ing/editing software, even after your images have been processed by DxOOpticsPro. And, DxOOpticsPro 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, DxOOpticsPro 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 manual carefully. Doing so will answer many of your questions regarding the proper operation of the program.
What makes DxOOpticsPro 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 the 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 DxOOpticsPro does the rest. We should also note that you have the choice of three output file formats. These are covered in more detail in the Process chapter of this document.
The first program in the workflow
Another very important point to remember is that DxOOpticsPro 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 DxOOpticsPro 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.
DxOOpticsPro 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 process-
Chapter 2 The DxOOpticsPro menus

Note: Though activation can be done without an Internet connection, it is highly recommended that you have your computer connected to an active Internet connection to simplify and speed up program activation.
Transfer license [Active Internet connection required]
Note: When moving to another computer, please make sure you transfer the license off of the previous computer first before formatting or removing the DxO programs. Under the DxO license, you are allowed two concurrent activations per license. Failure to properly deactivate a system may lead to problems in being able to activate your DxO product on another computer.

Workspace tabs

At the top left of your window will be the four workspace tabs that you can use to correct, process and check you images. The four tabs are:
Clicking on this item will bring up a short menu list that allows you to transfer your DxOOpticsPro and FilmPack licenses off of the current computer system. This will deactivate these products on this computer once the transfer process is complete. This feature is vital when you are moving to another computer and want to free up the license on this computer for use on another computer. Local help Clicking on this menu item will display the DxOOpticsPro Reference Manual. NOTE: Your computer does not need to be connected to the Internet to use this menu item if the Reference Manual has previously been downloaded and installed on your computer. If you have not previously downloaded the Manual, you will need an active Internet connection to: 1. download the Manual from the Downloads page on the DxO Labs website, or 2. download the Manual the next time you download the program for an update (make sure the Reference guide box is checked). Online help [active Internet connection required] Clicking on this menu item will open your default web browser and take you to the DxO Labs website on-line support page, where you will find links to Customer Service, Technical Support, Downloads, and our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. Tech support [active Internet connection required] Clicking on this menu item will open your default browser and take you directly to the DxO Technical Support web page, where youll find a form for asking your questions. Visit Web site [active Internet connection required] Clicking on this menu item will open your default browser and take you to the DxO Labs home page. About DxOOpticsPro Clicking on this menu item will open the About DxOOpticsPro window where you can find information on the version running and add-ins that are currently installed. This information is particularly useful if you need to contact DxO Technical Support.

prepare tab before opening correction palettes
In the event that youre not satisfied by the default correction, you have the option to adjust your pictures manually using the Correction Palettes. In version 5, all available settings have been organized into four photo-palettes that group corrections logically, according to four different aspects of the image: Light (where you can control Exposure, Lighting, Tone Curve, ), Color (White balance, Color profile, Vibrancy, ), Geometry (Distortion, Anamorphosis, Keystoning, ), and Detail (Sharpness, Denoise, Anti-dust, ). You can access these by clicking on their icons on the top right part of the main window. You can also access the more conventional Navigation, Histogram, EXIF/IPTC, and Presets palettes. When checking and correcting your images, you may find that some of them do not merit any further processing. This may be because you have already chosen one out of many almost identical images from a sequence, or simply because you dont want to process them right now. Click the little Red light above the thumbnail, and the image will be ignored during the final Process, though it will remain in your project.The Orange light means Process status to be
Step 2: Prepare your project
Under the Prepare tab, you can see, in the lower part of the screen, the same Project pane 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
defined, but such images will still be processed by default. The green light, obviously enough, means Process this image.
Step 4: Review the results
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.
Selecting images for processing

