There is no “one” right workflow. Do not be afraid
to experiment and learn.
18 Suggested DxO Optics Pro Workflows
20 Output file formats
Chapter 8 21 File / Edit / Workspace / Help Menus
21 File Menu
21 Edit menu
22 Program Preferences: The General tab
22 Program Preferences: The Module ambiguity tab
22 Workspace Menu
22 Workspace menu
23 Help menu
24 The Workspace Tabs
Chapter 9 25 The Select Tab
25 Select Tab Screen
26 File System icon
26 Windows version:
26 Macintosh version:
26 Project Database icon:
26 Content window
27 The Project Window
27 Thumbnail Icons
28 Module Information Icons
28 Ranking
29 Stacking
29 Right Clicking
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30 The Preview Window
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31 Force parallel (horizontal)
31 Force parallel (vertical)
31 Force rectangle
32 The Correction Palettes
33 Overall Correction Palette workspace
33 Move/Zoom Palette
33 Histogram Palette
34 Edit EXIF Palette
35 Preset Editor Palette
37 Four correction palettes: Light, Color, Geometry and Detail.
37 Light Palette
40 Color Palette
42 Color rendering
44 Geometry Palette
47 Detail Palette
50 My Palette
Chapter 11 51 The Process Tab
51 The Process Workspace
51 Output Format window
3Chapter 10 30 The Prepare Tab
Chapter 12 55 The Review Tab
55 The Review Workspace
57 Chapter 13 DxO Optics Pro plug-in for Adobe
57 Installation
57 Activation and Use
Chapter 14 58 DxO Optics Pro plug-in for Adobe® Lightroom
58 Setting up Adobe® Lightroom™ preferences
58 Using DxO Optics Pro from Lightroom
58 Accessing Lightroom™ collections from DxO Optics Pro
▼ Histogram
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Photoshop
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Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5
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Welcome to the exciting world of DxO Optics Pro digital image enhancement! This powerful,
groundbreaking software will improve the quality of your digital images in a way you would
never have believed possible.
DxO Optics Pro’s precise, calibrated corrections are based on unique algorithms derived from
actual measurements made on real camera bodies and lenses. Thousands of test measurements are made on each body and lens combination, using every combination and permutation of shooting parameters.
The entire DxO Optics Pro system utilizes what are called ‘Correction Modules’. Each module
is unique and specific to a particular camera body and lens combination. For this reason, you
need to make sure you have the right module(s) for the camera bodies and lenses you use to
take your pictures. When you do, DxO Optics Pro reads the EXIF information embedded in your
photos, and produces extremely accurate corrections of measured optical flaws. This is not just
subjective (and often time-consuming) manual approximations.
In addition, version 5 of DxO Optics Pro also includes a number of corrections that are not
camera-specific. You can automatically obtain image improvements going beyond simple corrections, which you can also manually adapt for creative effect.
A quick session overview
The way the DxO Optics Pro workflow is organized deserves a few words of explanation. The
first point to understand is that, contrary to traditional image editors, DxO Optics Pro works on
projects, not directly on images. This means that any setting you modify (in the Prepare tab) is
applied to the preview of the image. But your original image remains unmodified: it’s only during
the final process (activated in the Process tab) that DxO Optics Pro will apply corrections in
order to create a new file, your corrected image. So, a session with DxO Optics Pro means two
steps: first, import the images in the Project window; second, automatically process the images.
In between, there may be a third one: manually modifiy the settings of one or more images.
And another last (optional) step comes finally: review the processed images.
When opening DxO Optics Pro, you notice four tabs on the top left of the main window, labeled
“Select”, “Prepare”, “Process” and “Review”. You start in the “Select” tab, where you load the
photos you want to process in the current project. If you would like to immediately process
your images, without making any changes to the default settings, you can click on the “Process
Now” button to start the automatic routine. Alternatively, you can check the preview images in
the “Prepare” tab, and eventually define your own corrections or adjustments. It’s important to
understand that corrections are NOT applied to the image at this point. You just modify some
settings, and the chain of corrections will be applied during the final processing of the image
(in the “Process” tab).
It is also important to remember that DxO Optics Pro treats each of your images uniquely. The
default settings for one image will be different from the default settings of another image.
Default settings are determined by the EXIF information in each picture file, as well as the
contents of the picture.
