User manual DXO OPTICS PRO V4.5

[. . . ] DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual ©DxO Labs 2007 -1- All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual Contents Introduction Chapter 1 4 6 Introducing DxO Optics Pro V4 A typical image enhancement session from A to Z Selecting images to create a project Organizing your project Enhancing the images in your project Processing a batch of images Viewing the results!Common actions Note for users of previous versions Select your photos from various sources The thumbnails and their buttons Star-ranking Adding images Fully automatic operation Organize your images on an electronic light-table The big picture Adapt your workspace Enhance your images using DxO Optics Pro Tools Corrections Palette Guided or Expert?Eight corrections palettes Process as many images as you want with just one click Process the stars Define output formats Chapter 2 9 Chapter 3 12 Chapter 4 14 Chapter 5 18 Chapter 6 20 View the results of your work (with a little help from DxO) How to go further Your workflow Chapter 7 21 ©DxO Labs 2007 -2- All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual Chapter 8 22 DxO Optics Pro Menus Chapter 9 28 Using Auto, Guided and Expert modes Chapter 10 31 Generic Tools Chapter 11 34 DxO Optics Tools Chapter 12 40 Sharpness Tools Chapter 13 43 DxO Noise Tools Chapter 14 45 White Balance and Exposure Chapter 15 49 DxO Color Tools Chapter 16 55 DxO Lighting Tools Chapter 17 58 Geometry Tools Chapter 18 62 Stacking, ranking and Output Formats Chapter 19 67 DxO Optics Pro for Adobe ® PhotoshopTM Chapter 20 68 DxO Optics Pro for Adobe ® LightroomTM Copyrights, Trademarks and Registered marks are properties of their respective owners, which may include, but are not limited to, Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Fuji, Sony and others. ©DxO Labs 2007 -3- All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual Introduction Welcome to the exciting world of DxO Optics Pro digital image enhancement!This powerful, groundbreaking software is going to improve the quality of your digital images in a way you would never have believed possible. [. . . ] Do note that the slider may allow you to enter a focusing distance that is not actually covered by your lens; in this case, DxO will use the minimum focusing distance applicable for your lens. Note that the units for focusing distance (feet & inches or meters) can be changed in the `General' tab under the `Preferences' menu, accessible via the Edit pull-down. Focal length Likewise, in order to optimize optical corrections, a small number of zoom lens correction modules need more precise focal length information over certain specific parts of their range than is available from the camera's EXIF file. If this is the case, the focal length panel will be displayed, with a check box to enable the input and you should manually enter the focal length the lens was set at for the shot, as accurately as you are able to. The slider lets you set the distance precisely and will be calibrated for the range of focal lengths across which ambiguity exists for the particular lens in question. Alternatively, you can enter the figures in the edit box to the right. Camera orientation Although we recommend you always use DxO Optics Pro to rotate your image automatically using the information from the EXIF orientation tag, you may have images that have been already rotated. In this case, and in this case only, the Camera orientation panel appears; it will never appear if DxO Optics Pro rotates your images automatically. ©DxO Labs 2007 - 38 - All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual It allows you to specify in which orientation the shot was taken. The first is to indicate which way the camera was turned when the image was taken (to the right or to the left). Do your best. ", in which case DxO Optics Pro will apply a default. In the extremely unlikely event of the results proving unacceptable, as a last resort you can click the third "Do not correct distortion and lateral chromatic aberration" button. ©DxO Labs 2007 - 39 - All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual Chapter 12 Sharpness tools Sharpness DxO can correct only for certain kinds of softness--the lens + camera combination's inherent inability 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. Remember that these corrections will not be visible in the main preview image below 75%: use the Zoom tool. DxO Lens Softness This forms part of Optics Pro's optical corrections, and as such, is lens- / bodydependent. its title bar highlighted) for images for which the appropriate correction module is installed. The DxO Lens Softness slider allows you to manually set the overall level of sharpness required for a particular usage. Remember that this tool intends to reach an identical level of sharpness for the entire image: it will automatically apply a stronger correction on the weak areas. The sharpness level you choose to apply will of course depend on questions like 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. Moving the slider to the left or entering negative values will give a softer, smoother image, while moving it to the right or entering positive values will give a sharper image. The value ­1 is the equivalent of "Gaussian Blur" in Adobe Photoshop®. The sharpening applied in DxO Optics Pro is intelligent, in that it depends on the image content. For each area in the image, the amount of sharpening will also depend, for example, on the ISO; less sharpening is automatically applied at high ISO than low ISO, to avoid increasing the noise in the image. ©DxO Labs 2007 - 40 All rights reserved DxO Optics Pro V4. 5 Reference Manual Note that because this sharpness correction is specifically tailored for your camera's optics, and may well vary across the image field (to allow for lens performance shortcomings), it is usually preferable to perform as much of your sharpening as possible using this Lens Softness correction. [. . . ] This plug-in requires the installation of the full version of DxO Optics Pro 4. 5 (it does not work independently). Setting up Adobe Lightroom preferences The first step is to choose DxO Optics Pro Plugin as the secondary editor of Lightroom. Open the Preferences of Lightroom, and choose the « External Editors » tab. In the lower section « Additional External Editor », a clic on the Choose button allows you to select « DxOOpticsProPlugin ». [. . . ]