In the group of icons at the top right of the main window, next to the System icon, you will see the Project Database icon. When you click on this, the left pane updates to display a chronological list of all the projects you already processed (the very first time you work with DxOOpticsPro v5, this may be empty). If you click one of your previous projects, you will see the thumbnails of all images belonging to this project. You can then import one (or more) of them into the current project. DxOOpticsPro 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.
The Project pane header bar has two buttons on the right-hand side. These two buttons let you change between viewing your image files as thumbnails or as a classic details file list. The same buttons appear in the top right corner of the files pane, in which you perform the same functions. 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 buttons let you create a new project / save and/or rename a project. Every project is automatically saved in the DxOOpticsPro internal database after image processing, but you can save a project before completion for instance, if you want to start a new project while saving the current one to finish later.
Star-ranking and Stacking
Choosing the image source
Another useful feature in version 5 is the programs ability to use plug-ins that allow you to access photo collections from 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 import of 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 Apples Aperture, Adobes 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. ATTENTION: if your images have been modified, or converted from raw into JPG by one of the aforementioned programs, and their metadata have been altered, DxO will no longer be able to apply the principal optical corrections for which it was designed.
At the bottom right of the content pane 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 to five star system (unlike in DxOOpticsPro v4, these stars have no effect on the status of the images in the Process tab: see the Red/Orange/Green light system below).

The EXIF for this image is empty or has been modified by another program
Any time you have a number of images that for some reason might require the same process settings, you may want to consider stacking them. These might be a series of related images of the same subject, or a set of images taken under the same lighting conditions. The possibilities are endless A stack always shows a master image on the top of stack. This is the image that will be displayed when you select the stack under the Prepare tab.
Expand the stack by double-clicking on the image, so you can check all pictures Shrink the stack by double-click on the top of stack (master) image. Note: Its the

one outlined in blue.

inside without unstacking them. You can also expand the stack, displaying all of the images in the stack in the Project window by right clicking on the stack and then choosing Stacking and Expand stack.
Change the master image. if the stack is expanded, by double-clicking on another
image; or if its collapsed, by using the scroll wheel on your mouse. the stack and choosing Stacking and Add to stack.
Add more images. You can add more images to the stack later by right-clicking on Remove from stack. If you expand a stack and highlight an image in the stack by
clicking on it, then right click on it and select Remove from stack in the Stacking sub-menu. This will remove the image from the stack, but not from the project. and choosing Stacking and Unstack items.
Unstack items with the help of the menu that appears with a right-click of the mouse
Once a stack has been created, it sticks together and can be handled and manipulated as if it were single image. The thumbnail for a stack of images appears with a light-gray border.
Right Clicking on an image
Here, from the nine selected images, two stacks have been created according to the subjects
Creating a stack. It is easy to create a stack by selecting multiple images (so they are highlighted with a blue outer box) and then right clicking on one of the images. A menu window will open and one of the options is called Stacking with a right facing arrowhead next to it. Clicking on this menu item opens up a sub-menu to the right. TIP: To select consecutive thumbnails for inclusion in a Stack, hold down the Shift key and click on the first and last images for the stack. To select non-consecutive images, hold down the Ctrl key and single click on the thumbnails you want to be included in the stack.

Force Parallel (Horizontal) This control lets you quickly apply perspective correction (also available via the geometry palette). It involves drawing two lines on the image that you are seeking to make parallel, which corrects the image elements concerned, but may cause distortion of other details; the other tools in this palette allow finer corrections. Force Parallel (Vertical) This control is the same as the previous one, except that it lets you correct vertical perspective, e.g. on a building.
Quick use of parallels tool
Note: When you first click on the anti-dust tool, two picture images will be displayed in the Preview window. The left hand image is the before image (where you will make your correction) and the right hand picture is the after image. The before image already includes the other corrections applied by DxO. You can use the zoom slider and hand tool to zoom in to the area of the image you want to work on.
ATTENTION: This tool can only be used at zoom settings over 75%; select the 100% position for adequate accuracy for your corrections, or even 200% for smaller dust particles.
Horizon lets you draw a line across the Preview window allowing the horizon in the image to be realigned. Once you have drawn the line, release the left mouse button and the picture will be rotated to reflect the new horizon.This instant correction may mean significant cropping is needed if the original image was very tilted.
Force rectangle This control combines the horizontal and vertical corrections and lets you completely correct the perspective of a subject, for example, a building shot from below and at an angle; but take care, as this may entail other distortions and demand significant cropping of the image. The numerical tools in the Geometry palette give you finer control.
To sum up, then: the first two keystoning correction options act in similar ways, except that in these cases you are asked to define a pair of vertical or horizontal lines that you wish to be parallel. You can move the end points you draw so as to position your parallel lines within the image. It doesnt matter if you reset the lines in the same or reverse order, the end result is the same. Only the relative angles of the lines count, their lengths have no effect on the correction. If you change a pair of horizontal lines to vertical correction (or vice-versa), your image will be rotated to reflect the lines you have drawn. If your picture contains both vertical and horizontal keystoning, you will need to use the third option Force rectangle.This allows you to set four points on the left-hand image so as to define a box that you wish to correct to be rectangular. Do note, however, that this is more powerful than a simple manual combination of both vertical and horizontal keystone correction, since it is also able to introduce an element of skew into the correction.

