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User Manual - DxO Optics Pro v5.3

1. Expand the stack by double clicking on the image so you can check all pictures 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 Shrink the stack by double click on the top of stack master image Note It s the one outlined in blue Change the master image if the stack is expanded by double clicking on another image or if it s collapsed by using the scroll wheel on your mouse Add more images You can add more images to the stack later by right clicking on the stack and choosing Stacking and Add to stack 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 Unstack items with the help of the menu that appears with a right click of the mouse and choosing Stacking and Unstack items 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 The right click Ctrl click on Mac offers access to a local menu with options that vary accord ing to the context Show in Windows Explor
2. i v E ry ATTENTION Multi point balance fine adjustments and reset to as shot values are only possible if you enable the Colors palette using the relevant icon at the top right of the workspace White balance color picker Lets you select the point in the Preview window image to be used as the white reference point for that image The fine white balance adjustments are included in the Colors palette see page 40 but just clicking in the image with the eye dropper tool most offen yields a satisfactory balance if you are careful in your choice of the area you want to appear neutral gray or white Display icons m After displays the processed corrected image in the Preview window This is an accurate display of how this image will look when you process it later during the Process phase of your DxO Optics Pro workflow Please remember that some cor rections can not be displayed at zoom factors less than 5 Before After This is one of the more useful features of the Prepare tab When you click on this icon two images will be displayed in the Preview window The left image will be the unprocessed As Shot image The right image will be the DxO Optics Pro processed image This will give you a side by side light table view of both images You can even zoom in to the same area of both pictures to compare results Browse image buttons At the top center of the Preview window you will find t
3. Vv Color Palette At a radically change four different colors in the image but in that case the results risk departing a long way from a natural look To transform a color you click on the multi point balance icon which will display two thumb nails In the left hand image you select a colored area of the image and a color wheel is superimposed on the image with a radial line across it that controls the saturation The hue of the selected color only can be changed by moving this radial line around the wheel while the saturation is adjusted moving the mark on the line radially You can temporarily lock the hue by holding down the Cirl key as you drag the pointer with the mouse or the saturation by holding down the Shift key When your mouse is over the adjust ment cursor it will turn into a cross hair Hue or Saturation can also be locked by right clicking on the color wheel and selecting one of these two options This control can be applied to up to four colors in the image but if you only want to change one color it can be effective to use the spare capacity to click on adjacent colors to protect them from being affected TIP You might want to zoom in to a specific part of your image to make choosing the exact color point easier You can zoom after you have clicked on the MPCB icon You can use the display window s hand Move tool to move around and display different portions of the image One good way to
4. A project is a container for images that are grouped into batches and processed All images even a single image need to be part of a project to be processed The Select workspace screen is divided into three windows Two of the windows are in the upper part of the screen while the lower window the Project window occupies the lower portion of the screen TIP f you do not see all three windows make sure that either the hori zontal or vertical divider bars have not been dragged all the way up or down or to either side of your screen The bars can be identified by three dots appearing in the middle of the divider Simply dragging the bar from the edge of the monitor screen towards the middle will reinstate Along the top of the main window additional icons appear on the right hand side Each of these allows you to choose a different way of selecting the images you want to import The File System icon is the most popular It gives you access to images via your hard drive s folders and subfolders The second icon is the Project Database icon This allows you to search previous projects in case you would like to create a new version of an image already processed Both icons work in a similar way You pick a folder in the first case or a project in the second and their contents are displayed in the content window Other icons may be available These will allow access to image databases managed by other software programs you may hav
5. 5 5 t o o 5 5 o o 5 5 G o amp DXO Default Preset Project Untitied387 12 image s FE Filter Y cot BF Process Now ay Duplicate be Bk rA Yn Thumbnails under the Select tab 13 Image Science 45 images DSCF3022 RAF DSCF3025 RAF DSCF3036 RAF DSCF3038 RAF JMS_0012 NEF JMS_0014 NEF JMS_0144 NEF JMS_0145 NEF JMS_0146 NEF JMS_2306 NEF JMS_2407 NEF JMS_2416 NEF JMS_2591 NEF JMS_2673 NEF JMS_2678 NEF JMS_2983 NEF JMS_3031 NEF JMS_4759 NEF JMS_4770 NEF JMS_4776 NEF 24 42 MB 24 42 MB 24 49 MB 24 47 MB 24 94 MB 24 39 MB 24 88 MB 24 75 MB 24 51 MB 14 79 MB 15 30 MB 13 80 MB 14 34 MB 13 84 MB 13 84 MB 15 48 MB 14 23 MB 24 59 MB 24 83 MB 24 51 MB Filter Y Sot EW 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 27 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 9 28 2008 7 38 13 AM 7 38 03 AM 7 38 07 AM 7 38 10 AM 6 30 51 PM 6 30 54 PM 6 30 40 PM 6 30 44 PM 6 30 47 PM 7 35 39 AM 7 35 41 AM 7 35 43 AM 7 35 45 AM 7 35 48 AM 7 35 49 AM 7 35 37 AM 7 36 16 AM 6 33 29 PM 6 33 33 PM 6 33 36 PM 3010x2008 3010x2008 3010x2008 3010x2008 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 4256x2832 View
6. E FP a 5 G G E 5 C G C c G G C G C G G 5 G C G 1 DxO Default Preset List under the Select tab To import one or more images simply drag and drop your files into the Project Window You can also select with your mouse using Shift Click range select or Ctrl Click multiple select 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 used efficiently and not wasted 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 the default correction set tings will be applied to each of the images added to your project pane as determined by the program but taking into account the information embedded within each image 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 that you have created You can then either click the Process Now button which takes you to the Process Tab where 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
7. Note Overall Chromatic aberration correction must be enabled in order for Purple Fringing to become available B My Palette t My Palette amp E Detail ji fl hares Please drop your favorite corrections here 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 offen than others In fact it s 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 You ll 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 it s just that an alias has been installed in My Palette Y Detail Palette a v a n 7 3 Y A My Palette You can repeat this operation with more controls to built the perfect set of tools for your needs 52 Conversely you can clear My Palette of controls you don t need any more by dragging them off it From this point on it s perfectly possible for work that follows a pattern you are used to to normally only just one single correction palette that you ve put together to suit yourself Example of a custom configura
8. Size Purple Fringing Lateral Chromatic Aberration Project Untitled389 15 image s 2 stack s 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 Vv Preset Editor 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
9. Next to continue exporting A progress bar is displayed during the operation Exporting under Mac In the Film Strip select the images for which output images exist then click on the Open With icon at the top right of the window The export window will open 65 WD Image Science Fill in the output format corresponding to the images you want to export to LR then indicate the application LR1 4 or LR2 Images for which there is no output image corresponding to this format in the multi selection will be ignored during exporting Lastly click on the export button A progress bar is displayed during the operation Importing images into Lightroom At the end of the export operations you will need to open Photoshop Lightroom if it isnt already open The rest carries on just as a normal import operation with LR and the directory containing the images is added to the Folder section of the catalogue loaded Vv Histogram i WEE SOEs 66 WD Image Science Appendix 3 Keyboard shortcuts 67 o om n v Select tab CTRL ALT P v v Tools amp Display all palettes TAB CTRL F9 palettes a ww CO a a a ra 7 a a ra a Oooo me o ooe 9 vo a a Copy text fields CTRL C Paste text fields CTRL X i Project window CTRL L CTRL 0 1 2 3 CTRL 0 1 2 3 4 5 4 5 Add to stack or create stack drag amp drop vo o O eo owe e Vv Histogram P PEE Sm
10. 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 of your image then after a few seconds the preview of the corrected version appears You can 14 also opt to display both before and after correction images together fa DO Optics Pra Hite 4 3 aE File Edit Workspace Help sect o XM OBOE ne EO 15 mauz j t gt r AN A ee E T aA Ap y f S i r 5 E 7 Project Untitied387 12 image s A amp E silu POR POE POE Py AT Pe prepare tab before opening correction palettes In the event that you re 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
11. This duplicates the selected image so you can apply two different groups of settings to the same source image Once you click this button you will get a second identical thumbnail in the project that will behave exactly as if it was another original image Process Now Duplicate Two further buttons allow the user to access the Sort and Filter drop down menus The thumb nails in the project window will be reorganized according to the sort option you select by Filename Extension Size Modification date Camera Body Lens Status and you can hide some sets of images RAW images RGB Images Stacks Already corrected images to reduce the Project window clutter and let you concentrate on the ones youre really interested in Thumbnail icons Around the thumbnail images in the Project window are a number of icons that offer you processing control and information about each image In the top left hand corner of the thumbnails are three buttons They are Mark To be processed Green light Mark as Undefined Yellow light Mark Do not process this file Red light When you click on one of these buttons you tell DxO Optics Pro how to process the image during the Process stage You will notice that affer you import images they all appear marked as Undefined with a yel low light This is done to remind you that you have not yet decided if you want to process or discard them You can decide their final s
12. Zoom Nikkor 80 200mm f 2 8D CD nr Processing Queue 10 image s Project Untitlod387 12 image s A g E s silul P POE PE a WT PF Starting processing Step 4 Review the results 15 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 DXO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 File Edit Workspace Help Select 7 Bey el E cee r ore gt AE le Displaying the results 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 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 from unfinished image to a finished product as you can adapt the workflow and correction order to suit your needs Image Science Suggested DxO Optics Pro 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 s
13. by clicking on ICC Profile and then click the files you want You can download this type of profile have them cre ated after exporting a test image see the File menu and search your computer to find the directory with them in gt i386 Kodak SWOP Proofer CMYK Coated icm kodak_dc icm MKAdobe icm JA NE Apple icm la NE Bruce icr NECIE icrn NKCMatch ic NECMYK ier NK Monitor Win icm NENTSC icm A NKESRGB icrn NE Wide icr sRGB Color Space Profile icm srgb icm Once a profile is loaded it will appear directly in the list of available settings Vv Color Palette ATTENTION This function and that of choosing another digital camera the ICC profile for which has been loaded internally by DxO is not com patible with JPG files Color modes Color modes offers you three combo boxes where you can make some preset and repeatable choices about the overall look of your image These color modes are available for both RAW and JPEG images but the Landscape and Portrait styles can only be applied to RAW files Choices of high medium high medium low low are offered for both contrast and saturation Be careful not to overdo the saturation and contrast settings especially if you have already employed an S curve vibrancy or DxO Lighting Style lets you choose between As Shot pre defined style in JPG or factory setting in RAW and various style presets B amp W Toning and others if yo
14. group of settings for the DxO Optics Pro correction motors is applied to your images when they are selected enabling you to process them right away with going through the Prepare step if you have no need to fine tune the settings By default the DxO Default preset applied to images applies all the standard automatic corrections These cor 21 WD Image Science rections are precisely adapted to every image Using the DxO Default preset for different photos does not mean all images will undergo the same corrections In actual fact when DxO Optics Pro processes your images it reads the EXIF data in the header of each picture The program then adapts its corrections and adjustments according to the photographic situation type of camera body and lens used aperture shutter speed focal length ISO sensitivity etc to suit the specific requirements of each image This truly unique DxO Optics Pro feature can save you many hours of time and effort adjusting images You can also replace these standard DxO Default parameters with different ones The Preset local menu gives you access to the list of all recorded presets available in your DxO Optics Pro internal database At first you will find presets prepared by the DxO engineers these presets cannot be modified But you also have the possibility to add you own custom presets thanks to the Presets palette in the Prepare tab See Chapter 6 Automating corrections f
15. information to help get you quickly started implement ing 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 7 Image Science Chapter 2 The DxO Optics Pro menus When you open DxO Optics Pro the top most set of menus available to you is the Menu Bar and will contain drop down menus for File Edit Workspace and Help We will review each of these drop down menus so that you can familiarize yourself with the operation of each menu File menu File Edit Workspace Help New Project Ctri N Open Project Cti O Save Project Ciri S Recent Projects Database Delete All Projects Import v4 Project Export Image for ICC Profile Sidecars Exit The File drop down menu includes the following commands New Project creates a new DxO Optics Pro project Open Project opens a project from the database of DxO Optics Pro projects Save Project saves the current project in the internal project database Recent Projects direct access to recently opened projects Delete all projects will remove all previous projects from the DxO Optics Pro database Import v4 project opens a project previously created in DxO Optics Pro version 4 Export Image for ICC Profile saves images with standard flat corrections which can be used by prof
16. left mouse button down The original As shot image will be displayed When you release the mouse button the corrected image with default processing settings will be displayed This is an excellent way to do a quick check on optical corrections made automatically by the program to see if they meet your needs v Move viewport When clicked a hand icon replaces the standard mouse arrow and allows you to grab by clicking and holding down the left mouse button and move a magnified image in the Preview window so you can examine individual parts of the entire image Please note that when you move to a different area of your image it may take a few seconds for a clear sharp image to be displayed depending on the image rendering speed of your system Zoom If you select the magnifying glass you can place the mouse cursor over a specific part of your image and click to automatically zoom into that area of the 30 Image Science image Like the zoom slider itself the magnifying glass allows you to enlarge by a substantial 1600 Tool icons a Crop When you select this tool the mouse pointer turns into a cross hair cur sor that will allow you to crop the image in the Preview window The boundaries of the cropped image will be shown with a black dashed line Various additional crop control functions are available under the Geometry palette If you want to get out of Crop mode quickly click on the icon again BA a
17. not installed on your computer If you deciding to install it you will be able to carry out the processing once you have restarted DXO Optics Pro to activate this module In this event don t forget to save your project BB the correction module needed to process this image was not found installed on your computer or in the software installation databases You need to open the DxO Modules item from the Help menu to check if this module has been developed and if it does exist download it Note in the installer there is no need to re import the whole of the software plug in or reference manual deselect these options and the software will only download the DxO module s you have chosen This icon is selected under the Preferences tab and indicates that there is an ambi guity in the EXIF data stored in the image file Even though DxO Optics Pro has been able to recover plausible values the camera has not provided sufficiently precise information to be able to apply the software corrections accurately enough Where you need to specify these details go to the Prepare tab and display the Geometry palette There you will find sliders for focusing distance and or focal length And lastly the image orientation may not be right and therefore need to be corrected E n image cannot be processed for one of the following reasons image generated by DxO Optics Pro that cannot be processed a second time DxO Optics Pro does not recognize the c
