The most important reason to upgrade to the new version, however, is the 8-point perspective repair option. However, if you do not own, or plan to own, DxO PhotoLab then there is no reason to buy DxO ViewPoint as well as it will only be a duplicate of Perspective Efex. If you want to change aspect ratio, however, you can crop manually.ĭxO ViewPoint 2 fixes perspective problems, lens distortion, tilted horizons, and deformed elements at the edges of the frame. If you use DxO PhotoLab, then it is worthwhile to purchase DxO ViewPoint for a better workflow as it can be integrated as a plug-in palette. I found it best to leave the Crop tool in Auto mode, which will do a good job of cropping only as much as really needed. ViewPoint 2 also comes with a Horizon Straightening tool and a Crop tool. This tool can also correct distortions after a perspective fix. The next feature on my list is Volume Deformation, which is quite successful at correcting organic forms at the edge of the frame. This enables correction of photos with complex vanishing points, or when the elements that need fixing aren't all at the same distance from where the photo was shot. The 8-point perspective correction allows you to place the correction lines on different planes.
You can find the first three in other apps, as well (Capture One Pro 7, for example, has an identical perspective-correction tool) however, the 8-point correction feature in ViewPoint 2 is unique and offers dramatic improvements in perspective correction. The Perspective tool corrects vertical, horizontal, 4-point, and 8-point distortions. The advantage of Perspective EFEX is being installed alongside all other Nik plugins and making Nik Collection by DxO a comprehensive suite of plugins. The advantage of DxO ViewPoint is the ability to be used seamlessly as a plugin within DxO PhotoLab. There are no differences between DxO ViewPoint and Perspective EFEX in terms of functions or features. Lens distortion, which is the first panel in the sidebar, is corrected automatically, based on DxO's database. This information applies to version (s): 3, 4. It installs as a standalone app or an Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture plug-in. ViewPoint 2 uses the company's lens database to correct an image.
To me, the idea of a consistent user interface is a major productivity asset all by itself.Unique and Effective Perspective Correction It is a new software solution dedicated to fixing distorted elements on the edges of a photo, as well as eliminating keystone distortions and other perspective. And by staying with one vendor from import to organizing, to raw development, to bit mapped editing, and then to distribution, I have a single set of color control tools at all times and most importantly, a single user interface. So if that is the case Im not sure what Viewpoint does I was expecting to have to go back to LR for image merging so thats not a surprise. Image quality was VERY good, but so is ACDSee Ultimate 9's IQ. I saw nothing in the reviews that suggested you would need to add Viewpoint to make it a fully featured processing app. Overall, however, I don't feel DXO offered me enough reasons to incorporate it into my workflow.
I should think that if I were to use DXO, I would use ACDSee 19 (Their basic viewer/DAM software) instead of Ultimate, though Ultimate 9 worked well enough during my testing.
So you will need some sort of front end to handle that sort of thing. You need to remember, DXO is a pure raw converter, that means there is NO database or DAM management tools built into it. Not a major issue to be sure, but it was one of those minor irritants I could get used to if I had to. I found myself backing that stuff out a bit on those sort of photos.
DXO made some things too crisp and sharp, I thought, for images that already had sharpness and NR already added. The image quality of the finished product was quite high, however I am used to a more minimalist approach to the raw development software automatically adding in auto sharpening and noise control whenever an image is accessed via the program.