What makes DxO Optics Pro even more powerful is that some or all of your personal adjustment
settings can be saved as one or more “Presets”. These can then be applied to any number of
images in this or other projects. And while you can easily apply your presets to images, you
can still make further manual adjustments, as needed!
Finally, processing your images is as easy as a single mouse click in the “Process” tab. All
processing for each image file is handled using a “hands off” procedure. You simply designate
your output file format(s) and destination(s) and click the “Start processing” button, and DxO
Optics Pro does the rest. We should also note that you have the choice of three output file
formats. They are covered in more detail in the ‘Process’ chapter of this document.
First in your workflow!
Another very important point to remember is that DxO Optics Pro is designed to be the first
program in your post-production workflow, immediately after your images have been copied
from the card reader or camera. Please note that if your images have been previously processed
using any other software (including reader or cataloguing programs), or are missing important
EXIF data DxO Optics Pro needs, certain DxO corrections you want to use may be limited in
their use or not available.
Note: Please check the on-line FAQ at www.dxo.com/en/photo/support for the most recent updates regarding
this requirement.
DxO Optics Pro also strives to leave as much of the metadata (EXIF, MakerNote, IPTC, XMP) as
possible untouched. This means that you should still be able to use your other image processing/editing software, even after your images have been processed by DxO Optics Pro. And, DxO
Optics Pro automatically rotates your images if you use the auto-rotate facility of your camera,
therefore eliminating the need for additional software for this particular step.
As you can see, DxO Optics Pro is a powerful first step in your post-production process enabling
you to dramatically improve your images in a standalone or highly integrated workflow. The following chapters will offer you valuable information to help get you quickly started implementing
a more effective image improvement process. We recommend that you take the time to read
this User Guide carefully. Doing so will answer many of your questions regarding the proper
operation of the program.
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Chapter 1
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A typical image enhancement session The Photographic Workflow
The entire DxO Optics Pro system has been designed to be straightforward and efficient. This
is particularly important for any photographer with a lot of pictures to process. In this chapter,
we go through a typical photo correction session. Further information regarding each of these
steps can be found in the corresponding chapter located later in this document.
Step 1: Select your images to create a project
(For further information, please see Chapter 2 regarding the “Select” tab)
In order to make it easy to process large numbers of images, DxO Optics Pro is designed around
the concept of “projects”. The first step of the workflow consists in loading a batch of images,
as many or as few as you wish, into a project that will be processed. You do this by “adding
images” to the “Project” window, in the lower part of your “Select” tab workspace. Click on
the System icon, on the top right of the main window: the left column will show you a browser
of your hard disk. Select the folder containing your images, and you will see their thumbnails
or file names appearing in the right pane of the main window.
To import one or many images, simply drag and drop your files to the Project Windows. When
you add images, you are not creating additional copies of your images, but merely recording
references to them in a file that keeps track of all the details of your project. In this way, valuable
hard disk space is not wasted and is used efficiently.
Above the Project window, you will see a drop down box labeled “Preset applied to images:”.
The default choice is “DxO Default settings.” If left at this selection, each of your images added
to the project pane will have the default correction settings applied to them, as determined
by the program (but taking into account the embedded information inside each of them).
However, if you click on the down arrow, additional options will give you the ability to choose
any standard or custom preset and will adjust your images based on specific presets that come
with the program, or are created by you.
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You can then either click the “Process Now” button, that takes you to the “Process” Tab where
the processing of your images will start immediately; or go through the optional “Prepare” Tab,
to control and adjust the specific settings of some (or all) of your images.
Step 2: Prepare your project
(For further information, please see Chapter 3 regarding the “Prepare” stage)
In the “Prepare” tab, you can see, in the lower part of the screen, the same Project window you
just filled with images; but above it, a “preview” pane allows you to visualize any image you
select in the Project. When you click on a thumbnail, you will see first a non-corrected version
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of your image; then, after a few seconds, the preview of the corrected version appears.
In case you’re not satisfied by the default correction, you have the choice to adjust manually
your pictures by using the Correction Palettes. In version 5, all available settings have been
organized into four “photo-palettes” that logically group corrections, according to four successive ways to consider the image. These photo-palettes are: Light (where you can control
Exposure, Lighting, the Tone Curve…), Color (White balance, Color profile, SmartVibrancy…),
Geometry (for Distorsion, Anamorphosis, Keystoning…), and Detail (Sharpness, Denoise, Antidust…). You can access them by clicking on their icons on the top right part of the main window.