18. offer the following functions EJ removes the image s from the current project rotates the image for correct viewing orientation E creates a stack active on the last selected image of a multiple selection E un stacks a stack of images active when a stack is selected In addition to these buttons and ranking stars certain icons may appear above each thumbnail indicating the status of the image for correction These icons give important information about each image A frame round a thumbnail indicates that it is the master image for a stack the number of images in the stack is shown in the bottom right hand corner Focal length or focus ing distance ambiguity warning display can be enabled or disabled under the Preferences tab Edit gt Preferences gt Module ambiguity Fully automatic mode Once you have selected and added pictures to your project if you dont 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 if necessary to input data in the event DxO does not have enough information to process certain images correctly To take things further Select tab screen When you start DxO Optics Pro you will see the first main screen of the program The Select tab workspace is your key to building projects
19. palette 18 The thumbnails and their buttons 48 Detail palette 19 Fully automatic mode 52 My Palette 19 To take things further 19 Select tab screen 19 File System icon 93 Preset Editor Chapter 6 53 Automating the corrections WD Image Science Chapter7 57 57 57 58 59 Chapter8 61 61 61 Appendix 1 63 63 63 Appendix 2 64 64 64 64 64 65 66 Appendix 3 67 Vv Histogram Image processing Process tab Output formats Output Format window Starting processing Review Checking the results Checking before and after correction DxO Optics Pro plug in for Adobe Photoshop Installation Use DxO Optics Pro plug in for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Pre requisites DxO Optics Pro as External Editor Importing an image into DxO Optics Pro DxO Optics Pro in plug in mode Importing images into DxO Optics Pro Importing images into Lightroom Keyboard shortcuts SW We COE SN en WD Image Science Foreword Discovering DxO Optics Pro v5 In order to find out all about DxO Optics Pro v 5 and understand just what it can do please do read this manual carefully For a quick overview to get you started you can download the Visual Guide free from this link hitp octopus2 dxo com v5 Doc en DxO_Optics_Pro_vo_Visual_Guide pdf If you have any further questions be sure to check the application s Local help button Help menu when you have an ac
20. processing software ATTENTION f you are using the DxO Optics Pro plug in for Photoshop see Appendix 1 opening a JPG file and enabling the DxO corrections is no problem But if you select a RAW file clicking on Open in Photoshop activates the Adobe Camera RAW program which will have the effect of converting it into a format that DxO Optics Pro will no longer be able to use The same applies if you convert the RAW file in Adobe Lightroom On the other hand these applications will be able to best exploit DNG files generated by DxO Optics Pro after processing The DNG file format produced by DxO Optics Pro is known as Linear DNG This is a DNG for mat fully supported by Adobe and is readable by Adobe Camera RAW Lightroom and Photoshop TIP There are two forms of DNG RAW DNG and Linear DNG In order to 16 process de mosaicing information and include all of the data produced by Optics Pro DxO utilizes the Linear DNG format Please note that this format produces larger output files than the RAW DNG format If you want to manage your photos in an image database manager don t install your original RAW or JPG files into it but only copies and photos already corrected in DxO Optics Pro Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom you can however make use of the option to select DxO Optics Pro as external editor See Appendix 2 WD Image Science Chapter 4 Select Adding Your Photos from Various
21. same focal lengths may have the same EXIF Under the Preferences tab you can also choose if you want to be warned in the event of an uncertainty about the shooting distance and or focal length chosen the corresponding icon will draw your attention to it but processing will go ahead anyway using average values closest to those in the EXIF file Wamings options n In the check list below you can select the parameters ambiguities that will make the warning icon appear Focus defaulted to Focal length ambiguity Orientation ambiguity Workspace menu Workspace Help Move Zoom Histogram Edit EXIF gt Preset Editor Light J Color Geometry Detail My Palette This menu presents you with a list of correction Palettes used on the Prepare tab workspace Your choices are Move Zoom Histogram Edit EXIF Preset Editor Light Geometry Colors Details My Palette 10 WD Image Science By checking or un checking each of these menu items you can easily display and hide palettes you need and don t need for any specific project TIP You can also get the same effect by clicking on each of the palette icons that appear in the upper right part of your monitor while in the Prepare tab workspace Help menu Help Check for update DxO Modules Software License Local help Online help Visual Guide Visit Web site About DxO Optics Pro The Help menu offers a number of
22. 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 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 process ing 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
23. the File System reproduces the various folder displays available in the Mac OS X Finder You can search folder content in either column view list view or thumbnail view With the latter two options a local menu at the top of the display windows gives you the active folder path Creating a project from several folders You can build your projects within Optics Pro using the contents of one folder or many folders However only the contents of one folder can be displayed at any one time in the right hand window If you are creating a project from several different folders select your images succes sively first of all in the first folder then in the second and so on or else in a Lightroom database all the images will stay in their own folders but will be grouped together into one project Project Database icon When you click this icon the upper left window shows the contents of the internal Project Database This database will automatically record every project you ve worked on listed in chronological order You ll see most recent projects first then yesterday s last week s last month s and so on Projects Today 3 projects m Yesterday 9 projects This Week 7 projects Last Week 19 projects 2 weeks ago 8 projects hm 3 weeks ago 27 projects Last Month 4 projects m Older 285 projects Navigating around in the database When you click on a project name the right hand window shows the images processed in
24. 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 correc tion 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 lenses for example older models which don t have a DxO module create a preset for yourself using the Unsharp Mask settings detailed below Unsharp Mask If you click on More options on the Sharpness panel the Unsharp Mask tool will be displayed Once again as with the Lens Softness option there is a check box to enable and disable this correction If the check box is unchecked correction disabled the title bar and controls will be grayed out The Intensity slider edit box sets the degree of sharpening correction applied with a range from 0 to 500 The Radius slider edit box has a range in units from 0 10 to 5 00 This control affects the fineness of the correction zone surrounding image detail Low values give very subtle correction while over use of high values can lead to the formation of haloes The Threshold slider edit box has a range from O to 255 This threshold sets the amplitude in terms of gray levels of the transitions in the image abov
25. try out this tool and learn how to use it is on a blue sky Colors ja jE Radius Intensity Preeerve White Balance The dialogue box displays the original color and the substitution color the colors to be retained for processing can be checked using the X s 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 selec tion 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 44 Image Science makes it possible to preserve gray tones checked by default as it helps to stabilize the result slightly g Geometry palette Length expressed in mm 20 00 18 00 Intensity 100 0 Keep Image Ratio Type Recover Spheres Less Options Radial Intensity Honzon Up Down Left Right Scale Horizontal Vertical Ratio Tool z Aspect Ratio Unconstrained Auto based on Keystoning Horizon ATTENTION if the correction module for the lens you used to shoot the current image is not loaded on your system some o
26. very bright highlights that seem transparent on the screen because the results can be unpredictable Clicking this button displays two preview images side by side the left hand image being the original before image and the right hand image showing the effect of adjusting the white balance according to the reference point chosen A message will also appear in the upper left of the before picture instructing you to Click a point in the image to neutralize its color Note The eye dropper looks at the average of a number of screen pixels so you should also avoid transition areas that might yield unwanted errors Simply position the pointer over the required area you can Zoom in to the area first to improve the accuracy of the selection point and leff click to white balance this point At any time you can re select As Shot in the drop down menu of the White Balance panel in order to cancel the changes and go back to the original white balance setting Preset As Shot Pick Color F Less Options Color Temperature Tint The controls available differ according to whether an image is RGB JPEG or TIFF or RAW If you click on More options in the RGB White Balance panel a Temperature slider lets you adjust the color temperature of your image This will swing the balance of the red and blue channels while leaving the green channel untouched Moving the slider to the right increases the colo
27. window to assist you with correcting horizons and image distortions Toggle Image information overlay displays and hides program information for the selected image This information will appear in the Preview window Correction palettes In the top right hand corner of the Prepare workspace screen you will see icons for each of the available correction palettes If you hover over these icons with your mouse pointer a tool tip with the name of the palette will be displayed for you From left to right the icons are Move Zoom Histogram Edit EXIF Preset Editor Lights Geometry Colors A B o a Details My Palette Clicking on an icon displays the corresponding correction palette if it s not already visible Overall Correction Palette workspace On the right hand side of the Prepare tab workspace each palette can be accessed from its black header bar containing its unique icon identifier and name You will also find two other icons on the right hand end of the header bar for each palette The far right icon is an X which hides the palette when clicked But don t worry you haven t deleted the palette The bar can be redisplayed at any time by clicking on the palette icon at the top right of the screen Just to the left of the X is an icon with a square and an arrow This is the undock icon and if you click on it you will undock the palette so it can float on your screen Notice tha
28. zoom factor below 75 The width of the dust pen can be adjusted using the slider Chromatic aberration The optical defect of chromatic aberration e g magenta or green fringes alongside a straight line is corrected automatically if the chromatic aberration command is enabled the default setting but only if the camera and lens modules are available ay Intensity Size e Purple Fringing Lateral Chromatic Aberration 5l Image Science There are two manual controls for chromatic aberration available in all cases even in the absence of a module To the right of them are the usual check boxes for automatic setting which have to be unchecked to enable the manual controls The first slider edit box with a range from 0 to 200 adjusts the correction intensity for all types of chromatic aberration It basically affects tiny colored transitions which may generally be assumed to be the result of aberration rather than actual picture content The second with a range from O to 12 arbitrary units adjusts the size of the col ored fringe that will be suppressed this basically affects the way DxO Optics Pro decides what is considered to be chromatic aberration that needs correcting and what is wanted picture content 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
29. 0mm f 4L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF24 105mm f 4L IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF24 70mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF28 135mm f 3 5 5 6 IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF28 300mm f 3 5 5 6L IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF70 200mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF70 200mm f 4L IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF70 200mm f 4L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF70 300mm f 4 5 5 6 DO IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF85mm f 1 2L I USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L II USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF17 35mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF17 40mm f 4L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF24 105mm f 4L IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II N Canon EF24 70mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark ITI Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L IT USM Canon EOS 1D Mark III Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark III Canon EF17 40mm f 4L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark III Canon EF24 105mm f 4L IS USM Canon EOS 1D Mark III Canon EF24 70mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1Ds Canon EF 85mm f 1 8 USM Canon EOS 1Ds Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L I USM Install new Modules The warning Not supported by this edition at the top right of the window indicates that cor rection modules appearing in this list are not compatible with the current installed version of the program These Correction Modules will not work on your system and you should consider upda
30. 1 DXO Of Advanced automatic i enhancement for Digit e Unrivalled optics amp geometry cd e Unique exposure amp dynamic rat e Advanced color control e Outstanding noise amp dust remon e New generation RAW converter Also includes an Adobe Photoshop plug in an Adobe Lightroom plug in Windows amp Mac 4 www dxo com PIDPUDIS G Old SOUND OXQ 71 b G Old SOudo OXA Windows amp T N iig egi Windows amp M D 0 WON q X 0 Com aye Stiena Table of Contents DXO Optics Pro P Advanced automatic image quality enhancement for Digital SLRs e Unrivalled optics amp geometry corrections e Unique exposure amp dynamic range optimization e Advanced color control e Outstanding noise amp dust removal e New generation RAW converter Foreword Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5 The DxO Optics Pro menus Also includes an Adobe Photoshop plug in an Adobe Lightroom plug in A typical image enhancement session The Prepare tab After DXO Optics Pro Performance j panes Refe rence Ma n uq Automating the corrections Update for DxO Optics Pro v5 3 l Image processing Review DxO Optics Pro plug in for Adobe Photoshop DxO Optics Pro plug in for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Image Science Keyboard shortcuts indows amp Mac 4 PE a lB Give your me Select ae errs DxO Optics Pro vd Table of Contents 19 Windows version 9 20 M
31. 6797 NEF E IMS 6814 NEF FP IMS 6815 NEF hi Tost_s5_dxo fm test_7ouavelS fm test290508 fm verifDXO521_7024 Ai WINDOWS fi 7eiss_planarSO FP 2 MsS_2983 NEF FP 2 s_3031 NEF E 3MS_4759 NEF Me zeiss test 1 h zeiss_test2 S izciss_ test O e7eiss_test4 7Zelss test bzeiss_test6 v i o o o o 0 o o 5 o o o o o o c i 0 o Project Untitied389 9 image s 2 stack s A g 92 Duplicate P on he 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 high lighted 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 Cirl key and single click on the thumbnails you want to be included in the stack Create a stack Clicking on Create Stack will create a stack where the images to the right of the first selected image will collapse below the first image A number box will be placed in the right top corner of the thumbnail informing you of how many images are currently in the stack
32. Each module is unique and specific to one particular lens body combination For this reason if you want to develop your RAW files and apply all the possible corrections you ll need to make sure you have the right modules for the bodies and lenses you use If this is the case DxO Optics Pro generates extremely accurate corrections for the measured optical defects these are not manual adjust ments that even though they offen require infinite patience can only ever be subjective and approximate From the basic corrections you can then add your personal touch in optimizing your images combining the choice of automatic correction for certain images and giving free rein to your creative spirit by carrying out manual adjustments that go beyond simple correction But numerous possibilities are also opened by DxO Optics Pro from JPG files coming from any camera indeed even from JPG or TIFF files obtained by scanning silver halide images since the software will be able to apply global optimization of highlights and shadows correct bright ness white balance color sharpness and perspective and even correct purple fringing and chromatic aberration Basic Concepts DxO Optics Pro forms part of a complex digital workflow As anyone who has worked with photography over the years knows every image is unique even images from the same batch There is an almost unlimited number of factors that must be considered when taking a picture Facto
33. Sources When you first launch the application the Select tab is the active highlighted tab Make sure the File System icon at top right of 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 The header strip for the Files 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 Adding importing images This initial Select stage involves adding the photos you want to process into 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 Chapter 6 rien E JMS_6817 NEF E JMS_6907 NEF B 0s00287_px0 ra oms7555 PG B 3ms7555 px0 re DxO Default Preset All Presets You can choose a preset for one image or a whole group of images As you drag thumbnails from the Content folder to your project or select them and click the Add button both actions are the same the selected preset is applied to the images and they appear in the P
