Use DxO Optics Pro to Process Your Digital Images

As a hobbyist photographer, I often experiment with different photo processing applications. Until recently, I had been using Nikon Capture and Adobe Photoshop CS2 to process the images I take with my Nikon D70, however after downloading the DxO Optics Pro demo, I am seriously considering making a switch.

DxO Optics Pro has a much different workflow to the applications I mentioned above. It is very much designed to batch process a large number of images automatically. While the combination of Nikon Capture and Adobe Photoshop can be used to fix many of the common problems found in digital photographs, DxO uses profiles to correct them automatically. The guys over at DxO have extensively profiled the supported cameras and lenses, so that each camera/lens combination can be accurately and automatically enhanced and corrected.

Even with the best quality lenses, a certain amount of Barrel Distortion, Vignetting, Chromatic Aberration and Softness can be expected; especially with "walkabout" lenses (Those lenses that cover a common range of focal lengths). Likewise, even the best quality camera will have a certain amount of sensor noise and purple fringing.

Each of these problems aren't that difficult to fix if you know a bit of Photoshop, but if you have a significant number of images, fixing each one individually can be very tedious. This is where DxO Optics Pro comes to the rescue. Since the camera/lens combination can be retrieved from the extra information stored with each image, all of the aforementioned problems can be fixed completely automatically. And even though some of the issues vary depending on the focal length or aperture used, DxO is able to adapt the corrections using that information too.

For those of us who like to remain in control, DxO Optics Pro gives us the ability to enable/disable each correction, as well as giving us manual control over the effects when in "Expert" mode.

Even certain "user error" problems can be fixed with DxO. The "Highlight Recovery" option for slightly over-exposed shots is the best I've found so far. It is able to retrieve detail from blown-out areas of an image, without drastically affecting the exposure. Take a look at Highlight Recovery in action.


One of my favorite features of all is the ability to output in a DNG (Digital Negative) format. This allows the use of Adobe Camera RAW for further processing even after DxO's corrections have been applied.

Download the demo for yourself and see what it can do for your images.