You can also access the more traditional Navigation, Histogram, Exif and Presets palettes.
When checking and correcting your images, you may find that some of them do not deserve
any further processing. This may be because you chose one among many almost identical
images of a sequence; or simply because you don’t want to process them now. Click the little
Red light above the thumbnail, and the image, even if it remains inside your project, will be
ignored during the final Process. Note that while the Orange light means “Process status to
be defined”, it will still be processed by default. The green light, obviously enough, means
“Process this image”.
Step 3: Process a batch of images
(For further information, please see Chapter 4 regarding the “Process” tab)
As soon as you are satisfied with the settings you have applied to your images, you can move
on to process them. In the Process tab, check the proposed output formats, and eventually add
or remove some of them. After clicking the Start button, feedback from the program will keep
you continually informed as to your project’s progress. Once underway, this processing stage
is self-directed and “hands-off”.
Ultimate flexibility and ease of use
Thus far, we have briefly described a logical workflow for a typical image enhancement session.
But, DxO Optics Pro has been designed so that in actual practice you can move around more
or less at will between workflow steps in any order you like. Let’s take a look at each of these
steps in more detail.
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Step 4: Review the results
(For further information, please see Chapter 5 regarding the “Review” tab)
When processing is finished, you may want to control your final images, which you can do in
the “Review” tab. If you think one or more of your images needs additional work, you can easily
re-process your original images to apply additional or different settings as needed.
Chapter 2
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‘Select’ Add Your Photos from Various Sources
When you first launch the application, the “Select” tab is the active (highlighted) tab. Make sure
the “System” icon (on the top right of the main window) is selected. When this is done, your
workspace will display a familiar Explorer-style browser where the top two panes (which are
resizable) allow you to navigate around the files on your hard drive or external media.
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Adding images
This initial ‘Select’ stage involves adding the photos you want to process to the Project window,
which will remain in the lower part of your screen throughout all four stages (from Select to
Review). In DxO Optics Pro v5, a preset is always applied to the imported image; but you can
choose to go beyond the “DxO Default” and choose another preset from the list. We will see
later how you can create your own fine-tuned presets.
As you drag thumbnails from the Content folder to your project, or click on the « Import » button
after selecting them (the two actions are identical), the selected preset is applied to the images,
and they appear in the Project window, which you can resize to fit a useful number of images.
Besides using the mouse to drag the dividers to resize these panes, each window pane has a
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button to regain mouse control and make custom sizing adjustments.
Of course, if you have a different set of corrections and adjustments to be applied to various
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images in a project, you can import your first set of pictures with one set of adjustments, and
then highlight and apply a different set of settings to the second set. Remember, each image
in your project is treated individually, so your flexibility in processing possibilities is virtually
unlimited.
On the left of the Project window title bar you can see buttons for managing your project (The
project name is displayed just to the left of them.) The button lets you create a new project.
After processing the images, every project is automatically saved in the internal DxO Optics
Pro database; but you can save a project before completion, for instance if you want to start a
new one while keeping the current project to finish it later.
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Import plug-ins
Let’s now return to the group of icons sitting on the top right of the main window. Next to the
System icon, you will see the Project Database icon. When you click on it, the left pane updates
to display a chronological list of all the projects you already processed (it may be empty the
very first time you work with DxO Optics Pro v5). If you click one of your previous projects, you
will see the thumbnails of all images belonging in this project. You can then import one (or
many) of them into the current project. DxO Optics Pro v5 will re-create the full configuration
you had used for this image, including the settings used in the previous project. This allows you
to easily modify some settings in order to get a different version of the image.
Another useful feature in version 5 is the ability of the program to use plug-ins that allow you
to access photo collections of other software packages. The installed plug-ins will appear in
the upper right of your screen, next to the System and Project Database icons.
These plug-ins control the importing “collections” of your images from other software packages.
This feature allows you take full advantage of the organizational and sorting capabilities of
various professional programs you may be using, such as Apple’s Aperture, Adobe’s Lightroom,
Iview Media Pro, etc. When you click on a plug-in icon, a list of libraries (collections) associated
with the corresponding program will be displayed in the left-hand pane. Click on a collection
and you will be able to access your original images in those collections. Please check on www.
dxo.com for future availability of these plug-ins.
