IS DXO PHOTO LAB 7 PRICEY MASKING TOOL WORTH IT?
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- Опубликовано: 17 май 2024
- In this video we look at DXO's luminosity masking tool and see whether it is worth its high price tag. We also compare it with the control point and control line's performance.
I shall admin the correctness of the statement that luminosity masks shall be part of DxO PL 7. But from other angle - you did not show the full specter of the possible corrections using the LM. This is why you can correct the same image using other masking tools. But if e.g. you need to target only mid-tones (in terms of Zone System) - you cannot do that using other masking tools. But in LM you have these zones shown in the scale - so you can select them and see what pixels corresponds to that zone selection. This is very powerful feature, which is NOT available in LR or Capture One. So this is the reason it is sold separately.
But in the end - I would like to say thank you for that great job of explaining how this software works!
Thanks for the feedback. I do admit I didn't think the zone system was of much use but always glad to hear an alternative view!
Fun, fun, video to watch. Thank you for this knowledge. I personally own Filmpack 7, and I buy all my photography software on Black Friday to save some decent money 💰 🤑 💸
Thanks for the positive review! You bought filmpack for filmpack or the luminosity mask? Yes Black Friday is the best I do wait for that as well 😀
You also get four new contrast sliders with Film Pack 7. Fine Contrast, plus Highlight Contrast which affects only highlights, Midtone Contrast, which affects only midtones, and Shadows Contrast, which affects only shadows. I'm finding them more useful than the Luminosity mask tool.
Thanks for the feedback. Good to revisit filmpack to see what other features justifies the price.
Thanks for the review of this feature. I downloaded Filmpack 7 to test and the luminosity mask is the only feature I am interested in. Like your summation, I am not $139 interested. I agree this should be included in Photo Lab.
A commenter mentioned luminosity mask is now in Nik 7. If that's the case it should be coming in Photolab 8
Try the Highlight, Midtone, and Shadows Contrast sliders. They too, come with Film Pack 7. I love the Highlight Contrast slider for adding drama to clouds. There's also a new Fine Contrast slider which works with areas too big for the Micro Contrast slider.
A very handy tool, but I agree it would be better included in PhotoLab rather than in FilmPack.
I heard they will be including it for photolab 8. We shall see.
Good video. I currently own Film Pack 6 which I use with Photo Lab 7, and rarely use Film Pack. However, I recently researched the new version of the NiK Collection 7, and considering all of the included upgraded features as well as it's Luminosity tool, if you already have NiK Collection, it is worth the upgrade cost of $89.00. Although NiK Collection doesn't support RAW files, it does support TIFF, which is the next best option for me. I use it as well as Topaz Denoise and Sharpen as a plugin in Affinity Photo. A good powerhouse setup for my editing without the cost of a subscription. Thanks for sharing 👍.
Sounds like Nik Collection suitable for you since you don't need RAW. I believe though luminosity masking will be coming to Photolab 8 so maybe wait for that 😊 Should be arriving around October
@@takebetterphotos8132
How much do you think the PL8 upgrade will be, will it be as much or less than $89 for NiK?
it typically will cost around $109 to upgrade
Thanks for the video. Although currently ai selections do a similar job.Still I do like this masking tool. The problem is that I don't like the color engine that comes afterwards. That micro contrast looks very HDR like from 2005 :/
Thanks for sharing. That is the way DXO processes which may not be for everyone :).
Micro contrast requires a very light application to look natural. I generally add a tiny touch of application on Blacks.
NIK 7 is now offering luminosity masking, but not to the RAW file. However do you think this could be an alternative , though not cheap,solution. Alternatively as it is now in NIK 7 it may be coming to PL8. Decisions, decisions😊
Well if you don't shoot in RAW and find NIK useful I think would be a good alternative. I do need the RAW capability so can't use NIK then. Yes, since it is in NIK 7 I think it might be coming to PL8. It is about time! I prefer they prioritize AI masking though😊
For real estate images I tried using Luminosity mask but its almost useless, there is no way to feather a hard mask except the move bottom sliders but then that makes it select unwanted areas which then have to manually erase, there is no way to manually tell which area of window to select luminosity mask.
Conventional tool U point works better & faster.
Yes that was the biggest flaw of luminosity mask, you need to manually erase.
So as you say if the area of brightness is not very distinct and spills over there is way to correct it easily.
They should have integrated this with at least U-point or automasking.
It is also in NIK collection 7 which is more useful for some people
Yes for jpeg shooters Nik 7 would be great. Too bad it doesn't edit RAW 😊
@@takebetterphotos8132 If you are transferring to NIK you have already developed the raw photo and are using 16 bit tiff from which there has been virtually no loss. If you are dealing with a high ISO photo in LR you really have to use PL7 or Pureraw as LR cant handle high ISO noise and the returned file is no longer raw but a processed raw file being returned as a DNG file. Nothings perfect.
Thanks for sharing your workflow. I suppose that is why it is advertised as a plugin from lightroom or photoshop. What tool do you find the most useful in Nik that is not available/weaker in Photolab 7?
@@takebetterphotos8132 I use colour efex pro quite a lot and originally got it because PL did not have transform for fixing perspective. I don't like that some of the important items in PL are separated out into separate apps you have to pay for if you want them and they have done this again with their luminosity mask which is in filmpack but not PL7 you can do a full raw edit if you have film pack and the masking is now very effective. Both LR and PS could not easily mask a bird photo the other day and I had to do it in Affinity Photo. I understand PS can now mask fine hair more accurately now but it could not a year ago and kept removing fine hairs around the eyes of an owl but Affinity did is straight away with it's flood select. I often do cutouts and move things around but that is easier in PS or Affinity photo.
Yes if you do cutouts than no choice but PS or Affinity. Interesting you find that flood select works better than PS. I always thought when I tested PS object selection and fine hair masking was the best as it is able to do it in practically one click. But sounds like you have all the tools you need!
Or you could just go into PS, then back to PL7.
If you use PS then perhaps PL7 would be redundant as it has better masking