34. W images Show RGB images Show corrected images Show Show y Show Yy Show yy Yy Show yr yr wry Refresh filtering Reset Stacking A stack of images is a way of organizing your images into groups not only to help reduce clutter in your Project window but more importantly to enable you to apply various settings to an entire group of images at the same time without having to multi select them each time In this way a stack is equivalent to a permanent multi selection 23 Image Science 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 pos sibilities 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 fs ROSNY_0208 s Ji Filta Y Sot E vw E E f isd raf_dxo k s7Raw i ea ci r Fr Sa y f sample tclcph gt aa aon Ea E a D p fi samples_s3_s5 3 Ki ole ee fm select scotland jonathan E n a k sigma_DP1 fm Sony_Zciss 1680 fm tamroni8 250 s fa techic view m yomen N g h fw telefon_summer Pine Soe Bice y maT es 5 fm tcelcfon_teasing Mm teleton2007 fatest DXO5 0 s fe TEST_jpg_dxo52 E IMS 4770 NEF E IMS 4776 NEF FP JMS _
35. acintosh version 20 Creating a project from several folders areon 4 20 Project Database icon 4 Discovering DxO Optics Pro v5 20 Content window Chapter 1 9 Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5 21 Project window 5 Basic Concepts 21 Choosing settings for the images 22 Functions associated with projects Chapter2 8 The DxO Optics Pro menus 22 Thumbnail icons 8 File menu 23 Module Information icons 9 Edit menu 23 Ranking 9 Program preferences General tab 23 Insert symbols for dots and stars 10 Program Preferences Module ambiguity tab 23 Stacking 10 Workspace menu 24 Right Clicking on an image 11 Help menu Chapter5 26 The Prepare tab Pe ORE PUCER 26 Adjusting the settings for each image Chapter3 13 Atypical image enhancement session 27 Progressive complexity 13 The Photographic Workflow 27 Control and corrections palettes 13 Step 1 Select a batch of images to create a project 28 Palette overview 14 Step 2 Prepare your project 30 To fake things further 15 Step 3 Processing a batch of images 30 The Preview window 15 Step 4 Review the results 33 Correction palettes 16 Suggested DxO Optics Pro Workflows 33 Overall Correction Palette workspace 34 Move Zoom palette Chapter4 17 Select 34 Histogram palette 17 Adding Your Photos from Various Sources 35 Edit EXIF palette 17 Adding importing images 36 Correction palettes 18 Import plug ins 36 Light palette 18 The Project window 40 Color palette 18 Star ranking and Stacking 45 Geometry
36. aids for assisting in your better use of DxO Optics Pro Your choices are Check for updates active Internet connection required By clicking on this menu item the program will contact the DxO server to determine if you have the most current version of the program installed on your system If you do not you will be given the option to download and install the latest update DxO Modules This is one of the most helpful menu items available Clicking on this item displays a window showing you all Correction Modules currently installed on your computer By default the Valid DxO Modules window is displayed Modules contained in this window are properly installed and working Notice that modules are listed by camera model AND lens model If you see modules listed when you click on the Update required radio button this means that a later version of these Correction Modules is available for you to install A module update may also be instigated if the program detects a lens on an image for processing for which a module exists but is not yet installed Such images will be shown with an icon of a little blue camera f DXO Modules Installed DxO Modules Update required Not supported by this edition Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF 85mm f 1 8 USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L I USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF16 35mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF17 35mm f 2 8L USM Canon EOS 1D Mark II Canon EF17 4
37. ail images displayed If unchecked RGB files will be filtered out not displayed Show corrected images Filter When checked images processed by DxO Optics Pro will be shown in the file list or among the thumbnail images displayed with a warning icon If the option is unchecked corrected images will be filtered out not displayed ATTENTION Remember already processed Optics Pro images cannot be reprocessed by the program as only original images can be processed You will need to reprocess the original images However keeping corrected images displayed lets you quickly spot which images in a large folder havent yet been processed by DxO NOTE Active sort options will be checked on the menu list Project window The lower pane is the Project window This is where you build your batches by adding the images you want to process to a project You can add your images in one of two ways 1 You can drag and drop one or more images from the folder contents window to the Project window This is the fastest and most convenient way to add images to a project 2 You can also add images to the Project window by selecting them e g using Ctrl click or Shift click under Windows and clicking the Add button in the central bar 3 Lastly you can import all of the images in a folder by dragging and dropping the folder icon onto the Project window does not apply on Mac Choosing settings for the images In all cases a preset a
38. ain all settings used to process the image alongside each original image and the automatic load ing of the dxo sidecar when opening the image These functions make it possible to transfer processed images from one computer to another Finally you can enable or disable the video GPU graphics processor unit code within the program On many newer systems this feature will help speed up the display of your images on your computer screen However it should be noted that not all video cards support this code and this can result in less than optimal performance TIP lf you experience any video related problems with the Optics Pro pro gram before doing any other troubleshooting or contacting DxO technical support disable this feature first to see if that corrects the problem Program Preferences Module ambiguity tab Under certain circumstances it may happen that an image s EXIF data contains insufficient lens information for DxO Optics Pro to properly determine the right Correction Module to use for this image This will normally be detected at the time of adding images to your project When this happens you will be asked to pick the correct lens from a list of installed Correction Modules You can also resolve these ambiguities via this tab under Preferences Where ambiguities exist the conflicting modules will be listed and you can choose the lens model you are actually using for example a 12 24 mm Nikkor and a Tokina of the
39. amera this raw image comes from The camera used to shoot this image is not supported by the Standard edition and requires the Elite edition The EXIF for this image is empty or has been modified by another program The largest dimension of this image width or height is less than 768 pixels Ranking Insert symbols for dots and stars To help you organize your workflow effectively a system is available using stars to indicate a quality ranking to your images This ranking has no effect on the DxO Optics Pro v5 workflow it is merely a convenient way of indicating some form of quality classification Down the right hand side of each thumbnail image is a line of dots e e fo indicate the selected ranking of an image You can click these dots on or off at any time and in any work space When you do the dots will be replaced by stars Xxxx Using the rating system is easy and straightforward For example if you click on the third dot it will change into a star and the dots below it will also change to stars giving this image a rating of 3 It will look like this xxx At the bottom right side of the thumbnail is a red X If you highlight an image or set of images and click the red xX the highlighted image s will be removed from the project Of course they are still safely stored in their original folder as to avoid any possibility of making a mistake there is no file delete function in DxO Optics Pro Show RA
40. ana morphosis distortion lens softness etc are grayed 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 make manual 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 which 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 vital to bear in mind that to take full advantage of all the DxO Optics Pro features you must use the specific camera and lens combinations that are sup
41. ance click on the corresponding icon at 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 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 several types of adjustment may lead to the same result e g overall contrast from DXO Lighting or from Tone Curve and you need to be careful not to use them together With a little experi ence you ll soon find which adjustment commands you prefer while other users may well choose different ergonomics 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 The first four control palettes you ll find from left to right The Navigation palette helps you quickly zoom or pan within the image The Histogram palette
42. ant to examine the results and compare them with 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 Using Multiple Cores DxO Optics Pro will automatically determine the best processing mode to use each time it is run The best processing mode is determined by many factors including the number of cores you have in your computer system Vv Histogram A Po o A a MA aah A A how much memory is installed and available how much disk space is available and what other programs and processes are running Based on these factors Optics Pro may or may not fully utilize every core in your system When multiple cores are in use multiple threads images will be processed simultaneously This will vary from one processing run to the next and this is normal If you find that the program is consistently failing to utilize all of your system s resources please review the configuration operating system settings and total processing load on your system TIP On Macintosh you may want to manually adjust the performance setting available under Preferences The default setting Best setting for this system may not necessarily be the most suitable When processing has been completed the program will notify you in the Status line as well as change the indicator buttons 60 Image Science Vv Histogram
43. at large apertures And finally Tone Curve gives you very precise control over all luminance levels and for each of the color layers in the image amp Light Hilight recovery Custom Intensity Auto Mode Slight More Options Color is the place to go when you want to modify colors in your image The first control con cerns the familiar White Balance which allows you to alter the lighting color temperature and tint with different adjustments for RAW or RGB originals You will also find DxO s exclusive Multi point color balance handy for fine adjustments when a scene contains different colored light sources Vibrancy on another hand brings out more vivid colors in the image while preserving skin tones Another very important tool gives you a choice of Color Rendition Profiles These profiles let you apply a specific look to your images from different cameras to traditional film rendering with the optional DxO Film Pack module and importing external profiles Style contrast saturation and HSL Hue Saturation Luminance controls are also available This palette also carries controls for easy adjustment via hue saturation and luminance HSL sliders and ones to apply particular styles to your images landscape neutral etc Color Preset As Shot Pick Color Pad Less Options Color Temperature Tint Geometry In this palette you will find contro
44. ays involves generating one or more copies since it is possible for example to produce both a JPG and a DNG at the same time DxO Optics Pro uses correction modules that process each image in a unique manner 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 DxO 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 informa tion stored in the EXIF data portion of your image file as well as analyzing the image content If the camera and lens details match the information found in an installed correction module that 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 immedi ately without further adjustments TIP DxO Optics Pro reads image information that cannot be changed once it is written by the camera If advanced correction tools such as volume
45. c of DxO Optics Pro are all controlled via four palettes each of which considers the image in a photographic way Light covers everything about lighting and contrast in the scene Color allows every possible chromatic modification Geometry is all about global structure of the image while Detail goes right down to pixel level to deal with sharpness and digital noise control ATTENTION Certain functions will only be available if the correction module for the lens concerned is available When this is not the case certain corrections will appear grayed out and hence disabled By the same token highlight recovery correction and precise white balance to K accuracy can only be applied to RAW files in which case additional controls appear And lastly certain silver halide type grain and color rendition options are only available if you have installed the optional DxO Film Pack module Hence certain screenshots in this chapter illustrate the most complete version of DxO 5 including these optional features Vv Edit EXIF Palette A Light Palette P Light palette Hilight recovery Custom Intensity Auto Mode Slight More Options Intensity Less Options Shadows Highlights preservation Master Reset all Natural scenes rarely exhibit ideal lighting conditions Light sources are often directional and sometimes quite harsh What s more when shooting we often tend to co
46. click on the image thumbnail in the Project window When you do this the correction and display processing for the Preview window will be started In fact the first image to appear will be the before image the original image you imported into DXO Optics Pro Then after a few seconds this is replaced by a preview of the after some of the controls are to be found at the top of the window above the displayed image remember that to see the effect of detail corrections the zoom must be more than 75 choosing 100 directly is the most practical way to do it Zoom Slider Note the zoom slider in the upper right hand corner of the Preview window By moving the slider to the left you can reduce the magnification of the selected image in the window Move the slider to the right and the magnification of the image is increased There is also a down arrow to the right of the slider that when clicked will present a drop down selec tion of predefined magnification levels as well as the option to type in a zoom value of your choosing Accepted values range from 5 to 1600 For more information about Zooming please see the Move Zoom tool palette section below The other icons above the Preview window are at top left Image checking icons 6 Before image displays the thumbnail image chosen in the lower Project win dow in the Preview window without any Optics Pro corrections To view the image as shot simply click and hold the
47. 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 don t 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 Image Science defined but such images will still be processed by default The green light obviously enough means Process this image Selecting images for processing Step 3 Processing a batch of images As soon as you are satisfied with the settings you have applied to your images you can move on to process them Under the Process tab check the output formats proposed adding or removing them where necessary 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 DxO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 File Edit Workspace Help Images processed O Start Cd processing Status Running Now processing 2 images Input H JMS 6817 NEF s Nikon D3 AF Zoom Nikkor 35 70mm f 2 8D Processing Input H JMS_6907 NEF Out H 3w Jpg tE Nikon D3 AF S
48. ction 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 0 200 and allows you to control how much of the selected correction is applied to the image Type Recover Spheres Recover Spheres Recover Cylinders Radial Intensity To adjust these controls you need to first examine the image and decide what type of correc tion is required Choose the appropriate type of correction for the picture content that most needs correcting and then apply as little correction as possible to render the residual distortion acceptable Over correction will start to re introduce unwanted geometric distortion and you may have to settle for the best compromise Keystoning Horizon Selecting the Horizon option the line button above the slider for the Horizon tool lets you define a line in the picture that you want to correct so as to be horizontal or vertical To do this you first create one end point by clicking with the mouse in the left hand preview image then hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor to the other edge of the image As soon as you release the mouse button a second point is set and defines your horizon line which be shown in brig
49. d original ICC profile It is not possible to create a different output format Going back to Lightroom Batch processing starts with the normal command to start processing and at the end of the correction process DxO Optics Pro shuts down The DxO Optics Pro output images overwrite the copy created when the external editor was opened or the original image depending on the choice made at the time of editing It is an image of the same size resolution and ICC profile as the original Lightroom import plug in under the Select tab Under the DxO Optics Pro Select tab choose the Lightroom import plug in by clicking on the LR icon at the top right of the window Windows Select tab The Browse Catalogue list area displays the last catalogue opened in LR1 4 or the recent catalogues in LR2 To add an older catalogue to the list click on the Add button Select a catalogue to display the Lightroom folders and collections it contains in the left hand Content area You ll need to browse through the folders and collections to see the images they contain in the right hand Content area 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 Mac Select tab LR1 4 and LR2 catalogues are listed in the left hand area of the Lightroom plug in Select a catalogue Its Collections and Folders contents are displayed