The Project window
This is the place where all your images are referenced; the path to the original and corrected
images is recorded in the Project, along with all specific settings applied to the corrected
image.
The header strip for the project pane has two buttons at the far right. These two buttons let
you change between viewing your image files as thumbnails or as a classic ‘details’ file list.
The same buttons appear at the top right of the right-hand ‘files’ pane, where they perform the
same functions.
Star-ranking and Stacking
Also on the content pane, at the bottom right, is a small slider, with a button at each end.
Dragging the slider to the right, or clicking the right-hand button, increases the thumbnail size
displayed. Dragging the slider to the left or clicking the left-hand button reduces the size of the
thumbnails. To the right of each thumbnail image, you can also choose to ‘rank’ your images,
with a one-five star system (on the contrary of DxO Optics Pro v4, these stars have no effect on
the status of the images, in the Process tab: see below the Red/Orange/Green light system).
The thumbnails and their buttons
On the top left of every thumbnail imported in your project, you see a three spots group (which
show by default an orange middle “light”). This group describes the Process status of the image:
Green light means that you do want to process the concerned image, Red light that you reject
it (but since it remains in your project, you can change your mind later), and Orange light that
you don’t have decided yet.
This system is designed to make more easy the selection of your best pictures among a huge
number of images. When you come back from a shoot, simply drag the whole content of your
images folder inside the project window; place a red light on the discarded images and a
green one to the one you need to process. When no more orange lights are visible, it means
you made your choice… but since the rejected photos are still inside the project window (with
a red light), you can still change your mind.
To remove one or more images from your project, you simply click on the orange icon
displayed in the upper right of each thumbnail; if multiple images are selected, clicking the
on any one of them will delete the entire selection in one action. You can select a group of
adjacent images by dragging a ‘rubber-band’ box around them with the mouse, or by holding
down the ‘Shift’ key as you click on the first and last images in a series. Multiple non-adjacent
images can be selected by holding down the ‘Ctrl’ key while you click on them.
The buttons associated with each thumbnail offer the following functions:
removes the image from the current project
rotates the image for correct viewing orientation
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creates a stack (active on the last-selected image of a multiple selection)
un-stacks a stack of images (active when a stack is selected)
To the right of each image, only visible on mouse-over, is a vertical line of stars ★★★★★
(greyed out at start-up) to indicate the selected ranking of this image. You can click these any
number of these stars on or off at any time.
In addition to these buttons, certain icons may appear above each thumbnail indicating the
status of the image for correction. These icons give important information about each image.
The color of the frame surrounding the thumbnail also has meaning that should be understood
for the effective use of the program.
Fully automatic mode
Once you have selected and added pictures to your project, if you don’t need to make any
manual adjustments to any of your images, you can simply click on the ‘Process now’ button
to the right of the Project pane, and processing will take place. You will only be asked for output
file type and image destination information and to intervene manually to input data in the event
DxO does not have enough information to process certain images correctly.
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Chapter 3
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“Prepare” Sort and Fine-Tune Your Images
A new look and a more powerful workflow
One of the exciting new changes in DxO Optics Pro version 5 is the new ‘Prepare’ tab. For users
who wish to go beyond the automatic settings for some of their images, and need greater
control over how their pictures are adjusted and processed, the Prepare tab is the heart of
their workflow.
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Once you have established a project (either by re-opening an existing one, or by creating
a new one), you can use the ‘Prepare’ workspace to organize your images and specify any
special corrections or adjustments that need to be made. In this workspace, the top half of the
screen is resizable and is available as a type of ‘light table’ to display the image you select for
preview. Once you left-click on a thumbnail in the Project window, the corresponding image
will appear in the Preview pane, first without corrections; and then, after a few seconds, with
all corrections active.
A gradual complexity
An important change between DxO Optics Pro v5 and its previous versions is that there is now
only one user mode for DxO Optics Pro. In fact, in v5, you always work in full ‘Automatic’ mode.
But even in this mode, you can access all the presets of the previous ‘Guided’ mode, or all the
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correction palettes that were available in the ‘Expert’ mode.
