DxO’s PhotoLab 10 Is Here

credits: DxO

DxO’s new PhotoLab 10 is here, and this time the update is focused on AI masking, local adjustments, and a tighter editing workflow. One of the biggest additions is the new Depth Mask, which creates a depth map and lets you isolate different distances within a photo using a slider. You can keep the selected depth range very narrow or extend it across a much larger part, with feathering available to soften the transition. AI handles the initial depth detection, but everything after that can still be adjusted manually. AI masking for people has also been improved. PhotoLab can now recognise individual people, and faces can be broken down into eyes, teeth, facial hair, skin, and lips. Animal faces are not treated with the same level of detail yet, though, and some selections can still get confused by things like longer beards or similar foreground and background colours.

There are quite a few smaller editing changes as well. AI processing now happens only when you actually activate an AI mask, and once PhotoLab has analysed the photo, that data is kept for any additional masks. Colour grading now uses a single hue wheel for shadows, midtones, highlights, and global adjustments, with real-time previews, custom presets, and a Move All option that changes the three tonal controls together. DxO has also brought its U Point technology into brush-based editing with the new Control Brush, while control points can now be stretched into ellipses, rotated, resized, combined, and subtracted from other masks. There is also Crop as Shot, which respects the aspect ratio selected in-camera for RAW files, plus AI Sensor Dust Removal, which automatically looks for sensor spots and fills them using surrounding detail. Noise reduction, meanwhile, has not changed and remains the same technology used in PureRAW 6.

Another thing is better integration with Affinity, allowing photos to be sent out for pixel-level retouching, compositing, and other detailed work before being saved back alongside the original in PhotoLab. Lightroom integration has not really changed yet, although DxO says work is underway on converting Lightroom presets into PhotoLab presets, with custom keyboard shortcuts and Lightroom-style mappings also planned. There are still a few limitations with PhotoLab 10, Mac users cannot move folders within PhotoLab because of macOS permissions, and there is no confirmed timing yet for native Sony compressed RAW support or Ricoh GR IV RAW and lens-profile support. PhotoLab 10 is available for $249.99 as a lifetime license, while owners of versions 8 or 9 can upgrade for $129.99.