Original DxO Lighting Slight
Highlight recovery adjustment box and the effect of a Strong correction
washed-out shadows; the program decides to what extent the darker tones should be held back as shadows. The Shadow Radius slider / edit box affects the way DxO Lighting makes its decisions about what areas represent shadow or not, and how to apply the gamma locally in the image. This slider has a range from 0 (entirely global) to 15 (fully localized): these arbitrary levels act differently according to the size of the image. As with other controls, there is a check box to the right of the adjustments that allows you to enable or disable the automatic modes for Gamma and Shadow Radius sliders, or to revert to initial settings after over-zealous correction.
DxO Lighting Medium DxO Lighting Strong
In the above examples, you can see that a certain amount of detail has been revealed in the buildings, but the highlight areas have been preserved. Below the Auto Mode drop down box is More Options. If you click on this, an additional correction panel is displayed. Clicking Less Options will hide this panel.
And last, but by no means least, comes the pair of sliders / edit boxes for Local contrast (range from 0100 %) and Global contrast (range from +50 to 50 %). The Global contrast control uses a tonal S-curve to affect the overall contrast of the image, with a useful bi-directional range allowing both contrast enhancement for slightly flat images and reduction for contrasty ones: but be careful not to use this control at the same time as the Tone Curve one (page 39). The Local contrast control, on the other hand, is more subtle in its effect, altering the contrast in a spatially-determined way that takes into account the area around each pixel, which gives a similar type of result to sharpening, but in a subtler way, bringing out the detail without inserting additional black or white pixels.Take care, however, not to use a large increase in local contrast in conjunction with too much Unsharp Mask (page 49).
DxO Lighting precise adjustment box
The White point and Black point sliders operate in a complementary fashion. Each has a range from 0 to 255, or you can enter a whole number in the edit boxes instead.These controls have the effect of stretching the images lower tonal range up towards white or stretching the upper range down towards black. This is similar in many ways to what might be achieved using a tone curve adjustment and is probably easiest to visualize in conjunction with the Histogram display. Selecting the check box on the right enables and disables the automatic mode. The Brightness adjustment acts basically like an overall gamma control with the slider and entry box having a default setting of 1.00 and a range from 0.50 to 5.00. The Preserve shadow feature (checked by default) operates at higher positive gamma settings, to avoid

The Hue slider can be moved to the right or left to change the hue, or a positive or negative figure can be entered in the edit box. The exact operation of this slider is naturally affected by which color channel(s) you have selected to adjust. The slider and box values range from +180 to 180.
For Saturation, the slider can be moved to the right to increase, or to the left to decrease, the color saturation (overall, or any one or more of the six color axes), or a positive or negative figure can be entered. The slider and box values range from +100 to 100. The same goes for the Luminance slider. Move the slider to the right (or enter a positive figure) to lighten and to the left (or enter a negative figure) to darken. These slider and box values can be from +100 to 100. The action of the Luminance slider is interesting, and you will probably find it easiest to under stand if you look at the result of changes made with it on the Histogram display. Moving the slider to the right or entering a positive figure lifts the black level towards white, compressing the tonal range into the upper half of the scale. Conversely, moving the slider to the left or entering a negative number brings down the white level towards black, compressing the tonal range into the lower half of the scale. As usual, the As Shot button cancels any HSL correction.
The dialogue box displays the original color and the substitution color, the colors to be retained for processing can be checked using the Xs below the two color swatches (before at top and after at bottom). A color can be re-adjusted at any time by clicking in the centre of the selection point in the left-hand image. The Radius slider alters the size of the averaging zone uses to calculate the color associated with the color wheel center position (to avoid highly local color variations, such as noise). The Intensity slider lets you moderate the transformation applied to the image (a blend between the identity correction and the calculated correction). The Preserve White Balance command
MPCB (Multi-point Color Balance)
Multi-point color balance is a hybrid tool that makes it possible either to make fine adjustments to an images neutrality following an initial overall color balance,or to modify one color for creative purposes, while preserving the variations of the other colors. It can also be used to
makes it possible to preserve gray tones (checked by default, as it helps to stabilize the result slightly).