50. deactivate a system may lead to problems in being able to activate your DxO product on another computer Clicking on this item will bring up a short menu list that allows you to transfer your DxO Optics Pro 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 mov ing 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 DxO Optics Pro 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 d
51. dentical except for the save directory for the final images Note For processing to be able to start at least one output format must be enabled If you try to start processing with no output format enabled you ll get an error message If you want to delete an output format click on the trash can icon at the top right of its window TIP You can also create multiple versions of the same output format This is particularly useful if you want to automatically archive a version of your images on a server in addition to the version on your working machine Starting processing Images processed O Start processing Status Running Now processing 2 images eo Input H Red hat_MG_2670_original jpg Output H Red hat_MG_2670_original_DxO jpg Ms Canon EOS 5D Canon EF50mm f 1 8 II Processing Input H JMS_2983 NEF Output H JMS 2983 DxO_raw jpc at p o Ski Processing a LAS EEr iE The right hand window at the top of the screen is divided into two smaller windows The top one gives you information about both the overall processing status of your project and the status of each of the image files being processed This window also contains the buttons Start processing Pause Stop If you click on Pause processing is suspended and a Resume button appears in place of the Pause button clicking on it restarts the process Image Science Immediately below the images currently bein
52. distributed across the full width of the histogram When adjusting exposure compensation or color balance it can be helpful to display the clipped highlights or shadows i e whites that are too transparent or blacks that are totally opaque directly in the image itself using the three buttons beneath the Histogram display Move Zoom x Highlight Clipping reset Editor amp Light Color Geometry E Detail My Palette ne Histogram with highlight clipping displayed Image Science d Edit EXIF Shadow Clipping t Preset Editor amp Light 0 Color Geometry E Detail My Palette Histogram with lowlight clipping displayed These displays are intended to give a temporary pictorial indication of those parts of an image that are clipped i e dark areas that have reached minimum black level or light areas that have reached maximum white level Clicking on the highlight clipping button will display an image where small areas show up black highlights where all three color channels art at maximum or in other colors only one or two of the color channels are at maximum The reverse happens for the shadow clipping button in this case the picture displayed has small white or colored areas that indicate clipping The middle button restores the normal display Using the highlight clipping display allows you to make very fine adjustments when performing highlight recovery on a RAW file S
53. e installed on your system To see these icons you will need to install the corresponding Import plug in for each program Details and availability of plug in modules can be found on the DxO website www dxo com File System icon Windows version The upper left window File system window is the main folder tree display This display is very similar to the system trees displayed by Windows Explorer Clicking on a will reveal the next level of the folder structure When you navigate to the folder containing the images you want to process and click on the folder name the contents of that folder will be displayed in the upper right hand window Folder contents window in the form of thumbnails or a list depending on what you select using the buttons above this window 19 WD Image Science fn ROSNY_0208 C s gt _raf_dxo fen S 7Raw fa sample _teleph fm Samples s3_s5 fae select_scotland_jonathan faa sigma_DP1 fea Sony Zeiss 1680 fan tamroni8s 250 fe tamroni8s 250 jpg pogo fe tamroni8 250nef fae techic_view fae telefon_summer fee telefon_teasing fae teleton2007 fea test_DXO05_0 fe TEST_jpg_dxo52 fe Test_s5_dxo fm test_Zouavel5 fee test290508 fae VerifDXO521_7024 fa MG 3075 CR2 fee All images me DxXO_Optics Pro_v5 2_noise_re fae DxOOpticsProv5_FR_Box me highISO_3200set lt gt Navigating around within the file system Macintosh version The Macintosh version of
54. e the mouse button you see the final image corrected by DxO Optics Pro Move viewport This hand tool lets you move the visible area around in the image Magnifying glass Clicking on this icon lets you zoom the image to full frame with the mouse wheel where applicable with magnification up to 1 600 After images Displays the processed corrected image in the review window This is really the final image as it has been saved on the hard disk Before After images When you click on this icon two images will be displayed side by side one is the start image before any correction the other is the final image processed by DxO Optics Pro You can zoom in if necessary to compare the details of identical areas in both images Zoom Slider Note the zoom slider in the upper right hand corner of the Review window By moving the slider to the left you can reduce the magnification of the selected image in the window Move the slider to the right and the magnification of the image is increased There is also a down arrow to the right of the slider that when clicked will present a drop down selec tion of predefined magnifications Note that as this is now a saved copy and not a preview as under the Prepare tab it is possible to see the effects of the sharpness and noise reduction controls at all zoom levels TIP f you have a mouse with a thumbwheel it will act as a zoom in out control within the same limits a
55. e which correction will occur In other words with the threshold set to 0 sharpening is applied to all transitions in the image even the lowest contrast ones but digital noise in particular is also emphasized With a threshold of 255 only transitions above 255 for 8 bit would be affected which in this specific case disables the unsharp mask as it is not possible to have variations greater than 255 in 8 bit 200 unsharp mask off This slider exists mainly to avoid sharpening the noise to this end the normal threshold value is between 5 and 10 Less Options Unsharp Mask Intensity Radius Threshold Manual crispening displayed at 100 for an older lens 1970 for which there is no DxO module V Detail Palette a a Y a 4 4 rt a Grain 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 O 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 f
56. ee page XX all you have to do is move the manual slider slowly until there are no more clipped areas are visible For lowlights the display lets you see the exact effect of DxO Lighting Tone Curve or the Brightness and Contrast on any type of files Vv Edit EXIF Palette A Histogram Palette 35 Edit EXIF Preset Editor amp Light Hilight recovery Custom Intensity Auto Mode Slight More Options Highlight recovery with areas remaining out of bounds displayed in green on the lampshade Stronger correction would recover 100 of the highlights Edit EXIF palette The Edit EXIF palette consists of two parts Image Information EXIF Editor The Image Information section displays key EXIF information written by your camera to the image being displayed in the Preview pane This information cannot be altered and is saved when you create a corrected copy of your image It is an important reference and can fell you if any EXIF data is missing that might affect DxO Optics Pro s ability to perform key optical corrections The EXIF Editor allows you to add Author and Copyright information in the image metadata section Image Science Edit EXIF Exposure 1 50 s Date 2008 09 18 09 30 49 Focal Length 50 00 mm ISO Speed Rating 6400 Flash Flash did not fire F Number F11 0 Lens 50mm f 1 4 Author Copyright Correction palettes The correction engines that perform the magi
57. een 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 baich processing applications DxO Optics Pro 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 The left hand area of the top section is where you can specify what output file formats you would like created during the Optics Pro processing phase Optics Pro supports three output formats JPEG TIFF and DNG DNG format files can only be created from RAW input files A summary of all available formats is shown and you can check the ones you want to enable them for the forthcoming processing You must have at least one output format active for processing to begin 97 Image Science You can create as many output formats as you like as long as you give them different names e g JPG HQ JPG medium JPG web etc JPEG JPEG TIFF 8 bits TIFF inp RAW Camera RAW JPEG TIFF 8 ou 16 bits DNG DNG Samsung GX20 Pentax K10D JPEG TIFF 8 ou 16 bits DNG Output Format window Creating a new output format You create a new output by clicking on the New output button at the top of the Output set tings pane This will open an out
58. efault browser and take you directly to the DxO Technical Support web page where you ll 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 DXO Optics Pro Clicking on this menu item will open the About DXO Optics Pro 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 Workspace tabs 12 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 Select see page 13 Prepare see page 14 Process see page 15 Review see page 15 Each of these tabs is covered by a chapter of this Manual which explains the workspaces and the buttons and adjustment tools available in each workspace Image Science Chapter 3 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 a batch of i
59. efault to a gamma of 1 00 but you can enter any figure between 0 05 and 6 00 As you would expect a gamma value higher than 1 tends to bring up detail out of the shadows while a value lower than 1 pushes details down into the blacks The input and output black and white points can likewise be set either by dragging and dropping the relevant points with your mouse or entering numerical values in the 4 entry boxes from 0 black to 255 white DxO s powerful tone curve lighting correction and noise reduction features mean you ll be able to recover an astonishing amount of shadow detail that in conventional photography would likely have been lost Remember these corrections are most effective when processing RAW images which is why we strongly recommend using the RAW format whenever possible The Tone Curve adjustment is probably the hardest to master but in terms of tonal control of your images is certainly one of the most intuitive functions once you get used to it It s well worth taking the time to practice using the Tone Curve to have more precise control over the lighting adjustments being made to your image But don t forget that a strong S curve in combination with strong DxO Lighting correction can lead to excessive or indeed ridiculous corrections For natural images the subtlest corrections are often the best vColor Palette i 2 N B 3 A Light Palette 40 An S curve so called because of its shape make
60. er Stacking Rotation Hag Copy correction settings Apply preset Remove from project Right clicking gives you quick access to Showing the file selected in Windows Explorer Controlling stacking functions 24 Image Science Creating a virtual copy of the image selected Rotation controls Image ranking Image process flagging Copying the correction settings of the image Pasting copied correction settings from another image to this image Applying chosen presets and Removing the image file from the project Certain commands are redundant images can be rotated using a left click on the thumbnail arrows or deleted by clicking on the red cross Image process flagging has 4 sub menu items Undefined Mark to be corrected and Do not correct correspond to the three process ing buttons in the top left hand corner of the thumbnail image The reset button returns the settings to the pre selected condition 25 WD Image Science Chapter 5 The Prepare tab Adjusting the settings for each image 26 DXO Optics Pro Flite 5 3 File Edit Workspace Help ol R Project Untitied389 10 image s 2 stacks A amp fite Y sot EF Duplicate Prepare workspace with palettes to the right of the image DxO Optics Pro Flite 5 3 O X File Edit Workspace Help u a pe ay Sa A E gt gt B v R 120 G 123 8 54 3 M o Prepare workspace with palettes floating I
61. erall level of sharpness required for a particular image Remember that this tool tries to achieve the same level of sharpness over the whole image so if will automatically apply heavier correction to the poorer areas of your image The sharpness level you choose to apply will of course depend on your personal taste final resolution and type of output print web etc The slider edit box range is in arbitrary units from 2 0 to 2 0 from Softer to Sharper with a default setting of 0 The default setting of 0 is the lens softness setting that has been determined by DxO Optics Pro to be the best setting for this particular image Moving the slider to the left or entering negative values will give a softer smoother image while moving the slider to the right or entering positive values will give a sharper image The sharpening applied in DxO Optics Pro is intelligent in that it depends on the image content Areas with noise are sharpened less than areas containing detail For each area in the image the amount of sharpening will also depend for example on the ISO setting used to take the picture Less sharpening is automatically applied at a higher ISO than a lower ISO to avoid increasing the noise in the image 48 Image Science Automatic sharpness optimization in a corner of the image displayed at 100 Note that because this sharpness correction is specifically tailored for your camera s optics and may well vary across
62. essional calibration programs for creating ICC profiles Save database lets you copy the DxO database to another hard disk so as to have one or more copies of all projects processed in the event of a problem with the default location Sidecars exports and imports the current project sidecars the individual settings files for each image with original images Image Science Exit to exit the DxO Optics Pro program It is important to note that a project saves all the specific settings for each imported image along with the Output formats settings but it does not save duplicate copies of your original images These will be found in the destination folder shown under the process tab As a result projects can be saved quickly and without taking up too much disk space It s a practical way of saving all the settings for processing a group of images and coming back to them later Edit menu Edit Workspace Help Refresh F5 Preferences Ctrl Shift P The Edit Menu contains several useful pairs of commands to assist you in your work Undo Ctrl Z and Redo Ctrl Y apply to the last action you have performed Cut Ctrl X lets you cut selected text or objects from their current location and puts them onto the Windows clipboard Copy Ctrl C lets you copy selected text or objects from their current location and puts them onto the Windows clipboard The original text or objects remain at the
63. g processed you will see the next images in the batch list Naturally only images you have marked with a green or a yellow light will appear in this list we ve already seen that a red light means Do not process If images that have already been corrected by DxO e g in an earlier project are in the same directory with the same name the program asks you if you want to overwrite the previous ver sions If you answer no the image will not be processed If you want to process images with the same name without overwriting you will need to choose a different output directory fa Checking Starting tests Test 1 Checking output settings conflicts Test 2 Checking output files Show details All tests completed SE You are kept informed of the progress in processing your project by means of two sets of progress bars Errors are displayed in a window at the bottom of the tab just above the project display Note In DxO Optics Pro v5 you no longer have to save your projects to your system s hard drive to process your images All the settings associ ated with your images are recorded automatically in an internal program database 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 green tick indicating that processing has been successful for that image After processing your images you may w
64. 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 picture content 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 45 Image Science 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 full length 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 re
65. h each image trying to reproduce the settings you ve used before It s worth noting here that all settings used to process any image are saved in DxO Optics Pro s 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 can t alter them but you can use their settings as the starting point to create a modified preset that you can save with a new name Vv Preset Editor Image Science A Darker Vision This preset will reduce the exposure level while increasing the Highligth Recovery _ Strong strong recovery medium DXO Ligthing 04 overall contrast This gives a slight low key effect Raw Neutral Preset DxO default preset with neutral rendering Default Preset This preset is applied by default to all images imported into DxO Optics Pro It contains all the basic corrections as long as you have the neces sary modules Romantic Look A rather soft low contrast preset bringing a slight high key style very useful in portraiture VividPreset DxO default preset with S curve and more vivid colors Light Exposure compensation activated but set to O Lighting set to 70 Slight Vignetting set to 100 Vivid and sharp This preset on the other hand gives the image a dynamic l
66. he header bar lets you grab it and move it around There is the same zoom slider as before together with small zoom in out buttons at either end Maximum zoom in all cases is 1600 The minimum zoom size depends on the size you have set for the preview pane The i amp d bution in the header bar is another way of zooming in and out You can also move the zoomed in image around using the mouse if you select the hand tool at the top left of the Prepare window note that the window in the Zoom palette follows this movement 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 while you are adjusting color and exposure as you ll be able to see if the values are distributed across the whole of the scale or mainly to the left very dark image or to the right often too light an image The highlight and lowlight display functions are also very useful for adjusting Highlight recovery RAW files only or lightening 28 shadows using DxO Lighting or Tone Curve controls that work in both RGB and RAW Highlight Clipping 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 image after pr
