Digital SLR Photography - UK (2019-07)

July 2019Digital SLRPhotography 103

Easeofuse

Features

Performance

Valueformoney

Overall

Undoubtedlya powerful

Rawprocessingsoftware

thatmakesgettingthe

bestfromyourimageseasy.

Thelenscorrections,noisereduction

andSmartLightingfeaturesareamazing,

andlocalisedadjustmentsalongside the

PhotoLibrarymakePhotoLaba strong

competitoragainst the popular choices.

VERDICT

is usedforbrowsingimagefolders,selecting
images,organisingimagesintoprojectsand
usingthe newsearchtooltolocatepictures.
Thelatteris crude andwhileit works more
effectivelywhensearchingforcamera
settings, lensordates,searchingforfolder
keywordsoftendoesn’t work.
Afile treeontheleft oftheinterfaceallows
youto selectfoldersbutthedownsideis that
itincludesyourentire computer,rather than
allowingyouto ‘load’specificfoldersintothe
softwareto keepthings cleanandsimple.It’s
certainlynota dealbreakerandonceyou’re
inyour main image foldersit’s easy to find

whatyou’relookingfor.Customize,as the

namesuggests,is whereyouprocessyour

Rawimageseither manually, orusingbuilt-in

or personally-createdpresets.Atfirstglance

the adjustmentspanelonthe right appears

morecomplicatedthanLightroomfor

instance,butwithinjustafewminutesof

familiarisationyoufindthatit’s actually

equallyintuitive.

Betweenthe automaticallyapplied

settings,localadjustmentsandstandard

globaladjustments,it’squickandeasyto

processimages.Withlittle work,imagescan

be made tolooktheirbestandthePrime

technologythatliesbehindthelens

correctionsandnoisereductionis very

effectiveindeed.

Thesoftwaredoesn’t sufferfromany

significantslowdownsandis availableboth

asa standaloneappaswellasaLightroom

plug-in,soyoucantakeadvantage ofthe

bestfeaturesofbothsoftwareoptionsif

youwish.PhotoLab2 is alsocompatible

withtheDxOFilmPackandViewPoint

plug-insthatallowyoutoapplyanalogue

filmeffectsandcorrectcomplex

perspectiveissuesinyourimages,but

these are of course an additionalpurchase.