Distortion

The geometric distortion introduced by a lens may be pincushion, barrelor even sometimes a mixture of the two. In each case, the analytical measurements carried out by DxO Labs make it possible to correct the distortion in such a way that straight lines in the original scene are correctly reproduced as straight lines in the photo. The Distortion tool has just one slider for the degree of distortion correction, and the range is 0 to 100%. The default setting is 100%, and you should only depart from this in special circumstanceseither to avoid cropping of important detail near edges, or for creative reasons. There is a check box to enable or disable Keep Image Ratio. Normally, during distortion cor rection, the corrected image is re-cropped back to the original aspect ratio. However, in certain cases, this may mean that the image is cropped tighter than is strictly necessary. Disabling this option releases this constraint on the aspect ratio, so the cropping is just the bare minimum required to straighten the edges of the image. You are then free to crop the image manually to suit your needs.

Geometry palette

Tip: if you want to make fine adjustments to the distortion, you can superimpose a grid onto your image by clicking the Toggle Grid overlay icon (to left of zoom control at top right of Prepare window).
Volume Anamorphosis correction (VAC)
There is a fundamental problem when capturing a picture of our three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional image, governed by the basic laws of optics. When converted into a flat image, the shapes of certain three-dimensional objects seem distorted, so they do not correspond to what our eyes and brain expect to see. This is referred to as volume anamorphosis, and is most noticeable and objectionable when using wide-angle lenses or when it affects foreground objects close to the camera and near the edges of the image. One of the biggest problems when trying to correct for this distortion is that it is entirely picturecontent dependent. And because of the trade-offs involved, how much correction needs to be made is of necessity a subjective, artistic decision that must be made by the user.
ATTENTION: if the correction module for the lens you used to shoot the current image is not loaded on your system, some or all of these corrections will be disabled and the relevant controls will be grayed out. The Geometry Palette has been organized into four major adjustment groups:
Distortion Volume Anamorphosis Keystoning / Horizon Crop

Geometry Palette

in such a way as to make your chosen line horizontal (or vertical). If you make a mistake, you can click on Undo [Ctrl + Z] (or hit the As shot button in the Keystoning/Horizon panel) and then reset your second end point. A slider and numeric entry box allows you to make corrections to 1/100 of a degree. The Horizon slider has a range from 180 to +180, enabling the image to be rotated completely upside down at either extremity of the scale. This tool is also useful for correcting leaning verticals. TIP: Using the Toggle Grid overlay button in the top right toolbar can help make it easier to adjust the squareness of the shot. This deformation is most evident with objects near the camera, and the correction required depends on their underlying shape. Basically, cylindrical objects (for example, columns or fulllength human figures) need correction along one axis more than another, which we refer to as cylindrical correction (in a sense this may be either horizontal or vertical). Spherical objects (e.g. a human head) need correction on both axes at once. We refer to this as spherical cor rection and it is actually calculated along a radius from the center of the picture. Both of these corrections are dependent on the focal length of the lens used to take the particular picture. The VA panel provides a drop down box to select either spherical or cylindrical correction, and a Radial Intensity slider, which can take values from 0200% and allows you to control how much of the selected correction is applied to the image.

Sharpness

DxO can correct only for certain kinds of softness the inherent inability of the lens/camera combination to reproduce fine detail (commonly referred to as optical blur). Other kinds of softness caused by inaccurate focusing, insufficient depth of field, or motion blur, for example, cannot be corrected.
Note: These corrections will not be visible in the main preview image below 75%, so you may need to zoom in, the quickest solution being to select the option 100% when performing advanced corrections.