It’s worth noting that the complexity of the software appears gradually based on how you
use the program. The first time you select the Prepare tab, no correction palette is visible. To
access the Presets for instance, click on the corresponding icon on the top right of the main
window. The Preset palette will then appear allowing you to select from a list the presets you
want to apply.
‘Detail’ shows the pixel level controls, such as Noise, Sharpening, Chromatic aberra-
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tions, and the new anti-dust tool.
And finally you will find a very specific palette:
‘MyPalette’ can be customized with the controls you use frequently. Just drag any
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control from Light, Color, Geometry or Detail on MyPalette to “duplicate” it.
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If you want to modify a particular aspect of the image, such as Light, Color, Geometry, or Detail,
you simply click on the appropriate icon to open the corresponding palette. All palettes open
with a simplified design, showing only the basic controls. However, you can click on the “More
Options” button to access the full complexity of all available settings.
Control and corrections palettes
All corrections you make to your images are coordinated using Correction Palettes. In version
5, these palettes now float and are independent of each other. Each palette can be made to
appear or disappear as needed by clicking its icon in the upper right toolbar at the top of the
screen. Tip: Can’t remember which icon goes with which palette? Just hover your mouse pointer
over an icon and a tool tip will appear.
From left to right, you’ll find the first four control palettes:
The Navigation palette helps you quickly zoom or pan in the image.
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The Histogram palette shows the histogram of the image. This graph presenting the
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number of pixels for each color value.
The EXIF palette gives you access to the information embedded in the header of the
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image.
The Presets palette, which we have already mentioned.
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Next you will find the four correction palettes:
‘Light’ shows the Exposure, Lighting and Vignetting controls, plus the Tone Curve.
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‘Color’ brings together the Color Rendition Profile, SmartVibrancy, and the White bal-
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ance and Multi-point Color balances controls.
‘Geometry’ gives access to the distortion, anamorphosis correction, keystoning and
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crop settings.
Not sure if the setting you applied to a specific image will do what you want? To assist you with
determining if the correction selections you have made meet your requirements, DxO Optics
Pro v5 has a ‘Proof this’ feature. This allows you to immediately automatically start processing
the picture you have chosen with the settings you currently have picked for the image. This way
you can quickly and easily process a single image and verify the results.
On the left-hand side of the header tool bar is another series of icons to help you easily access
often used tools that will assist you in visualizing and adjusting your pictures. For example,
the second icon from the left is a magnifying glass tool that lets you zoom in to any part
of the previewed image by successively clicking on it. Holding down the ‘Shift’ key as you click
turns it into a zoom out tool. In all cases, the minimum zoom size is ‘Zoom to fit’ (determined
by the current size of the preview pane), and the maximum is 600%. Please note that some
corrections cannot be observed with zoom factors smaller than 75%. This is the case for the
‘Chromatic Aberration’, ‘DxO Lens softness’, ‘DxO Noise’ and ‘Unsharp Mask’ corrections.
Alternatively, over on the right-hand side of the header bar, a drop-down box lets you choose
the zoom ratio of the preview image as well as zoom in and zoom out buttons.
Adapting your workflow
In the ‘Preview’ workspace, you will find two buttons that specify the way your preview image
is displayed:
displays both ‘before’ and ‘after’ images in preview window
displays only the ‘after’ (processed) image in preview window. Note: When you click
on the ‘after’ image with the left mouse button, it will be replaced with the ‘before’
image.
We have briefly mentioned the Correction Palettes earlier in this Guide, but now let’s take a
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closer look at what these powerful tools can do to help you get the most from DxO Optics Pro.
Here is a quick list of correction palettes for your use.
Zoom has a small window that indicates the visible part of the image : a green box represents
the assigned size of the preview area. The more you ‘zoom in’, the smaller the green box
appears because you are looking more closely at a smaller part of the image. You can also
grab the box with the mouse pointer and drag it around the screen in order to examine specific
parts of an image. The button on the left-hand end of the header bar lets you grab the main
preview image to move it around when zoomed in. There is the same zoom slider as before,
together with small zoom in/out buttons at either end. Maximum zoom in all cases is 200%.
The minimum zoom size still depends on the size you have set for the preview pane. The
button in the header bar is another way of zooming in and out.
Histogram gives you a graphical representation of the distribution of the relative brightness
levels in the image, across the red, green, and blue color channels. This is a very useful tool
that you will probably find yourself leaving open many times while you are adjusting color
and exposure.