67. he image according to the ratio selected from the drop down list or entered manually 47 Image Science E Detail DxO Lens Softness o Unsharp Mask Intensity Radius Threshold e y Current color profile Intensity 24x36 Adjust Size to Current Crop Size y Luminance Chrominance Grey Equalizer gt Remove dead pixels a Tool amp Dust pen width Intensity Size Purple Fringing Lateral Chromatic Aberration 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 V Detail Palette Oi v 1 i f gt 4 DxO Lens Softness This forms part of DxO Optics Pro s optical corrections and as such is lens and body depen dent As a result this panel will only be enabled i e its title bar not grayed out for images for which the appropriate correction module is installed Here again there is a check box to disable this correction The DxO Lens Softness slider allows you to manually set the ov
68. he name of the image file you are viewing and to right and left of this are buttons similar to those found on a VCR or DVD player These buttons are useful if you select several different thumbnails in the Project window multi selection You can then browse through this multi selection using the arrows either side of the current filename Image Science If you click the far left button with a left facing arrowhead and vertical line Optics Pro will take you to the first image file in your multi selection The button with just a left facing arrowhead will take you to the previous image unless you are already at the first image in which case both the left hand buttons will be grayed out The buttons on the right of the filename have similar functions only they will take you ahead to images that are further into the multi selec tion These buttons mean you no longer have to click in the Project pane to browse manually through the images On the far right hand side of the bar above the Preview window to the left of the zoom slider are three icons the order is different on Mac The icons from left to right are Proof this allows you to immediately process the image currently chosen in the Project window to quickly verify if the settings you have made for the image meets your needs or if additional correction and adjustments are necessary Toggle Grid overlay superimposes and removes a grid over the image in the Preview
69. his choice will modify your original image Remember to make a backup copy before this process not available for RAW images or multi selections including both RAW and JPG files A copy not available for RAW images or multi selections including both RAW and JPG files 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 you ll 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 a V Histogram pW OOK j N gt E Image Science 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 an
70. ht green on the preview image The right hand after image will rotate V Geometry Palette D g A A D z 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 correc tions to 1 100 of a degree The Horizon slider has a range from 180 to 180 enabling the image to be rotated com pletely 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 L Horizon Up Down Left Right Scale Horizontal Vertical Ratio Correcting horizontality If you click on More Options the Keystoning Horizon correction palette will expand to display additional button and slider controls At the top of the extended panel are buttons to control Force Parallel Horizontal Force Parallel Vertical and Rectangle The pair of Up Down and Left Right sliders edit boxes give you additional fine control for adjust ing vertical or horizontal keystoning correction with both sliders having a range of 100 to 100 Also note that you can type in a value instead of using the sliders for even more precise control of
71. i ae e i m E a D Image Science
72. ider is often more effective than the correction intensity slider in preventing undesirable vignetting correction side effects Also only vignetting caused by the lens or sensor is corrected Mechanical vignetting caused for example by too narrow a lens shade cannot be corrected In the case of mechanical vignetting you will want to use the crop tool to remove the unwanted parts of your picture Tone Curve The Tone Curve is a very standard and powerful tool available in many image processing applications but is not easy to master at first We recommend you do some tests to see if you prefer working with the curves or can achieve similar results using DxO Lighting page 37 or the HSL dialogue box page 43 YV Light Palette The tone curve shows the relationship between tonal values into the tool across the x axis 39 and out of it up the y axis The tone curve represents the transfer characteristic or the way in which input tones are mapped onto output tones for example a mid gray in the original file might appear lighter or darker at the output after processing and colors too since each Red Green and Blue layer can be corrected independently Conversely the initial straight line indicates that output tonal values are exactly the same as input values over the entire tonal range In order to adjust tone mapping for correction or creative purposes the straight line is manipu lated so it alters this input output rela
73. iew Edit button To apply it to the current processing on one image a stack or a selection click on the Apply button Preview Edit Editing a preset When you click on the Preview Edit button you will see an orange vertical bar appear down the left hand side of any open correction palette In this orange bar checkboxes are visible some of them may be checked this means the corresponding correction is activated by the selected preset A checkbox left unchecked in the orange bar means the corresponding correc tion is not impacted by that preset applying this preset to an image will not alter the previous settings for this correction For the selected settings to be applied not only must the box in the orange bar alongside the name of that correction be checked but also the correction must be enabled i e displayed in blue ATTENTION Presets are additive one preset does not cancel a previous one This is because a preset does not necessarily affect all of the correction settings but only those that have been checked in the orange bar 99 Preset Editor E Detail a i DxO Lens Softness Less Options Unsharp Mask Intensity mie a Radius s ay X Threshold e e Ome y Luminance y Chrominance Intensity Less Options Camera Film ICC Profiles y Grey Equalizer Camera Body a Canon 1DMk3 1DsMk3 Remove dead pixels na y 15 My Intensity
74. ilar 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 Y Light Palette i ai 7 5 i j j DA 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 O entirely global to 15 fully localized these arbitrary levels act dif ferently 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 fo initial settings after over zealous correction And last but by no means least comes the pair of sliders edit boxes for Local contrast range from 0 100 and Global contrast range from 50 to 50 The Global contrast control uses a tonal S curve to affect the overal
75. iles in the folder alpha numerically in ascending or descending order Image Science A slider bar in the lower right hand corner of the window adjusts the size of the thumbnails Moving the slider to the left decreases the size of the thumbnails while moving the slider to the right increases the size of the thumbnails TIP To display more thumbnails you can adjust thumbnail size using the slider at the bottom right of the window Changing thumbnail size using the slider To the right of the thumbnail button is the Sort button that allows you to filter and sort the files in the folder display Options available to you using the Sort button are Name Sorts the contents of the folder alphabetically by file name Size Sorts the contents of the folder by file size Date Sorts the contents of the folder by file creation modification date This is useful to quickly find the most recent image files in a folder a Raw Corrected items Name Extension Size Date Dimensions when Exifs loaded Camera body when Exifs loaded Lens when Exifs loaded Sort options The following options are only available under Windows Show RAW Filter When checked RAW image files will be shown in the file list or thumbnail images displayed If unchecked RAW files will be filtered out not displayed Show RGB Filter When checked RGB image files usually JPG or TIFF will be shown in the file list or thumbn
76. image By clicking on and dragging the corners of the rectangle you can adjust the size of the crop V Geometry Palette hi 4 A eo A amp fe H gt Clicking on the borders of the crop will allow you to move the crop box and clicking on an area outside of the crop will remove the crop box and allow you to create a new rectangle On the right hand panel there is a drop down list from which you can choose the way the aspect ratio of the image is controlled in Crop Unconstrained gives you complete control to reshape the crop in any way you like Otherwise choosing one of the fixed ratios will constrain the crop to certain proportions or Keep image ratio to maintain the original aspect ratio as shot A final option allows you to define a Custom ratio handy if you need to crop a whole series of images to conform to a specific aspect ratio Clicking on Custom ratio opens a little bow where you can enter numeric values for the ratio you want These must be expressed as a ratio in whole numbers but the box will accept a sufficiently wide range of values to enable any desired proportion to be achieved Tool wz Aspect Ratio Unconstrained Auto basec Unconstrained Keep image ratio 5 2 Custom ratio Type x y At the bottom of the Crop palette a checkbox activates the automatic crop feature Auto based on Keystoning Horizon With this option any keystoning correction applied will automatically crop t
77. in dow It s important to remember that this fit to window preview image only shows an approximation of some of the corrections to be applied i e White Balance Exposure rough Demosaicing Distortion Vignetting Tone Curve Lighting Hue Saturation Luminance while other key corrections like noise reduction lateral chromatic aber ration true de mosaicing and sharpness processing are not always previewed This is particularly the case when displaying at zoom factors below 75 While editing these settings you will probably want to frequently zoom in to check the effects of your corrections and zoom out to control the image as a whole A 100 button that quickly zooms the image to a factor of 100 Y Move Zoom Palette ELJ A Histogram Palette TIP f you have a mouse with a thumbwheel it will act as a zoom in out 34 control within the same limits as the standard zoom controls B Histogram palette The histogram display is a graph showing the number of pixels for each tonal value in the three color channels with black on the left side and white on the right You will find it very helpful to keep the Histogram palette open while you re working with the other tools since it will very often give you a good idea of exactly how each adjustment is affecting your image Generally we may consider that in a properly exposed image except for subjects that are naturally very dark or very light the values ought to be
78. in the right hand area browse through the collections and folders to choose the images they contain Vv Histogram CLDF aan 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 FilmSirip 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 Lightroom export plug in under the review tab After images have been corrected go to the review tab Exporting under Windows Right click on an image selection and choose the field Export Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Export An export window is displayed When exporting for the first time browse the disk directory tree to indicate the path to the Lightroom 1 4 or 2 application This will not be necessary for subsequent exporting Fill in the output format corresponding to the output images you want to export to Lightroom If no corrected image exists in the selected format the next button will not be available Images for which there is no output image corresponding to this format in the multi selection will be ignored during exporting Then click on
79. ir current location for example EXIF data Paste Ctrl V lets you copy the contents of the Windows clipboard to the cur rent cursor position for example personal details to be added into the image EXIF field Copy image settings copies the settings applied to the selected image so that they can be applied to other images as needed Note When you copy the settings of an image with this command those settings remain in the computer s memory until you do the next copy image settings or you quit the software Paste image settings applies the settings that you placed into memory with the Copy image settings command to the currently selected image This is a quick way to apply settings from one image to one or more other images Refresh updates the content of the selected repertory Preferences lets you make adjustments to certain overall program working parameters Program preferences General tab These commands let you make some configuration choices which will not be enabled until next time the program is run If you want to use these new settings right away close DxO Optics Pro and re open it remembering to save your current work before you do so f Preferences a sf Tis u or General Process Module ambiguity Intemational Application language English Options Play sound at startup Automatically check for updates Automatically save sidecar Automatically load sidecar ICC Pr
80. irst stage of cleaning up some of the spurious elements in the file and hence there will be less correction in the noise suppression module Luminance Chrominance Less Options Grey Equalizer Example of automatic setting for a JPG file 6 400 ISO 49 Image Science 7 The Gray equalizer slider box has a range from O to 100 This makes it possible to clean 50 Luminance up unwanted color noise from mid tones and has the effect of slightly de saturating neutral Chrominance gt tones around mid gray to minimize spurious color effects in these sensitive areas Less Options Grey Equalizer i TIP You will probably be able to leave this correction at the default set nemoe Sac phts ting unless you notice the effect it can have of de saturating certain pastel Example of automatic setting for a RAW file 6 400 ISO tones s The degree of Luminance noise correction can be set using the slider edit box with a Eo fae peo range from O to 100 Luminance noise shows up as a graininess that blurs image details and the automatic correction is programmed to remove this grain On the other hand certain surfaces that might exhibit a pleasing natural graininess may appear too smooth Reducing the luminance correction by adjusting by eye on the screen 100 magnification can make it possible to find the best compromise A certain minimum level of grain increases the subjec
81. l 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 Before contrast adjustment Vignetting The automatic correction operates when the check box to the right of the Intensity slider is checked but is only possible if the appropriate DxO Correction Module is installed on your system as the intensity of the correction depends on the lens and aperture used Otherwise the control will be grayed out and the correction unavailable Vignetting correction takes place in two steps both of which can be fine tuned 38 Image Science First from the lens data focal length and aperture setting the DxO Correction Module computes the attenuation factor for every pixel in the image and each pixel s RGB value is multiplied by the inverse of this factor The Correction Intensity Slider range 0 100 allows you t
82. ls for Distortion Volume Anamorphosis and Keystoning Horizon correction As long as you have the appropriate module distortion cor rection is applied automatically by DxO Optics Pro according to the type of lens used for the picture and the photographic settings zoom aperture etc Volume Anamorphosis correc tion takes care of the geometric distortion that stretches objects in the corners of wide angle images Being subject matter dependent this adjustment requires you to set the type and amount of correction manually while looking at the result on the screen 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 if necessary constraining the proportions to specific formats An original Auto crop process can do the job for you automatically after performing keyston ing adjustments Geometry Intensity Keep Image Ratio Image Science Detail brings together all the parameters involved at pixel level Lens softness correction is applied according to the lens module available and may be fine adjusted to suit the subject e g a portrait offen needs to be softer than a landscape The sharpness calculation takes into account the specific parameters of the lens used This to
83. ly enabled when a RAW file is being processed This box provides a list of predefined automatic exposures for different types of shooting conditions Choosing one of these exposure compensations can speed up your workflow by providing additional custom settings for this type of shooting situation usually slight correction is enough for a normally contrasted image Note that the shadows will be automatically compensated when adjusting the highlights as long as the DxO Lighting control see above is active at the same time R cup ration des hautes lumi res 7 Inteneit e Highlight recovery adjustment box and the effect of a Strong correction YV Light Palette g i B f DxO Lighting 37 DXO Lighting is a pixel precise image segmentation algorithm that provides automatic local contrast adjustment thereby revealing hidden detail in dark areas Simply put DxO Lighting first breaks the image down into a number of zones in which luminance values have a certain range It then processes each of these areas in the most effective manner possible to reveal lost detail In general terms brightness and tone curve slope are increased slightly in dark areas to bring out detail while avoiding the signal clipping that can occur if the overall gamma level of the image were adjusted The main parameter involves choosing one of the three adjustment options Slight Medium Strong Then the intensity slider makes i