Detail Palette

Automatic sharpness optimization in a corner of the image (displayed at 100%)
When the Grain box is checked and DxO FilmPack is installed, you can apply the film grain characteristics of several types of film to your image. By clicking the drop-down box, you can choose to stay with the current color profile, or one of the film profiles provided.The slider below the drop-down box allows you to adjust the intensity of this effect. There is also a direct entry box so you can specify the intensity you want from 0 to 200. Please note that in order to see the effect of this tool on your image, you must be zoomed on the Preview pane to at least 75%. By clicking on the size drop-down box, you can specify predefined and custom output format sizes for your image. You can also adjust the output size of the processed image to automatically fit the size of the current crop settings (Adjust Size to Current Crop check box). A size slider is also provided with a direct entry box for values of from 0 to 10.
Note that because this sharpness correction is specifically tailored for your cameras optics, and may well vary across the image field (to allow for lens performance variations), it is usually preferable to perform as much of your sharpening as possible using the Lens Softness correction. This allows less use of the Unsharp Mask (USM) which, although it is an adaptive tool, is a more generalized and coarser sharpening process. Of course, for images where the appropriate DxO Correction Module is not installed, all sharpening will have to be done using the USM. TIP: if you use lensesfor example, older modelswhich dont have a DxO module, create a preset for yourself using the Unsharp Mask settings detailed below.

The second, with a range from 0 to 12 (arbitrary units), adjusts the size of the col-
The Purple Fringing correction just has a check box to enable or disable it, this function is particularly useful when this defect is visible on edges in backlit images (e.g. tree branches).
Note: Overall Chromatic aberration correction must be enabled in order for Purple Fringing to become available. Example of a custom configuration of common adjustments

My Palette

My Palette is an extra palette that you can freely customize. While using the Prepare tab, you will probably notice that there are some controls that you use more often than others. In fact, its very likely that you use only two or three of them on a daily basis. Instead of opening a series of palettes, you can prepare your own personalized one. Open My Palette by clicking on the icon with a small figure on the right of the palette icons bar. Youll see a blank palette, named My Palette. Simply drag controls you want to access often onto My Palette: a duplicate of the control appears that you can use just like the regular one.The original has not disappeared, its just that an alias has been installed in My Palette.

My Palette

Chapter 6 Automating the corrections

Preset Editor

Presets are powerful tools that allow you to easily save and apply custom settings to one or more images in your projects. Saving custom presets of the current image settings permits you to define a new Preset document that you can name as you like and which will be available in the drop-down list under the Preset Editor palette in your future projects. It will also be available under the Add to my project with: drop down list when you import your images, under the Select tab. So, how do Presets work? Basically, the settings youve prepared for use with one image can be saved and then applied to other images. More powerful still, you can choose which parameters to include or not include in your preset. By using Presets, you can quickly apply your preferred settings to achieve the kind of look you want, and then work on each image individually to fine-tune corrections and adjustments that perhaps need to be done on an image-by-image basis. TIP: It is probably a good practice to start off by saving most of your custom settings as Presets, in case you want to apply similar settings later to other images. This is much less work than laboriously going through each image trying to reproduce the settings youve used before. Its worth noting here that all settings used to process any image are saved in DxOOpticsPros internal database. If at any time you return to an image, it is possible to find out which settings were last used to process it. In the DxO Default Presets folder are a group of default presets provided with the program These presets are locked (padlock icon) and so you cant alter thembut you can use their settings as the starting-point to create a modified preset that you can save with a new name:

Applying a Preset

Whether you made any modifications to the selected preset or not, if you like the look of the corrected image, you can apply the settings to it by clicking the Apply button. This ensures that the settings concerned will be included in the final image processing.
Cancelling the application of a Preset
If after checking you decide you have applied a preset wrongly and you want to undo its effects, whether this Preset was called up from the main dialogue box or by a right-click on the image or the stack, all you have to do is open the Edit menu and click on Cancel to delete the preset from your selection. The Redo command has the reverse effect and will re-apply the preset to you image.
In the example above, for the corrections to be applied, the command must be enabled (in blue in the palette) and the box in the orange border must be checked. In the selection shown here, neither Grain, Dust, Color Modes, HSL, nor Multi-point Color Balance will be active in the Preset

Modifying a Preset

When this orange bar is visible because you have clicked on the Preview/Edit button, you can change the settings in the selected preset.The image is modified to match any action you make on the controls; but these changes will NOT be taken into account (for application during the final process of the image) until you click on the Apply button.