EXIF Editor brings up a list of valuable information about the current image. You will also find
two text fields. In these fields, you can enter specific author and copyright information that will
be added to the EXIF header of the chosen image. HINT: You can create a Preset with the EXIF
information and easily apply this custom Preset to additional images.
Presets opens a window with a list of available presets you can apply to your image. A preset
is a group of settings, fine-tuned for a specific photographic situation. You will find some DxOcrafted presets, but it’s easy to create your own presets to complement your own vision and
needs. Once a preset is applied, you can always adjust its parameters manually, in which case
the preset values will be over-ridden for this particular image.
Light — In this palette you will find everything necessary to adjust the density of your image.
Exposure control with highlight preservation allows post-shooting exposure adjustment, as well
as offering the possibility of recovering apparently ‘lost’ highlight detail (available for RAW format images only). The famous ‘DxO Lighting’ process corrects image contrast in an intelligent,
adaptive way, using global and local contrast adjustments. ‘Vignetting’ fixes the dark areas
often visible in the angle of some images. And finally, the ‘Tone’ curve gives you very precise
control to every level of luminance.
DxO Color is the place to go when you want to modify colors in your image. The first control
concerns the familiar ‘White Balance’, which allows you to alter the light temperature and
tint.
Another very important tool gives you a choice of ‘Color Rendition Profiles’. These profiles let
you apply a specific ‘look’ to your images, starting from various camera bodies, up to traditional
film rendering. Style, contrast, saturation and HSL (Hue/Saturation/Luminance) controls are
also available.
But you will also find DxO’s exclusive ‘Multi-point color balance’ tool to be crucial when various
colored light sources are active in the same scene. ‘SmartVibrancy’, on another hand, brings
out more vivid colors in the image while preserving skin tones.
Geometry — In this palette you will find controls for Distortion, Volume Anamorphosis
Correction and Keystoning / Horizon. The distortion correction is automatically applied by
DxO Optics Pro, according to the type of lens used for the picture and the photographic settings (zoom, aperture, etc.). But you may want to adjust this correction in order to create a
specific effect.
‘Volume Anamorphosis Correction’ is another exclusive tool. It takes care of this geometric
distortion that stretches objects in the corners of wide-angle images. Being subject-matter
dependent, this adjustment requires you to manually set the type and amount of correction.
The remaining corrections provide adjustments to compensate for keystoning in both vertical
and horizontal planes, image rotation (horizon correction), scaling (image sizing) and H/V
ratio (stretching / squeezing of horizontal / vertical proportions).
Finally you can crop your image (eventually constraining the proportions to specific formats).
An original ‘Auto-crop’ process can do the job for you (following the keystoning adjustments
you already performed).
Detail concentrates all parameters concerning the pixel level. ‘Sharpness’ applies DxO lens
adapted sharpening, while ‘Noise’ minimizes both general and impulse noise. ‘Chromatics
Aberration’ is removed either automatically or manually, with the option of deleting the ‘Purple
Fringing’ introduced by some lenses. Finally, the new semi-automatic ‘Dust removal’ tool lets
you specify the position of dust and blemishes on one image and then automatically remove
them from a full batch of pictures.
Note: These corrections will not be visible in the main preview image below 75%, so you will
need to use the Zoom tool.
12The Correction Palettes
It is important to understand that all of these manual adjustments are not immediately applied
to your images. It’s just a preparation, before you actually start processing your images. To do
this, move to the next workflow tab by clicking on the ‘Process’ tab.
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‘Process’ The Whole Batch
The ‘Process’ tab
The top part of ‘Process’ workspace is divided into three areas, while the familiar Project pane
is located in the bottom section of your screen.
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Output formats
In the left-hand area of the top section is where you can specify what output file formats you
would like created during the processing phase of Optics Pro. Optics Pro supports three output
formats: JPEG, TIFF, and DNG. (DNG formatted files can only be created from RAW input files.)
A summary of all available formats is shown, and you can click on ✔ to enable them for this
batch. You must have at least one output format active for processing to begin. Otherwise, you
will see an error message when you press ‘Start’.
The right side window at the top of the screen is divided into two smaller windows. The top
window will give you information about both the overall processing status of your project as
well as the status of each of the image files being processed. Your ‘Start’, ‘Resume’, and ‘Stop’
buttons are also located in this window.