84. mage Science For users who need greater control and wish to go beyond the automatic settings for some of their images the Prepare tab gives very fine adjustment of all the settings 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 leff 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 It is also possible to display permanently a before and after image so you can see the effect of your adjustments Note that the effects of some adjustments digital noise sharpness require a 100 zoom setting one pixel in the file corresponds to one pixel on the screen in order to be visible prior to processing but this Zoom will be applied to both images to be compared allowing complete accuracy in your adjustments Progressive complexity It s worth noting that the complexity of the software appears progressively depending on how you use the program The first time you select the Prepare tab no correction palettes are vis ible To access the Presets for inst
85. mages to create a project 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 e g as many as several hundred images into a project that will be processed by applying to each image exactly the correction you have chosen for it 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 a DXO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 Ale Edit Workspace Help laama pee Prepare Process ROCIIC_flowers amp G sampie_teleph O hsamples s3 s5 select_scotland_jonathan Si sigma_DP1 h fe Sony_Zoiss 1680 mm tamroni8 250 me techic_view fm telefon summer ab Lelefon_leasing E aMs_6817 NEF PP 2ms_6907 NEF IA oms75552 6 Boe oa BB anamorphosespher fe teleton2007 a test_DXO5_0 E w es a fe TEST_jpg_dxo52 ae 9 1 aa fm Test_s5 dxo f m test_zouavels im test290508 gt DA Tea B o7c_16s0PG B oso1s41PG I 0s0015733PG Be os issuPe I s001622 19G Me zciss_planarSO 4 fe zciss_test 1 fhe 7eiss_test zeiss_test3 Bh zeiss _lest4 Mh zciss_test5 amp o 5
86. n tool 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 ar 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 as mmes an n an Le H p p Hl z gi Pi IE T SVT f i PEL TA y LOA s vi a Af be bi Quick use of parallels tool E 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 fo position your parallel lines within the image It doesn t matter if you reset the lines in the same or reverse order the end result is the same Only the relati
87. ncentrate first and foremost on capturing just the right moment without always paying great attention to potential lighting problems To compound the issue the dynamic range of camera sensors is simply unable to compete with what our eyes can see All this can result in some shots exhibiting under exposed dark or shadowed regions with missing or muddied details To a certain extent such as when the wanted image signal is sufficiently above the noise level of the sensor lighting problems can be corrected in post production as long as appropriate image processing is available The Light palette gives access to all the controls relating to these issues It has been organized into to four major adjustment sections Exposure Compensation 36 Image Science DXO Lighting Vignetting Jone Curve Exposure Compensation This involves overall control of the image exposure level RAW images offer much greater scope for correction The slider works just as you might expect Moving it to the right or entering a positive Ev number into the edit box increases the image exposure while moving the slider to the left or a negative Ev number reduces it The range is from 4 00 Ev to 4 00 Ev Tip During exposure adjustments you will find it helpful to use the highlight shadow clipping display available via the buttons beneath the Histogram display see page 39 Below the slider is a Highlight Recovery dropdown which is on
88. not possible For an RGB input image JPG or TIFF the slider mixes between the original image and the rendering selected only when the optional FilmPack is being used Otherwise the control and slider are disabled 42 Image Science Intensity Camera Film ICC Profiles Default settings RAW factory JPEG camera Default settings RAW factory JPEG camera Camera Body Color Positive Film Color Negative Film Black And White Film Cross Processed Film ICC Profile Saturation As Shot Settings available for a RAW file after installing the optional FilmPack The controls associated with the ICC Profile line make it possible to apply a particular color profile to your image e g to associated with a certain printer that has particular settings by importing a file that contains the mapping information between the original colors and the way in which the printer reproduces the colors depending on the type of paper etc Strictly speaking an ICC profile is a file extensions icc or icm that includes these data based on the International Color Consortium standards and which can be imported so that it will appear in the drop down list of color renderings associated with the image The ICC Profile option allows you to load a specific profile created from a test image for example in order to provide a customized color rendition All you have to do to import an ICC profile is to open the dialogue box
89. nti qust tool with its eraser icon allows you to paint a point or a line whose thickness can be adjusted over a dust shadow or a blemish detail you want to erase After you draw a point or a line it becomes selectable if you click again on it with the anti dust tool You can then remove it by pressing the Del key on your keyboard s numeric keypad Of course once you erase dust and blemishes on one image you can make a preset out of if and reuse this setting on other images 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 Quick use of horizo
90. o decide how much of the vignetting should be removed from the whole image independent of image content In other words all pixels will be multiplied by the scale factor applicable to their position in the image Second a filter is applied to avoid clipping in bright areas and noise increase in dark areas This is achieved by limiting the value by which a pixel can be multiplied according to its luminance The effect of this filter will be different depending on image content Intensity Less Options s Shadows Highlights preservation Clicking the More Options button opens up a sub panel Shadow Highlights preservation restricts the amount of exposure correction applied by the vignetting corrector at both ends of the tonal range so as to avoid either crushing the shadows or clipping the highlights Example If you want to limit the luminance increase which may reveal unwanted noise in dark image corners because you shot at a high ISO shadow preservation limits the degree of correction being applied Likewise because of the vignetting the camera may have incorrectly exposed a cloud in the sky The highlight preservation filter allows you to apply as much vignetting cor rection as possible while still retaining wanted highlight detail The range of this slider is O 100 The check box allows you to revert to the automatic setting Note We recommend you do not depart from the default 100 as the shadow preservation sl
91. o 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 This recommendation particularly applies to reader and cataloguing programs which should preferably be used after processing images using DxO Optics Pro The best first step in your workflow is to use your operating system s copy command to copy paste your images directly from the camera storage card to your hard drive Again do not use reader or cataloguing programs to move your pictures from the storage card to your computer It is crucial to appreciate that if you once open your RAW files using Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom in order to convert them into TIFFs or JPGs DxO Optics Pro will no longer be able to process optical defects vignetting lack of sharpness distortion chromatic aberration as this conversion modifies the file metadata The same applies to most manufacturers conversion software except for the later generations of Nikon Capture In order to have all the DxO Optics Pro functions available you should proceed as follows 1 Copy the data from the camera or card using the computer s operating system and not an upload program even the one provided by the manufacturer 2 Process the images in DxO Optics Pro and save the copies in the working directory 3 Then go on to the other steps in your post production for example using the various versions of Photoshop or any other post
92. ocessing Edit EXIF wx DxO Module Nikon D3 AF Nikkor 50 Size 4256x2832 Exposure 1 50s Date 2008 09 18 09 30 49 Focal Length 50 00 mm ISO Speed Rating 6400 Flash Flash did not fire F Number F11 0 Author Copyright 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 DxO crafted 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 Image Science Preset Editor All Presets n 7 A darker vision DxO Default Preset No Correction RAW anti color alias Romantic Look Vivid and Sharp New Preset New Preseti Preview Edit 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 The DxO Lighting tool corrects image contrast in an intelligent adaptive way using global and local contrast adjustments Vignetting fixes the dark areas seen in the corners of some images that often occur when using wide angle lenses
93. ofile used for display Current Profile of the display device v GPU acceleration Database Directory C Documents and Settings JMS Application Data DxO Labs DxO Optics Pro Storage In this dialogue box you can select the working language French English German Japanese select if you want the camera shutter sound effect at start up enable or disable automatic checking for software or module updates Image Science On PCs another useful feature on the General tab Is the ability to set the ICC display profile you will use when working with your pictures in DxO Optics Pro There is no need for this function on MAC as the operating system takes care of the screen display profile Your choices are Display device profile lets you use the ICC profile specifically used by your monitor if you have calibrated it using a Spyder probe for example sRGB allows you to work with the sRGB color profile use this if unsure If your monitor is not calibrated this profile is probably the most suitable as most monitors factory settings behave very similarly to SRGB This is the default setting used the first time DxO Optics Pro is run Adobe RGB lets you uses this Adobe color profile This profile should only be used with high end monitors that specifically have an Adobe RGB Gamut available very unusual at the moment Two checkboxes activate the automatic creation of sidecars the dxo files that cont
94. oise and imple ment the control remove dead pixels This preset is advised if DxO Noise 100 screen seems insufficient It s sometimes necessary to correct manually exposure compensation and contrast Raw Highligth Recovery to automate highligth recovery for one project Highligth Recovery _Medium medium recovery medium DXO Ligthing Highligth Recovery _ Slight slitght recovery slight DxO Ligthing Vv Preset Editor g n 7 a e La DA Ses Se Die mage Science From left to right these icons are as follows New Folder allows you to create folders in which you can group similar types of presets By doing this you can create custom groupings of presets to suit the way you work Note You can move a preset to a different folder using drag and drop New Preset enables you to save the current settings for the image into a new preset If you highlight a folder first before creating the preset the new preset will be created in that selected folder Duplicate this lets you start off from an existing preset to create a variant that you will give a new name fo Delete the selected preset or preset folder will be deleted Import this button lets you import Presets created previously in other versions of the software or available on another computer in order to use them in Optics Pro v5 Clicking on the Import icon will open a directory tree allowing you to find the Prese
95. ol is complemented by a conventional Unsharp Mask essential for images where no lens module exists Automatically enabled by default the de noising tool makes it possible to suppress excessive granularity luminance and unwanted colored artifacts in neutral areas chrominance These controls can be adjusted for each image Chromatic Aberration is eliminated automatically with the option of suppressing the Purple Fringing introduced by some lenses Finally a Dust removal system lets you specify the posi tion of dust and blemishes on one image and then remove them automatically from a whole batch of pictures E Detail DxO Lens Sofiness c Unsharp Mask Intensity Radius Threshold e IMPORTANT Detail corrections are not visible in the Prepare tab preview image if the zoom factor is less than 75 you need to zoom in e g to 100 to check how they are being applied It is important to realize that all of these manual adjustments are not applied to your images immediately This is just a preparation stage before the actual image processing begins To start the processing proper move on to the next workflow tab by clicking on the Process tab To take things further The Preview window The Prepare tab workspace is divided into 2 primary windows The top window is the Preview window while the Project window continues to occupy the lower part of your screen To work on an image simply
96. ook Geometry Distortion set to 100 thanks to strong vibrancy and accentuated sharpness settings perfect for graphic landscapes with intense colors Detail DxO Lens Softness enabled but set to 0 Chromatic Aberration Intensity to 100 and size to 3 with lateral chromatic aberration active and DxO Noise activated values automatically dependent on the camera and ISO settings Once you have created presets of your own a list of the corrections available appears when the palette is opened and the group of buttons displayed below the list operate as described below No correction As its name suggests this preset will disable all the DxO correction amp Preset Editor engines Of course when applied to a RAW image DxO Optics Pro still takes care of w amp RAW conversion with the basic settings for the camera RAW Anti color alias This preset activates DxO s denoise engine along with the gray equalizer to suppress areas of moir Spurious color fringing on repetitive structures Raw Color with variety of color rendering Neutral Color _ neutral tonality for neutral rendering Realistic_ModelHigh contrast for high contrast Realistic_ToneCurve to implement slightly S curve Realistic_ToneCurve Vivid to implement slightly S curve and more vivid colors Raw High ISO High ISO implement strong D Lighting fort and modify black point to avoid blues shades on pictures taken with high ISO boost DxO N
97. or more details on this feature You can repeat this process over and over again choosing different presets to use with one or more other images Remember in Optics Pro each image is treated as a unique processing file So being able to mix different images and presets in a single project is a very powerful feature of the program Functions associated with projects AZE In the upper left hand corner of the Project window you will find the name of the project you are working on To the right of the name you will see the following icons Create a new project If you click on this icon the program will ask if you want to save the current project where applicable since only one project can be open at a time and will then create an empty project Save this project If you click on this icon the system invites you to save the current project This option is useful if you want to save the project you are creating as you go in case of a system crash or if you have to stop work on a project to go and do something else You can always come back to work on it later To the far right of the Project window are two buttons Process Now If you want to apply the automatically created default correction set tings to all your images or the custom settings you chose when you selected them you can click on this button to be taken directly to the Process tab workspace Duplicate on Mac visible only under the Prepare tab
98. or your image You can also adjust the output size of the processed image to automati cally 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 O to 10 Noise DxO noise suppression is a calibrated correction in other words the correction algorithm is specifically tailored for each camera and therefore this correction will only be performed for images from cameras that have been calibrated by DxO Noise suppression is more effective on a RAW file as JPG files will already have been processed by the noise reduction used at the time of shooting Note These corrections will not be visible if the main preview image is displayed at less than 75 To see the effect of this tool properly choose 100 magnification Both the Luminance and Chrominance controls under this tab have individual automatic boxes to the right of their sliders that must be unchecked in order to enable the controls If you move a slider the right hand automatic setting box will be unchecked for you Checking it again reverts to the automatic setting which varies depending on whether the file is RAW or JPG the model of camera and the ISO sensitivity when shot You will also note that the degree of noise suppression varies for the same camera and sensitivity depending on whether you use a native RAW or JPG file as the DxO Optics Pro RAW convertor already includes a f
99. other hand a pre defined Web size is available Options Size Original Original Resolution 10x15 cm 20x30 cm Web 800px Screen Size Custom ICC Profile Resolution select the resolution in dots per inch dpi if you have chosen a custom screen or paper format For example 72 dpi for screen display 254 dpi for a photo graphic printer to Kodak standards 300 dpi for certain printers or publication If you are not changing the original size don t alter the resolution either Resolution Original Original ICC Profile 72 dpi 120 dpi 150 dpi 175 dpi DNG 180 dpi 240 dpi 300 dpi exportsP 350 dpi 360 dpi 400 dpi JPG6Mpi Custom ICC profile Choosing Original amounts to processing the image in the color space selected on the camera at the time of shooting It is possible to select the output ICC color space profile including sRGB AdobeRGB and a custom profile In practice the SRGB is suitable for Web use and output on photographic or ink jet printers Choose the Adobe RGB profile for images that will need to be retouched e g for publica 08 WD Image Science tion The custom profile is suitable if you have a printer with its own calibrated ICC profile DNG Once you have finished making your changes click on Apply to save your output or Cancel to cancel the changes If you want to delete the output click on the trash can icon to the right of the bu
