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| DxO Photolab 1.2 includes improved local adjustments. |
DxO Labs – which split from DxO Mark in January – announced bankruptcy a few months back, but with a silver-lining: its flagship desktop software, Photolab, would receive a free update by summer. The company also announced that the Nik Software Collection – purchased from Google in late 2017 – would receive its first update since 2017.
As of today, both promises have been fulfilled, in a welcome indication that DxO Labs seems committed to its desktop editing business.
Nik Collection 2018
DxO engineers spent about six months working on code improvements to the Nik Collection, mostly with the aim of fixing bugs to ensure operational stability on the latest 64-bit Macs and PCs. There are no new features, but all seven plugins should also now work properly with the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Elements.
This is the first update to the collection since 2017, but it will come at a cost: until July 1st you can download the collection for $ 49.99 / £39.99 / €49.99. But after July 1st it will cost $ 69 / £59 / €69. There’s no word yet from DxO on how much future updates will cost, but we’re told that the company plans on releasing a new version yearly and it seems likely that those who download version 2018 will get a discount on future versions.
Download Nik Collection 2018 here.
Photolab 1.2
The latest version of Photolab, which is free for current users, incorporates the Nik Collection’s U Point technology, adding a much-loved set of local adjustments to the popular editing software. This update also adds hue and selective tone local adjustments, as well as support for recent cameras.
Download Photolab 1.2 here.
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RIP DxO ONE Camera
This final bit of news should come as no surprise, but the DxO ONE camera is officially discontinued. The camera will continue to be sold by some retailers in the USA and France as long as they have inventory, so if you’ve been sitting on the fence about buying one, you’d better hurry.
Press Release:
With the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO and DxO PhotoLab 1.2, DxO continues to develop innovative solutions for photographers and creative professionals
The first update of the plugin suite that DxO acquired in late 2017, the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO offers full compatibility with the latest Mac and PC OSs and Adobe CC products, while DxO PhotoLab 1.2 enhances its local setup tools that incorporate exclusive U Point technology.
PARIS – June 6, 2018 – DxO, one of the world’s most innovative consumer imaging companies, today announced the immediate availability of the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO, an updated suite of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plugins for photographers and creative professionals. Eagerly awaited by the user community, this “by DxO” update marks the return to the market of the Nik Collection with the first stable version and with customer support. Also available today, DxO PhotoLab 1.2, an update of DxO’s acclaimed RAW and JPEG image processing software, adds new local correction features and adds support for seven additional cameras.
Nik Collection 2018 by DxO: Better user experience and stability
Since the acquisition of the Nik Collection from Google in late 2017, the DxO development team has spent several months analyzing and optimizing the code of the seven plugins that make up the software suite to make them stable and operational. “The process was long and complex,” explained Bruno Sayakhom, Product Owner at DxO. “It was necessary to recover and recompile source code that had not been maintained for a long time in order to make it compatible with the latest versions of Adobe products and the latest Apple OS updates. This is a first step that allows us to start afresh.”
The Nik Collection 2018 by DxO is now fully functional and compatible with all 64-bit Windows and Mac platforms, as well as with Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018, and Photoshop Elements 2017/2018. In addition, DxO now provides support in four languages on its website (http://nikcollection.dxo.com/), which will soon include exclusive tutorials. The software suite update, including the seven plugins, is now available in 13 languages, and includes a free 30-day trial period.
“We are proud to relaunch the Nik Collection, which users have been waiting for,” said Jean-Marc Alexia, DxO’s VP of Product Strategy and Marketing. “We have put all of our know-how into offering photographers and creative artists the best possible user experience. This is just the first step: using Uservoice-type surveys, we will be reaching out to the user community, from whom we greatly desire to gather feedback about their experiences and gain insight into their expectations.”
Designed for expert photographers and graphic designers, the Nik Collection includes seven powerful plugins for Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements that offer a full range of creative effects and filters:
- Analog Efex Pro applies analog film, camera and lens simulations to digital photos.
- Color Efex Pro includes a set of filters for color correction, touch-up, and creative effects.
- Dfine reduces the noise of digital images by analyzing the specificities of each device.
- HDR Efex Pro processes images in HDR.
- Sharpener Pro increases the accuracy and enhances the detail of digital images.
- Silver Efex Pro is a black and white image conversion solution inspired by darkroom techniques.
- Viveza locally adjusts the color and tone of specific areas of the image.
Thanks to exclusive U Point technology, the Nik Collection plugins allow you to apply local settings to specific areas in a fluid and precise way.
The Nik Collection 2018 by DxO is available for download on the DxO website (http://shop.dxo.com/us/photo-software/dxo-nikcollection) for $ 49.99 / £39.99 / €49.99 instead of $ 69 / £59 / €69 until July 1st, 2018.
DxO PhotoLab 1.2 improves its local adjustment tools that integrate U Point technology
Recently awarded the 2018 TIPA Award for Best Image Processing Software, DxO PhotoLab (formerly DxO OpticsPro) offers a complete RAW and JPEG processing solution based on optical corrections from mathematically established laboratory models, as well as such exclusive features as PRIME noise reduction technology and DxO Smart Lighting intelligent exposure optimization.
DxO has integrated Nik Software’s U Point technology, acquired from Google in late 2017, into DxO PhotoLab. This exclusive technology allows photographers to apply local settings in a non-destructive RAW stream to specific areas in an image.
With version 1.2 of DxO PhotoLab, DxO continues to enhance its software by adding the Hue (HSL) and Selective Tone settings, to unblock locally dark areas or recover overexposed areas. The tool’s equalizer system has been redesigned accordingly, and local settings are now grouped by categories: Light, Color, and Detail. Each category can be shown or hidden with a single click, for an efficient workflow.
In response to user requests, we have added a new keyboard shortcut that displays the U Point mask in grayscale and shows the area that will be affected by the correction.
Finally, DxO PhotoLab 1.2 adds support for images from the Sony A7 III; the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G9, TZ90, and GF9; the Canon EOS 2000D; and the Apple iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. Thanks to the quality of DxO PhotoLab’s RAW conversion, which is based on prior calibration of each sensor in the laboratory, images taken with these cameras and smartphones will automatically be corrected for optical defects.
The ESSENTIAL and ELITE editions of DxO PhotoLab (PC and Mac) are available for download on the DxO website (http://shop.dxo.com/), and from retailers at $ 129 / £99 / €129 and $ 199 / £159 / €199, respectively (recommended retail prices).
Photographers who own a version of DxO OpticsPro can acquire an upgrade to DxO PhotoLab by logging into their customer account at www.dxo.com. A fully-functional trial version of DxO PhotoLab, valid for one month, is available on the DxO website: https://www.dxo.com/us/photography/download.
About DxO
For over 10 years, DxO has been developing some of the world’s most advanced image processing technologies, which have already enabled more than 400 million devices to capture images of unparalleled quality. DxO develops DxO PhotoLab (formerly DxO OpticsPro), as well as other image processing software for Mac and PC, which have been acclaimed by the world’s leading photographers.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)