Immediately below the currently processed images, you will see the next images in the batch
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list. Only the images you have marked with a “green” or a “yellow” light will appear in this list.
Start the process
As noted above, you are kept informed of the progress in processing your project by means of
two sets of progress bars. During processing, the upper ‘Pause’ and ‘Stop’ buttons will allow
you to halt processing temporarily or abort it altogether. Lower buttons similarly allow you to
‘Pause’ processing of the current image, or ‘Skip’ it altogether.
Note: In DxO Optics Pro v5, you no longer have to save your projects to your system’s hard drive
to process your images. At Process time, all settings associated with your images are recorded
automatically in a database composed of sidecar files.
While processing is under way, the thumbnails of all images being processed carry a ‘two cogs’
icon. Once processing is completed, this icon changes to a ✔ indicating that processing has
been successful for that image.
Please note that DxO Optics Pro will automatically utilize the resources of your computer system in the most efficient way possible. If you have a computer system that has multiple cores,
DxO Optics Pro will make every effort to utilize as many cores as possible. If you have other
programs or processes running in the background that are also vying for system resources,
then it is possible that not all of your cores will be utilized during that particular processing run.
This is normal. You can control, to a certain degree, how DxO Optics Pro manages your system’s
resources by adjusting the performance controls in the program’s Preferences window.
After processing your images, you may want to examine the results and compare them to the
original images. DxO Optics Pro makes this workflow step easy as well. To do this, move to the
next workflow tab by clicking on the ‘Review’ tab.
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Chapter 5
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‘Review’ Control the Results
Check the before and after
In the Windows version, the ‘Review’ workspace has two resizable panes; the left-hand pane
shows before and after pairings of thumbnails of all your processed images. The image pair
being viewed in the right pane is highlighted with a blue background.
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On the Macintosh version, it’s a click on the thumbnails inside the Project window that allows
the visualization of the full screen processed image.
On the header bar are arrow buttons, plus the usual group of zoom controls. Key controls
are:
and display previous / next image
and display next / previous output image — if you have selected more than one
output format, lets you view the JPEG / TIFF / DNG images in turn.
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How to go further
After going through a full typical session, you may want to explore more options. The power
of DxO tools is the ability to bring under your direct control many correction and adjustment
functions that can be fine-tuned to meet your specific needs and requirements. In the following
chapters, you can discover the various settings that can be applied to your photos and how
you can manipulate the corresponding palettes. Remember that your original picture is never
changed, and you can always create a new project, along with different settings applied to the
same image or group of images.
Your workflow & one final note
Another point of interest concerns the way you integrate DxO Optics Pro into your personal
workflow. You may use image management software such as Adobe® Lightroom™ to download,
index and preview your photographs. You may also invest in post-production software, such as
Adobe® Photoshop™.
It is very important to remember that in all workflows, DxO Optics Pro should be used ahead of
any image processing software. If not, the effectiveness of Optics Pro will be greatly reduced.
In any case, you should always make sure that the original, out-of-the-camera, EXIF information
stored in your image files remains untouched.
Thank you for using DxO Optics Pro V5! You will find more information in the downloadable pdf version of the Reference Guide, and in the Frequently Asked Questions available on DxO’s website:
http://help.dxo.com/en
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Chapter 7
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The Main Program Overview &
Three Basic Concepts
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Preferences
As DxO Optics Pro has evolved over the years, requests have been made to provide users with
suggestions on specific settings and workflows that best use the capabilities of the program.
There are three underlying concepts to successfully using DxO Optics Pro. If you understand
these concepts, you will find that achieving your post-production goals is greatly simplified.
Concept #1: DxO Optics Pro is part
of a larger post-production workflow.
As anyone who has worked with photography over the years knows, every image is unique, even
images from the same batch. There are almost an unlimited number of factors that must be
considered when taking a picture. Factors such as type and model of camera and lens, image
content, constantly changing weather and lighting conditions, manual and automatic settings,
the photographer’s personal taste, and for what purpose the images are being taken.
With film-based photography, unless the photographer developed his or her own film and prints,
much of the post-production workflow was left to development houses or the local street-corner
vendor. Digital photography has changed this and has moved control over all aspects of the
picture creation process into the hands of the photographer. Understanding how Optics Pro
works allows you to fully utilize each of the correction and adjustment tools it offers and properly
use the program within a larger workflow.