100. p of three dots by default they show a central orange light This group describes the Process status of the image a green light means you want to process the image concerned a red light that you reject it but since it remains in your project you can always change your mind later and an orange light that you haven t decided yet This system is designed to make it easier to select your best pictures from out of a huge number of images When you come back from a shoot simply drag the whole content of your images folder into the project window set a red light on discarded images and a green one for those you need to process When there are no more orange lights to be seen that means you have finished choosing but since the rejected photos remain in the project window with a red light you can still change your mind 18 WD Image Science To remove one or more images from your project you simply click on the orange E icon displayed in the top right corner 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 Cirl key while you click on them The buttons associated with each thumbnail
101. ported 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 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 involves two Steps first import the images in the Project window second automatically process the images WD Image Science In between there may be a third one manually modify the settings of one or more images And at the end there s one more optional step review the processed images So when you open DxO Optics Pro you ll find these four tabs at the top left of the main window Under the Select tab you load your photos
102. put format window that allows you to specify certain details regarding the file format C New output Output Name JPG 80 Format JPEG Quality Destination Same as onginal image folder Browse folder Subfolder File name suffix DxO Options Resolution Original ICC Profile Original Depending on the format chosen JPEG TIFF or DNG the window changes and the settings are different JPEG 1 Output Name give the output format a name that will be easy to remember 2 Format select an output format in this case JPEG Quality select the degree of compression and hence the quality of the output format The size of the image files depends on this option the higher the quality the larger the output files Destination specify a destination folder You can choose to place the output files in the same folder as the input files or browse and specify a separate output folder that you ve created for your processed images e g DxO outputs Filename suffix select a filename suffix e g DXO or some name to suit yourself This is essential if you are going to place the output files into the same folder as the originals Size select the output image dimensions from pre defined selections or by defining a custom output size which applies to the width of the image in pixels For images intended for subsequent retouching the best solution is to keep the original size On the
103. r 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 V Geometry Palette Distortion The geometric distortion introduced by a lens may be pincushion barrel or 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 O to 100 The default setting is 100 and you should only depart from this in special circumstances either 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 TIP if you want to make fine adjustments to the distortion you can super impose a
104. r artificial light 2 800 for warm domestic lighting 5 400 for sunlight or flash 6 500 for overcast daylight and so on You can revert to the automatic setting at any time by checking the box to the right Vibrancy The Vibrancy tool is a smart color saturation slider When the slider has a positive value Vibrancy acts to saturate all colors saturate flesh tones less saturate sky tones more and darken them slightly to give them greater depth preserve areas that are already close to gray so as not to provoke a change of color Vibrancy is adjusted using a single slider which can also take negative values when the effects on the image are different overall desaturation of colors but never total unlike the HSL control where a satura tion of zero makes the image B amp W more rapid desaturation in the reds which is useful for rescuing photos where the faces are too red and making flesh tones more natural Vv Color Palette Color rendering The color rendering controls let you vary the colors compared to the original the rendering is different according to whether it was shot in RGB or RAW in RGB camera original JPG or TIFF the rendering is that produced by the camera and its own specific settings this rendering may be different depending on whether you have shot in a style such as landscape portrait or even B amp W for example in RAW the basic rendering is the one meas
105. r temperature and moving it to the left decreases it vWColor Palette ay A 3 Note that the effect on the image is to make it warmer with increasing color temperature and 4 cooler with decreasing color temperature EXAMPLE magine that a picture has been taken by tungsten artificial light but with the camera accidentally set to daylight The resulting image will appear too orange Moving the slider to the left towards a lower K value more appropriate for the artificial light actually used will cool the image therefore correcting the orange cast to the image In the case of a RAW image in addition to the Temperature slider there s also a Tint slider that will shift the image colors from green to purple Let s take a look at the operation of this control using some actual pictures in this case RAW images EXAMPLE Here in the middle is the picture as shot and to the left and right the effects of shifting the color temperature slider left and right respectively Cooler Lower Warmer Higher Pick Color Temperature Cooler Warmer Fine adjustments for a JPG image Image Science Manual or Custom Presets for a RAW image Lastly if you are using the RAW format you also have the choice of directly selecting a type of light source shadow daylight incandescent or choosing a value expressed directly in Kelvins the unit for color temperature measurements e g 3 200 fo
106. roject window which you can resize to accommodate a useful number of images You can use the mouse fo drag the dividers to resize these panes Of course if you have a different set of corrections and adjustments to be applied to various 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 unlim ited there s nothing to stop you choosing a different preset for every image if you want to 17 WD Image Science Import plug ins 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 DxO Optics Pro 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 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 Choosing the image source Another useful feature in ve
107. rs 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 develooment 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 WD Image Science works allows you fo 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 ensure that DxO Optics Pro fits within a larger workflow the program outputs three popular file formats They are JPEG TIFF 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 DxO Optics Pro does not modify the original files and stores the corrections applied in a small sidecar file and in its own database Hence the DxO processing alw
108. rsion 5 is the program s 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 Apple s Aperture Adobe s Lightroom lview 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 cor rections for which it was designed The Project window This is the place where all your images are referenced the paths to the original and corrected images are recorded in the Project along with all specific settings applied to the corrected image ATTENTION if you move files once you have run a project DxO may not be able to find them if you want to run it again The Projec
109. ry Chapter 8 Review Checking the results 61 Checking before and after correction 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 On the Macintosh version clicking on the thumbnails in the Project window displays the pro cessed image full screen In addition to the usual group of zoom controls the header bar contains various buttons and A display previous next image in a multi selection of images E and ial display previous next output image if you have selected several output formats you ll see the JPEG TIFF DNG images successively The left hand pane shows before and after pairings of thumbnails of all your processed images the left hand of these images is the original version while the right hand one is the corrected version lf you click on a pair of images they display full frame in the right hand part of the window and the selected pair is indicated by a frame round them On Macintosh the image to be displayed is selected in the Project window At the top right of this display area we find five icons These are WD Image Science As Shot image Clicking on this button displays the selected image in the left hand column in its raw state as imported from the camera When you releas
110. s the image contrasty and punchy 9 Color palette O Color Pick Color Temperature a Intensity Camera Film ICC Profiles Default settings RAW factory JPEG camera v Default settings RAW factory JPEG camera Style As Shot Contrast As Shot Saturation As Shot Channel Master Hue pee Saturation Luminance White Balance The light that is used to take a shot seems white to us but it s offen yellowish domestic incan descent lamps or bluish twilight shadows the human eye corrects the balance and digital cameras try to do so automatically But if the correction isnt perfect it s possible to correct the image so that an area we know is white or neutral regains its natural appearance Image Science It s worth noting that the corrections will be more accurate from a photo in RAW format though the so called eye dropper method usually yields good results on all types of files To set the white balance of an image go up to the eye dropper icon in the top left group of correction icons on the White Balance palette If you hover your mouse pointer over either of these icons it will display a white balance color picker which is the image sampling tool This eye dropper lets you define a point in the image to be reproduced as neutral grey with no predominant color ATTENTION The point chosen as the white reference should be a fairly light grey tone Avoid
111. s the standard zoom controls 62 Image Science Appendix DxO Optics Pro plug in for Adobe Photoshop Installation DxO Optics Pro external module for Photoshop is installed with the help of the DxO Download Manager You can install it at the same time as the application or later for example after hav ing installed Photoshop on your computer The Download Manager automatically places a folder called DxO with the Import 8ba file inside in the Plug ins folder of Photoshop The program automatically places a DxO folder containing a file named DxO Import 8ba into the Photoshop Plug ins or external modules depending on the version directory It is possible that the installer may not place the plug in in the correct folder if you have several applications compatible with the Plug ins e g Photoshop Elementsg In this case you can move the DxO folder and contents manually to the Photoshopp Plug ins or external modules directory Use To activate the plug in launch Photoshop and scroll down the File menu under the command Import choose DxO Optics Pro The usual program window of DxO Optics Pro will appear with one important difference only the three tabs Select Preview and Process are available Under Select place images in a project just as you would in the stand alone version of the program Attention in this plug in version projects cannot hold more
112. shows the histogram for the image This is a graph that rep resents the number of pixels for each color value From this palette you can also display burnt out whites or crushed blacks on the image in the main window The EXIF IPTC palette gives you access to the information embedded in the header of the image and lets you add a legend or signature The Presets Editor palette that lets you use create modify or organize the automated presets that will be applied to one or more images Next you will find the four correction palettes proper Light shows the Exposure Lighting and Vignetting controls plus the Tone Curve Color brings together the Color Rendition Profile Viprancy White balance and Multi point Color balance controls Geometry gives access to the distortion anamorphosis correction keystoning and crop settings Detail shows the pixel level controls like Noise Sharpening Chromatic aberration and the anti dust tool There s also a palette called My Palette that s empty the first time you use the program this very specific palette can be customized with the controls you use most frequently Just drag any control from Light Color Geometry or Detail onto My Palette to dupli cate it with a fully functional alias there 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 assis
113. t 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 cre ate a new project save and or rename a project Every project is automatically saved in the DxO Optics Pro 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 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 DxO Optics Pro v4 these stars have no effect on the status of the images in the Process tab see the Red Orange Green light system below Star ranking The thumbnails and their buttons On the top left of every thumbnail imported into your project you see a grou
114. t possible to modulate who the chosen correction is applied by a factor between 0 and 150 A text box lets you type correction values in directly You ll find a check box to the right of the slider if you check this an automatic value is applied by the program Checking this box also lets you revert to the initial values if you have gone a bit too far with your corrections To see the actual effect look at the four pictures below Original DxO Lighting Slight Image Science 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 cor rection panel is displayed Clicking Less Options will hide this panel Intensity Auto Mode Slight Less Options Black and White points Black Point White Point Brightness Gamma Shadow Radius Preserve Shadow Contrast Global Local DxO Lighting precise adjustment box The White point and Black point sliders operate in a complementary fashion Each has a range from O to 255 or you can enter a whole number in the edit boxes instead These controls have the effect of stretching the image s lower tonal range up towards white or stretching the upper range down towards black This is sim
115. t s you want to import Export you can send the preset to a directory for copying onto another computer via the Import command In the main list you ll see that in front of each folder is a a triangle on the Mac version By clicking on the the subfolders under Presets will expand just like a directory tree in Windows File Explorer All of the default presets provided with the program are grouped together in the DxO Default Presets folder If you click on the New folder icon a new presets folder will be created By clicking on the new folder s name you can Rename it Depending on how you name your new folder it will be auto matically moved above or below the default preset folder We would recommend that you give your folders meaningful names so you can remember how you have your presets grouped Your folder can be renamed just like any system folder but don t forget that if you delete it to reorganize your presets you will also be deleting the presets it contains If you select a Preset folder and click on the New Preset icon a new Preset with a default name will be created in the folder If this is the first Preset that you have created in this folder a sign will be displayed to the left of the folder name Vv Preset Editor a a e i ES ee B Ta aoas lt as x EE ae a selecting a preset Click on the name of a preset to select it To see how it would affect the current image click on the Prev
116. t you are not limited to placing the floating palette only over the Preview window you can place it anywhere on the screen Clicking the palette bar will expand and display the tools associated with the palette Clicking the bar again will collapse the palette tool display back into just the header bar In this way the palettes can stay on the right of the screen accessible one after another using the scroll arrows or else be placed anywhere on the screen while you re using them TIP f you click the undock icon again the palette will automatically snap back to its docked position 33 WD Image Science E Move Zoom palette Type value 100 B Histogram Edit EXIF Preset Editor amp Light Color Geometry E Detail The Move Zoom palette displays a small thumbnail of the Preview window image A green box on this thumbnail indicates the section of the image currently being displayed To the left of the zoom slider bar is a minus sign with a plus sign to the right Clicking on either of these decrements or increments the zoom factor respectively by 1 The maximum enlargement is 1600 Also to the right of the slider there is A dropdown arrow that allows you to choose from predefined zoom factors or directly type in your own factor To close the drop down simply click again on the down arrow A Fit button that sets the zoom factor so that the entire images fit in the Preview w
117. t you in visualizing and adjusting your pictures For example the third icon from the left is a magnifying glass ii 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 Image Science current size of the preview pane and the maximum is 1 600 Please note that some correc tions cannot be seen with zoom factors below 75 This applies to the Chromatic Aberration DxO Lens softness DxO Noise and Unsharp Mask corrections the most efficient solution in this case is to set the magnification directly to 100 using the dialogue box at the top right above the header bar where a drop down box lets you choose the zoom ratio of the preview image along with a slider and zoom in out buttons 15 09 200 100 50 Fit Type value 3 15 v Palette overview Move Zoom has a small window that indicates the visible part of the image a green box rep resents 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 When the main preview image is zoomed in the EJ button at the left hand end of t