Saving a Preset

If you modify the settings of a selected preset, by checking or unchecking any checkbox in the orange bar, or simply by altering the position of a cursor, you can save the modified preset (click Save) or discard your changes (click Cancel). If you are sure that the settings are correct, we recommend saving your preset before applying it; it is then immediately available in the drop-down lists or can be called up via a right-click on an image or stack. TIP: The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z (Windows) our Cmd+Z (Mac) lets you cancel a preset immediately, without having to open the edit dialogue box.
Chapter 7 Image processing

Process tab

The top part of Process workspace is divided into three areas, while the familiar Project pane remains in the bottom section of your screen. Under the Process tab you can define how the copies of your images are generated, into which directory the will be copied, and unlike many other batch-processing applications, DxOOpticsPro lets you generate several copies of your images in single pass, e.g. a DNG or 16-bit TIFF output for subsequent highly sophisticated retouching, a JPG for quick prints on an ink-jet or photographic printer, and another JPG already rescaled for the Web or an image hosting site like FlickR.

Output formats

Importing an image into DxO Optics Pro
In the photo menu, or via a right-click on a selection of images to display the contextual menu, choose Edit in DxOOpticsPro.exe A window opens to let you choose the working image.
The original (Attention! This choice will modify your original image. Remember to
make a backup copy before this process) (not available for RAW images or multiselections including both RAW and JPG files) JPG files)
A copy (not available for RAW images or multi-selections including both RAW and A copy with the modifications generated by Lightroom Attention! If you select this
option, modifications already made in Lightroom will be lost. The selection will correspond to the DxO Optics Pro output image If you choose to work on a copy with modifications, the TIFF format needs to be indicated in the Copy File Options area; after choosing the working image, and if necessary creating copies, you can then open DxO Optics Pro in plug-in mode and import some original images, whatever choice was made previously.
DxO Optics Pro in plug-in mode
If DxO is already running, but not in plug-in mode, youll need to close it and restart it in this mode: when DxO is already running in plug-in, the images in the selection will be added to the selection Film Strip and Lightroom will remain accessible.
DxO plug-in is reduced to the two tabs Prepare and Process. Images are imported with the default DxO preset into a special Import Session project and the current project manager is no longer available. Under the Process tab appears a single, unmodifiable output indicating just the size, resolution, and original ICC profile. It is not possible to create a different output format.
DxO Optics Pro does not support dynamic collections. Hence images in dynamic collections will not be visible and cannot be selected via this import process.
Importing images into DxO Optics Pro
Select the images in the Content area, then drag-and-drop them into the FilmStrip, or else select the images in the Content area and click on the Add button. The images will be added to the open project with the correction settings selected for importing, in particular, the presets available from the dialogue box next to the Add button.

DXO OPTICS PRO 5.3 ELITE

DxO optics Pro 5.3 Elite
126 (download from dxo) raw conversion & optical correction pc & mac www.dxo.com

image REVIEW

With before and after Image Previews you can quickly evaluate the corrections Optics Pro has made to your shots.
Automated processing of RAW images sounds like a real time-saver, but do the results from DxO make the grade?

test by paul carroll

The ability TO manipulate RAW images has revolutionised digital photography. Using RAW conversion software it is possible to make significant changes to uncompressed picture data without losing quality, but coaxing top results from RAW images can be a slow process, so imagine a software package capable of batch processing your RAW files, while still adjusting each image individually. Sounds too good to be true? Well, thats exactly what DxO Optics Pro v5.3
claims to do. Intrigued by this concept, we downloaded it immediately and put it to the test.

Features

DxO Optics Pro offers more features than most RAW conversion packages. It not only corrects optical flaws automatically, such as chromatic aberration, vignetting and lens softness, but will also adjust geometric issues like converging verticals and barrel distortion, not usually possible in RAW
conversion. The way it works is different, too. Optics Pro has analysed the optical performance of a vast range of camera and lens combinations, identifying their flaws and what adjustments are required to correct them. All of this data is then stored in Modules, and during the installation process youll need to download the Modules specific for your camera equipment. Optics Pro then uses this information, allied to the EXIF data in your images, so it knows what camera hardware and settings have been used, and what corrections it needs to perform. Optics Pro is also available as a Photoshop plug-in, boasts integrated Lightroom functionality and works with RAW and JPEG files. An additional feature of Optics Pro is its improved Noise

INTERFACE

The simple four-tab interface guides you through a RAW conversion workflow in a logical order that is simple and intuitive to get to grips with.

