DXO PHOTOLAB 7: 6 CONTROL POINT TIPS FOR MORE PRECISE MASKS AND PERFECT LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS

[@Dos4gw]

Excellent explainer, this has indeed saved me hours of experimenting with this tool. Thank you so much.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad it helped! I was myself surprised what the tool can do. Very unique implementation for sure.

[@advocateproductions656]

wow!! been using DXO for years, I had no idea of the many different ways to utilize the control points - excellent video

[@takebetterphotos8132]

You are the audience I had in mind when I made this! Like you I was not aware of all of these controls and just accepted it as is. I think the local masking UI redesigned made all the controls more available to see and try.

[@JoseCarlosRubiaRaya]

Muchas gracias, gran tutorial

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad to hear this! gracias por mirar!

[@brianmckeever5280]

That was very helpful, thank you!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

You're welcome!

[@christophergibbons8748]

Had no idea you could do this, great vid!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad it was helpful!

[@thorthorsson]

Good tutorial. Thanks!

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad its helpful!

[@gandolfred]

Thank you. As always useful.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Glad to hear it!

[@DalsPhotography]

Just Excellent! I have been using DxO for years!!!! It would be wonderful if the control circle could be chosed either to be a circle or a square, but I think that's not possible , or is it? One thing I have been having difficulties with DxO is to achieve the exact brightness of my raw photos taken with Fuji xf cameras. After trying different programs I found out that the same issue appears on : LR, C1 and Bridge. On the other hand, On 1 PhotoRaw and Silky pix show the photos exactly as they were taken. Odd , right??? Thank you very much for the effort and please, show us more !!!! Best from Uruguay.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi DXO user, glad you are enjoying the software. No you can't change the shape. It's about time DXO add more features to their masking. Perhaps AI masks? That's very strange with Fuji XF. Can you not just brighten it manually? Do reach out to their support, though they take a while to reply.

[@DalsPhotography]

Hi there :) thanks a lot for answering back ! Yes, I can take the exposure tab to the right and brighten up the photos, but also the noise ;) I should send them some example photos taken and developed with alternative programs, lets see what they say, but I know they can take a while! Have a great day! @@takebetterphotos8132

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Have a great day yourself! 🙂

[@stephenjane8193]

Thanks 🙂

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Welcome 😊

[@janschuster9364]

Thank you :) Is there any performance issue when you put many masks (control points) on a picture? Like a hicup or just a time lag when adjusting values?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

It might be slightly slower but didn't notice that much. I had more an issue of the cluttered UI after so many control points. But lagging was not a problem in my experience.

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

Very good, considering the masking tools available in DxO PhotoLab 7. But looking at your owl I am curious, if a rectangle around the bird in Capture One's new AI masking would do the same trick in one step. I don't know, as I don't have the latest C1. But I know that it would be straight forward to concentrate the mask to the own alone in the free Darktable with just a few adjustments of the edge, which I would be able to further refine with a number of masking features, like in DxO and C1 - but without any AI. And if you will excuse my pixel peeping - the irregularity caused by the overlapping of a number of radial fall offs would not cause an uneven coverage.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes one step is correct, hence the need for DXO to add AI masks ASAP or the disparity will be too large. The irregularity is indeed present, you can improve it by lowering the chroma and lumin sliders but that would cause more spillover which again you have to correct with negative points. Really need to learn dark table! Do you find their masking is better than Affinity?

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

@@takebetterphotos8132 I don't know much about masking in Affinity, as I am doing all masking in Darktable. But it's another principle either based on a combination of a drawn mask defined within a kind of pen tool mask - and a parametric mask with a number of choices for colors and luminosity - or a drawn mask can be used exclusively - and likewise the parametric principle - in both cases with a number of features to feather the edge. On top of that the different masks can be combined in a logic way. The masking panel, which is much the same addition to most of the tools, can be intimidating at first glance but the different creative combinations will be apparent after a few attempts. Another feature is the ability to have a number of the same tool with its own masking as in layering.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

I would probably use the parametric mask, I'm extremely poor with a pen 🙂 In the way you described it with mask combination, colors, luminosity, it really sounds like Affinity got the idea for the luminosity, hue range, and compound mask from dark table. I was certainly intimidated when I first used it but I'll give it another go based on your experience 🙂

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

@@takebetterphotos8132 Fear no pen. Every new drawn mask is closed and very intuitive to shape. Imagine a rubber band. You shape it by adding or subtracting fix-points along the periphery and move those points with the mouse to follow the outer border of the subject. Right click when the initial shape is drawn. Now you have defined a disc (though you only see the periphery until you want to see the real mask). Now you can e.g. draw a new concentric mask within the disc - subtract the inner mask - and you have a doughnut shaped mask, and much, much more. Rules from the set theory can be used between two masks. The density of the mask and the fall off from the mask edge into the surroundings is controlled with the mouse wheel - plus a number of sliders for the blending of the edge and/or the mask.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Ok I've been trying it. Really impressive tools but the learning curve is quite steep. Currently working with/learning the brush for now 🙂 Haven't done the set theory yet.

[@kristijanignjatovski4415]

Hi there, I just downloaded the free trial of photolab 7 and at the start I have problems with cropping images.i mean , as I can see I can't crop as I want( like in Photoshop or lightroom) or there is something I am missing. Any suggestions?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Hi. there I just tried the crop tool. It seems to work as normal. What seems to be the main issue?

[@tkarlmann]

So, Photolab 7 does no do 'regular' masks? So, PL7 does not do any AI for masks? So I need to relearn masking all over again? Think I'll stick to ON1.

[@takebetterphotos8132]

It does have a masking brush called automask. Unfortunately no AI. I'm sure their hearing that a lot from customers!

[@tkarlmann]

@@takebetterphotos8132 How well does their masking brush work compared to Affinity Photo 2.2?

[@takebetterphotos8132]

It's better than the masking brush in the develop persona as Its edge detection is more accurate and the detail recovery is better. It's worse than the selection brush in photo persona because the mask visually doesn't reflect the edges being detected. Meaning the mask shown and the mask actually recognized is not the same.

[@ampmmbe1590]

Thank you sir!! And I think most if not all of these control points solutions can be used on photolab 6

[@takebetterphotos8132]

Yes they all can. Applicable to photolab 6 as well.