118. tatus when you display the images under the Prepare tab Process Green light or Do not process Red light Note that images carrying a yellow light i e with an Undefined status will ALSO be processed along with green light images This allows you to import images and start processing them right away when you already know you want fo process every image In the bottom left of the thumbnail there are controls for rotating the image You can rotate the image by 90 degrees at a time Note If you used the auto rotate feature of your camera DxO Optics Pro will automatically rotate images during preparation and treatment 22 Image Science Module Information icons Once your project is open and you add image files to it the thumbnail of each image displays various icons that will give you processing information about your image Some of these icons are only displayed when enabled under the Preferences tab described on page 10 is A module ambiguity exists for this image That is there are two modules currently loaded on your computer that could be used to process this image This occasionally happens when two lenses have almost identical characteristics and the program cannot correctly determine the best module to use In this case you will be need to choose the best module manually by clicking on this icon EZI the module ambiguity has been resolved EEE there is a DxO module for your lens body combination but it is
119. than five images Prepare your images with the necessary enhancements and then in the Process tab define the output formats you need With one click on the Start button you will launch image processing Once processing is completed the images will be automatically passed back to Photoshop and opened in the Photoshop workspace one workspace window for each image ATTENTION if you are working with RAW files run the plug in in Photoshop before opening the files with Adobe Camera RAW other wise certain corrections will become impossible 63 WD Image Science Appendix 2 DxO Optics Pro plug in Pre requisites 64 for Adobe Photoshop To use the dialoguing functions between DxO Optics Pro and this application you must first DTM have installed Photoshop Lightroom in versions 1 4 or 2 An LR1 4 or LR2 catalogue must have Lig htroom already been created DxO Optics Pro as External Editor selecting DxOOpticsPro exe To select DxO Optics Pro as external editor in Lightroom run the program and in the Edit Preferences menu under the External Editing tab select the executable DxOOpticsPro exe in the Additional External Editor area Importing an image into DxO Optics Pro In the photo menu or vid 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 T
120. that project If you drag some of these images into the current Project window they will be added along with their respective settings Opening a project from the database like this lets you recover images in each original folder together with the settings used in that project This means that if you applied some specific settings in the original project these same settings will be reintroduced into the current project This gives you the option to modify some settings in order to obtain a different version of the same original image On the other hand if you just drag images into a new project it is the active preset visible in the Preset to be applied local menu that will be applied to them If an image has been moved from the original folder since the project was created DxO will try to find it by searching the computer Otherwise a thumbnail will indicate that there is an image missing in the project Content window At the top left of the right hand window the path and name of the selected folder is displayed as well as the number of files in the folder In the top right hand part of the window you ll find two Windows or three Mac buttons offering different ways of displaying the folder contents The left most button displays the folder s contents in a list view showing each file s name Photo file extension Extension file size Size and its creation or modification date Date Note You can re sort the names of the f
121. 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 Edit Workspace Help Undo Ctri Z Process e m Copy correction settings Refresh FS ee Preferences Ctrl Shift P P 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 06 Image Science Chapter 7 Image processing DXO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 Hle Edit Workspace Help Select Prepare C New output Images processed O Start prucessing Status Ready ei Batch is not running Queue 15 image s expourlspeed g Input H JMS 2983 NEF TT H MS 2983 DxO raw f JPG6Mpix JPGhihISO 3PG EA MAX Errors 0 image s JPG auto Untitled Project Untitied389 15 image s 2 stack s M g E Filter Y Sort EW Duplicate 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 scr
122. these functions 46 Image Science iz r pe frm ii gil 4 lt i Tea Wy n iae pa gt See AG r ay ma m 4 z a ATT aay Aspect Ratio Uncunstained Auto based on Keystoning Horizon Complex perspective correction Note Defining your geometric corrections in this way will override any other settings you may have entered via the sliders and or edit boxes Also note that each of these corrections cancels out the others so they are mutu ally exclusive Scale The Scale slider edit box lets you resize the image while maintaining all proportions associ ated with the image The default value is 100 and you can reduce the size to 50 or increase it to 200 Horizontal Vertical Ratio The Horizontal Vertical ratio slider edit box lets you stretch or squeeze the height of your image while keeping the width unchanged The scale runs from 100 to 100 which represents from 50 to 200 of normal height Using this tool will change the visual proportions of the subjects in your picture Crop To crop an image you can either select the Crop button from the left side of the header tool bar or open the Crop panel in the right hand corrections palette and click on the Crop icon Once Crop has been enabled you can select a point in the image hold down the left mouse button and drag to create a crop box that appears as a black rectangular frame within the
123. ting your program version at the earliest convenient time Active Internet connection required The Install button at the bottom right of the DxO Modules window will start the process to add new modules or update currently installed modules to the DXO Optics Pro program on your computer IMPORTANT Once the modules have been downloaded to your com puter you must close and restart the program fo finish their installation just as when you make changes to your preferences The Close button will close the DxO Modules window You can also click on the X button in the top right corner of the window to return to the DxO Optics Pro program screen DxO FilmPack activation active Internet connection required If you have purchased this product clicking on this menu item will start the process to activate DxO FilmPack You will be able to enter the activation code when prompted Note Though activation can be done without an Internet connection it is highly recommended that you have your compufer connected to an active Internet connection to simplify and speed up program activation 11 Image Science 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
124. tion of common adjustments Image Science Chapter 6 Automating the corrections B 53 Preset Editor Copy correction settings spirit_k25_90noDL Project Unti iri J Apply preset spirit_k25_90s spirit_kII_70s Remove from project p ea i spirit_v50new spirit_v50old 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 avail able 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 you ve 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 throug
125. tionship In traditional photographic terms this means altering the gamma of the image and this graphical approach allows for a great deal of flexibility mcr Ol SS Note first that the combo box at the top lets you choose to adjust either the Master chan nel i e all three colors together or any of the three channels individually The buttons to the right enable you to reset either the single curve you are working on or reset all three of them together back to the default straight line To control the various zones of the image light medium or dark tones all you have to do is left click on the line to add points to if Note It may take a bit of practice to click exactly on the point on the line you wish to adjust Image Science wr O As soon as a point is created that point is locked You can then drag it around and the unlocked portion of the line will follow creating a curve in the line as you do so You can watch the results of your adjustments in real time on the preview image You can create as many points as you need in order to generate the curve you want To move a point simply click on it and drag it to a new location The active point is shown filled in black and inactive ones as hollow white Likewise you can delete the active point using the Delete key An alternative to drawing a made to measure line is to make a numerical entry of the gamma value The box at the bottom center is set by d
126. tive Internet connection The questions and answers relating to all aspects of the software can also be accessed directly from this link http nelp dxo com fag index php action show amp lang en You can also download additional documents manuals for earlier versions advice bibliog raphy from this page http Avww dxo com intl photo support Note The information documents are illustrated with screen shots Although the commands and functions are 99 identical between the Windows and Mac versions it s possible that for a few commands there may be detail differences in graphics or presentation between the reference images and the interface on your computer Image Science Chapter 1 Introduction to DxO Optics Pro v5 The DxO Optics Pro software uses a system that applies customized corrections to each image as long as the shot has been taken using a system that is recognized by the software thanks to the metadata EXIF contained in the file The accuracy of the DxO Optics Pro corrections results from the application of unique algorithms calculated on the basis of actual mea surements carried out on dozens of camera bodies and hundreds of actual lenses Each lens body combination has been the subject of thousands of test measurements that take account of all combinations of shooting parameters first and foremost for fine correcting optical imperfections The complete DxO Optics Pro system uses correction modules
127. tive a perception of sharpness A T e DXO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 SG File Edit Workspace Help Select ee ss i Ta p D B a S m y alg z z i Mr 196 G 140 8 58 53 E 100 0 SR P E y y Luminance S O Chrominance b j Less Options Grey Equalizer Remove dead pixels Example of precise adjustment of the de noising settings in particular the use of a very small amount of luminance correction Finally a checkbox enables a special Remove dead pixels algorithm to eliminate dead pix A els sensor elements that for whatever reason fail to record the incident light correctly which oN shows up as bright spots on the image You can leave this box checked all the time as this am phenomenon can occur on many cameras at very high ISO setting even though it is invisible at lower sensitivities Example of the effect of automatic processing for a RAW file 6 400 ISO viewed at 100 The degree of Chrominance noise correction can be set using the slider edit box with a range from O to 100 This is useful for reducing or eliminating color noise speckles of spurious color e g yellow on flesh tones or blues in gray tones to which the eye is particularly sensitive and you can use higher settings with little risk of unwanted side effects though lower levels of correction are possible V Detail Palette 5 Image Science Example of the combination of se
128. to be processed into the current project If you want to process your images right away without altering the default settings you can click the Process now button to start the automatic program You can also check out the effect of an automatic correction on an image under the Prepare tab then define your own corrections or adjustments These modifications are stored as correction chain settings which will be applied in final image processing under the Process tab If you have saved your project but close the program before you have processed the corrections will be stored in memory and the last project you were working on will be displayed when you next open DxO Optics Pro DXO Optics Pro Elite 5 3 File Edit Workspace Help me eel Prepare Process 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 the processing for each image file is handled using a hands off procedure You simply desig nate 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
129. ttons Once the output has been saved you can click the modify button in the list in order to make further changes TIFF The settings are exactly the same as for JPG except for those involving the 16 or 8 bit file formats 16 bit files are only available from RAW files but this choice is recommended for subsequent high quality retouching in another program compatible with 16 bit TIFFs like the Adobe Photoshop CS series for example If you want files on your disks to be smaller but less accurate for reproducing tonal subtleties equivalent on this point to a JPG check the command Force 8 bit File compression by a non destructive process is only possible in 16 bit TIFF format Output Name Tiff 8 Format TIFF Compression only 8 bits Force 8 bits DNG The DNG format is not a direct output format it s a special RAW format to standards set by Adobe that records a corrected file for subsequent archiving or processing using DNG com patible software You can t apply a specific ICC profile to a DNG output Always keep your original file in addition to the DNG output ATTENTION DxO Optics Pro is not compatible for reading or processing the DNG format Vv Histogram B X E 3 To take things further 59 TIP Creating several output formats can be used to automatically backup every image on several hard disks or servers All you have to do is define several output formats that are i
130. u have installed the DxO FilmPack plug in you can choose the styles of negative or positive films in color or B amp W Contrast offers High Contrast Med High Contrast Med Low Contrast and Low Contrast settings Saturation offers High Saturation Med High Saturation Med Low Saturation and Low Saturation settings These quick settings will be less precise than those of the other controls like HSL below if you want to make very precise adjustments change only the style in the Color Modes commands and use DXO Lighting or Tone Curve for contrast and Vibrancy and HSL for the saturation If you use too many adjustments at the same time you run the risk of having problems balancing your image and managing the settings properly for another image Style Landscape Contrast As Shot Saturation As Shot HSL Hue Saturation Lightness This set of controls gives you very fine adjustment of hue saturation and lightness either for the master channel or independently for each of the three primary Red Green Blue and three secondary Yellow Cyan Magenta color axes as selected in the window 43 Image Science y Channel Master e o Hue Saturation Luminance 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 yo
131. u 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 MPCB Multi point Color Balance Multi point color balance is a hybrid tool that makes it possible either to make fine adjustments to an image s 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
132. ured by DxO for a standard or normal setting of the camera we ll refer to this as the factory setting as it s the one preselected on the camera as supplied For RAW files this control makes it possible to either confirm the original color rendering or change it for one from another camera e g for a reportage shot using both a Canon and a Nikon but you want the images to match and color rendering also lets you apply a specific look to your images starting from the styles specific to certain cameras referred to here as color rendition profiles This function will differ slightly if you have activated DxO FilmPack The intensity slider lets you define the mix between the original profile and custom profile the normal value is 100 ATTENTION For a RAW file the intensity slider lets you mix between the neutral color rendering and the selected color rendition profile another camera or a silver halide profile at 100 this slider give the selected color rendition at 0 this slider gives a neutral rendering which is not the same as the as shot rendering this provides a base for more personal renderings from 0 to 100 you move gradually from the neutral color rendering to the color rendering selected above 100 a color rendering is applied that exaggerates the tendencies of the selected color rendering Take care not to go too far with this slider when an ICC profile is used mixing is
133. ve 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 3 Image Science ATTENTION Using the fast tools only opens the Geometry palette at the same time if you have enabled it with the relevant icon at the top right of the workspace An As Shot button in this palette lets you reset the quick corrections Geo metry amp Distortion i Volume Anamorphosis Keystoning Horizon Honzon Up Down Left Right Scale Horizontal Vertical Ratio Crop a Multi Point Color Balance Tool MPCB This icon gives you quick access to the 4 point image color adjustment You will see a color wheel on the before image the corrections will appear in the after image The fine adjustments for this option are available in the Colors palette see page 44 H x piip a pr
134. veral corrections as shot Lighting correction enabled DxO Noise enabled Fine detail adjustments Dust From version 5 DxO Optics Pro has offered Dust This anti dust tool allows you to paint a line whose thickness can be adjusted over a dust shadow or blemish detail you want to erase Once you ve drawn a point or line it becomes selectable if you click on it again with the anti dust tool You can then remove the item concerned Of course once you erase dust and blemishes on one image you can make a preset from this and reuse it on other images When you first click on the dust tool two picture images will be displayed in the Preview window The left hand one is the before image and the right hand one the after V Detail Palette Each blue dot on the original image will be corrected in the processed image To use the Dust tool follow these steps Open the Dust panel and click on the dust tool which looks like an eraser This will open the double image Using the blue circle cursor draw a mask where the dust or blemish is located Don t forget to zoom in to the image to make masking the dust or blemish easier The dust is removed on the after image f you wish to remove a correction simply select the blue mask with the Dust tool activated The mask will turn dark blue remove it by pressing the Del key Note Dust removal is not visible if images are displayed at a

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