Best of Breed Image Editing
When it comes to choosing photo-editing software it’s easy to get confused by all the products out there. Personally, I do not think that there is a single piece of software that meets all of a photographers needs.
My preference is to work with two or three products, (best of breed) Best of breed means that, they are the best at what they do. I always run my RAW files through DxO Photlab, it’s the finest software for processing RAW files.
DxO Photolab will by default process your image using the following corrections
- Smart lighting
- Crop
- Colour rendering
- Lens sharpness
- Chromatic aberration
- Vignetting
- Distoration
The corrections will be based on DxO’s calibration of your camera sensor and lens being used. This normally gives you a good RAW base file to work with, and you are free to make adjustments if needed.
Once I have my base RAW files, I then run them through Perfectly Clear Complete (PCC). PCC is made by EyeQ and uses Artificial Intelligence to analysis and apply enhancements and corrections to every single pixel in your image on an image by image basis.
Think about what I just said, the software analyses every single pixel using artificial intelligence and algorithms, and then makes corrections to your image on a pixel by pixel basis !
Perfectly Clear uses intelligent image analysis to find and fix camera flaws and limitations automatically. According to EyeQ, the software has been developed by scientists, mathematicians, and physicists who have spent more than 16 years perfecting technology which mimics how the human eye perceives the world and colours.
The results are amazing and the technology is used by many photolabs when assessing and correcting images. And best of all, you rarely have to make any manual adjustments.
The image above has been cropped but you should still be able to see the clarity and enhancements that have been made to the image, with no input from me.
Once my images have been corrected by DxO Photlab and enhanced by PCC, I then use (and if needed) DxO Nik collection or Luminar 4 for any further creative edits to my image.
The final image was made using DxO’s NIk Collections, Color Efex Pro 4, and bi-colour filters. I like the result, it does not loo over processed and looks natural.
Now, this may all sound a little complicated but it’s not. Here is my basic workflow. (Remember, I am batch processing my images, and taking just minutes to correct and enhance all my images)
- Workflow
- DxO Photolab auto corrects my images.
- I export my images to Perfectly Clear Complete (PCC) as TIFF files.
- PCC intelligently analysis my images and applies corrections and enhances each image individually.
- I export the images back to the original folder either as JPEGs or TIFFs.
- Job done!
Just for comparison, below is a before and after using DxO and Perfectly Clear Complete together to correct an image. Bear in mind that I have not had to make any manual adjustments or touch any sliders.
Working like this saves me lots of time in post processing images and leaves me more time to be creative with my images.
You can use the following links to check out the software
Try Perfectly Clear Complete (21 day trial available)
Try DxO Photolab (30 Day trial available)
Try Luminar 4 (30 day trial)
Important note: If you download a trial of Luminar 4, you may want to wait before purchases and check out the new Luminar AI due to be released in December 2020.
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