Adjustment palettes

Use the Adjustment Palettes to turn off and on corrections you want Optics Pro to perform on each image, and if necessary, use the sliders to fine-tune any adjustments manually.
reduction process. By removing Noise before it performs the demosaicing process (thats the bit where the exposure and lighting gets adjusted), much cleaner results can be obtained. A benefit of this approach is you can achieve usable results from images shot at incredibly high ISO sensitivities, such as ISO 25,600.

PROJECT AREA

Drop the images you want to work on into the project area that runs along the bottom of the screen in the Select, Prepare and Process tabs.

Interface

The interface has an up-to-date and stylish design, and while initially there does seem to be a lot to get to grips with, it is intuitive to use. There are four different work areas, or tabs Select, Prepare, Process and Review. The Select tab allows you to navigate your files, choose images to process, and drop them

Optic Pros automated process takes away a lot of the pain of converting RAW images.

image comparison

correct optical flaws & remove noise
Optics Pro will automatically correct optical flaws like lens distortion and Chromatic Aberration. This is possible thanks to DxOs analysis of images from a vast number of lens and camera combinations, so the software knows exactly what corrections to make. Another great feature is the improved Noise reduction that effectively removes Noise from images shot at incredibly high ISO sensitivities and makes it possible to get usable results from images shot at ISO 25,600.

before

into the project area. At this stage you can just hit the Process Now button and Optics Pro will make the corrections automatically. For a greater degree of control the Prepare tab allows you to make specific adjustments to characteristics like Exposure and White Balance, to name just a few, before you process the image. In the Process tab you can configure output options, including saving converted files to DNG so you can continue to make adjustments later in Lightroom or Photoshop. Finally the Review tab allows you to evaluate the corrections made with a number of different views including a side-by-side before and after comparison.
Optics Pro automatically corrects optical flaws like Chromatic Aberration (fringeing).
At ISO 25,600 Optics Pro effectively cleans up Noise without desaturating the colour too much.

Performance

Installed on a PC with 2GB of RAM, Optics Pro ran smoothly with no frustrating delays as you switch between tabs, or adjust the sliders. Hit Process Now and on
average our 15MB RAW files took 30 seconds to complete. If youre working on a handful of files this is fine, but crunch a few hundred images and itll be working away for hours, although you can just leave Optics Pro to it and get on with some other tasks. Overall the results are pretty good, correcting many optical flaws, like vignetting, softness and distortion accurately and automatically. It also made a decent job of adjusting the lighting on incorrectly exposed RAW files, ensuring detail was retained in both highlights and shadows. That said, better exposures can be achieved by adjusting the lighting manually than leaving it to Optics Pro. Not all chromatic aberrations were removed automatically either, but again with some minor tinkering to the control sliders in the Prepare tab better results were obtained. The noise

reduction is impressive on images shot at ISO 25,600, Optics Pro removed more Noise than was possible with Adobe Camera Raw and with better colour saturation, too. The only complaint here was the results did tend to look a little waxy in certain areas.

Value & Verdict

If youve got Elements 6 (60) then many of the corrections Optics Pro can perform can already be achieved via either Camera Raw or the image-editing area, so its not an essential item if youre on a budget. Optics Pros unique selling points, though, are the Noise reduction algorithms that enable you to get better quality from high ISO speeds, and the automation of the RAW conversion process that gives optically corrected results specific to the particular camera and lens you have used. Whether all this automation is necessary
depends on the number of files youre processing, and how quickly you need to do it. For working pros this could be a real bonus, but for enthusiasts, handing over the RAW conversion process to software may take away the enjoyment of seeing your images take on a new lease of life in post-production. Optics Pro does, however, remove some of the time (and pain?) involved in RAW conversion, so, if youre after optically accurate results at the touch of a button, give the free trial download a go. If you like the speed, results and ease of use it offers, then the 126 asking price isnt unreasonable.

ratings

features interface performance value for money overall
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