This Reference Manual will give you an overview of each tool in the program. It will also offer
recommendations, where appropriate, on how to best use these tools to achieve your desired
photographic goals.
To insure that DxO Optics Pro fits within a larger workflow, the program outputs three popular
file formats. They are:
JPEG
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TIFF
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DNG
•
The DNG format produced by Optics Pro is fully compatible with the Adobe® specifications and can be easily used in Adobe® products such as Camera Raw, Photoshop™ and
Lightroom™.
and each image is treated as
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a unique file within a project.
There are several important, but related, points that make up this concept.
First, DxO Optics Pro does not work like any other post-production program you may use. Rather
than presenting you with an uncorrected image to work on and expecting you to manually make
the corrections and adjustments, Optics Pro automatically determines the best set of settings
for each image you add to its Project window.
When you add an image to DxO Optics Pro, the program reads the camera and lens information that is stored in the EXIF data portion of your image as well as analyzes the subject matter
content of the image. If the camera and lens information matches the information found in
an installed correction module, the module is chosen and optical corrections are applied to
the image. Taking the information from the image file, Optics Pro develops “default” correction
settings that are custom tailored for each of your pictures. In most cases, these settings will
provide you with the best possible results and clicking on ‘Process Now’ will start the procedure
to process your images immediately without further adjustments.
TIP: The image information read by DxO Optics Pro is not information
that can be changed once it is written by the camera. If advanced correction tools such as volume anamorphosis, distortion, lens softness, etc. are
greyed out, this is a good sign that either the correction module you need
is not loaded on your system, or the EXIF data in the file has been changed
or damaged.
You may occasionally find that you want to apply additional corrections to one or more images.
By clicking on the Prepare tab, you will have access to the full suite of Optics Pro tools. When
you manually make changes to these tool settings, you are making your changes based on
the best default values computed for that image.
TIP: Returning to these default values can be accomplished either by
rechecking the auto-mode box to the right of the tool’s input window or
slider, or using the default Presets to reset the original settings.
Second, all images that are to be processed, either singly or as a group, are placed into a
‘project’ in Optics Pro. The Project window at the bottom of your screen allows you to specify
what picture files you want to process at any given time. We will cover how to control this
processing later in this Manual.
Third, correction modules are the heart of DxO Optics Pro. They are built upon hundreds, even
thousands, of exacting measurements taken from actual photographs. These measurements
are tailored for the originating camera and lens. It is therefore critical to remember that in order
to get all of the benefits available in DxO Optics Pro, you must use the specific camera and
lens combinations that are supported. NOTE: You can always find an up-to-date list of these
combinations on the DxO Labs website.
By treating each image individually, DxO Optics Pro allows you to mix varied images into a
project for processing. Each image can then benefit from the specific changes it needs to
produce the best results for you. This includes the adjustments you make manually, as well as
the automatic optical corrections produced by the modules.
Concept #3: There is no “one” right workflow.
Do not be afraid to experiment and learn.
Whether you shoot portraits, landscapes, weddings, sporting events, people, wildlife, family
pictures, a handful of images or hundreds of pictures at a time, using Optics Pro within a good
workflow tailored to your individual needs will yield the best results and reduce the amount of
time between an unfinished image and a finished product.
This Manual will help you develop your workflow(s), as well as assist you in understanding
when they should be used. We, therefore, highly recommend that you read this Manual to
better understand the program’s features and keep it handy for future reference. DxO Labs will
regularly update this Manual, as needed.
Suggested DxO Optics Pro Workflows
A common question that is often asked is “How do I best use DxO Optics Pro?”
There are many answers to this question, too varied in number to offer any one specific recommendation here. The suggestions and recommendations below are not meant to be a
comprehensive list of all options, but instead offer you ideas on how to build your own set of
workflows.
Always make DxO Optics Pro the first program in your post-production workflow.
Since DxO Optics Pro’s correction modules are built on original images taken with the camera
and lenses you use, if an image is pre-processed by another program so that either its EXIF or
image data is changed, DxO Optics Pro will not be able to return the results you expect from
the program.
18Concept #2: DxO Optics Pro is made up of correction modules
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