DxO PhotoLab vs Luminar: What Program is Better?

By pitting DxO Photolab vs Luminar, you can decide which software is more suitable for your image enhancement and management needs. Both programs have basic editing functions, which will be of use to photographers and graphic designers. Additionally, both options can be used as a plugin for Adobe software.

DxO PhotoLab’s biggest benefits include fantastic raw processing, efficient DeepPRIME denoise feature, precise local adjustments, and accurate auto lens corrections. This software is available for both Windows and Mac device users.

Luminar puts heavy emphasis on AI editing and "templates", performing automatic image analysis to provide multiple look suggestions. The software also has layer, montage, and mask support. You can use Luminar either as a standalone program on Mac and PC or as a Photoshop/Lightroom/Apple Photos plugin.

DxO PhotoLab comes with an upgraded Photo Library section that allows you to view your photos by folders, perform searches based on various criteria, and put together digital albums. However, the best feature of this software is RAW processing. This Canon RAW editor can get more detail out of RAWs than other similar software while the DeepPRIME noise removal feature elevates the image quality even higher.

DxO PhotoLab also deserves praise for the included lens and camera presets that help optimize your photos as long as you can find the appropriate camera + lens combo in the list. The software offers a broad selection of editing features that allow you to adjust the shadows and highlights, curves, hue, saturation, vibrance, contrast, etc.

Additionally, the software’s suite comes with PureRAW, which is a batch processing utility used for transforming standard RAWs into “Linear DNG” images. DxO does include a workflow panel, but if you compare DxO PhotoLab and Lightroom, you’ll find the former to be highly restrictive and limited in terms of functionality. That said, you could use it as a Lightroom plugin to take full advantage of DxO’s noise reduction feature.

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Fantastic DeepPRIME denoise feature. The DeepPRIME tool minimizes the processing duration for retouching and exporting images. It speeds the processing up to 4 times on Mac devices and up to 1.5 times on the newest Windows PCs. This feature gets rid of noise and restores image data without any detail loss, allowing you to enjoy a more even and smoother transition.

Customizable auto repair tool. This feature lets users relocate and overlap adjustments to enjoy better control over the retouching process. Thanks to the adjustments panel, you can swap between Repair and Clone modes, change the brush size and softness, while also being able to pick the opacity of various tools, meaning you can decide whether you want to fully or partially brush over specific photo areas.

Auto image style and intensity optimization. DxO ClearView Plus comes with state-of-the-art tech that offers users complete control over haze, fog, and mist. It allows you to unleash the full potential of your images by optimizing their style and inviting you to make your own adjustments. You can use it to avoid the hassle of making masks for different photo parts and adjusting them individually. This feature calculates the distance in the image and makes appropriate tweaks to the black level.

Adjust colors without selecting them. This photo editing software for beginners comes with a color wheel HSL feature that is used for tweaking the hue, saturation, and luminance. It has 8 basic colors and allows you to alter the selected range using the color wheel.

Sadly, this feature lacks an eyedropper tool for picking a color range in your photo, but it’s still very useful for most advanced color replacement tasks. HSL also offers a Uniformity slider that is particularly well-suited for adjusting skin tones.

U-point auto masking tool. DxO comes with local adjustment features that take advantage of the U-point auto-masking that was added to the software once the developers gained ownership of Nik Collection. You can add a control point to where a change is necessary and this tool will automatically mask those tones according to the clicked-on point. The U-point feature is irreplaceable for any task that requires high-precision color and luminance adjustments.

EXIF and IPTC metadata support. You can add keywords and browse photos based on keywords as well. The keyword functionality meets IPTC requirements and all typed-in metadata is detected by other software too.

Basic version lacks several advanced options. The software requires you to purchase the pricier Elite version to access the DeepPRIME and ClearView Plus tools, and if you’re interested in making perspective adjustments, you’ll want to get the ViewPoint add-on as well.

No layer functionality.

Luminar automatically examines your photos to find people and objects. Based on what it has found, the software offers one or several templates that you can try out on your photos. The templates represent a mix of advanced AI and more conventional image adjustments. Once you’ve picked a template, Luminar lets you perform manual adjustments to enhance the image further by using the edit tab of this photo editing software for PC.

Luminar also offers you the opportunity to make enhancements from scratch by going directly to the Edit section and performing all adjustments manually. This panel includes an array of tools including ones for Sky Replacement, cropping, sharpening, and portrait enhancement. Another benefit to using Luminar is that in case you’ve got a set of similar photos and edited one of them, you can synchronize all made changes with the rest of the set.

All applied edits are non-destructive. If you want to share the photo you’ve enhanced, you need to go to the Export menu and save the result as either a JPG or TIFF file while choosing from one of the available export presets for emails, messages, 500px, etc.

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Simple image management. The software's catalog can show either folders on your PC or user-created albums. Luminar can also display newly imported or enhanced pictures and sort them by date. It also provides convenient “flag” markings like Favorite, Rejected, Unmarked, and so on to make navigation more convenient.

Can be used as a creative plugin. You can install Luminar as standalone software or as a plugin for Apple and Adobe software. The plugin version is supported by Lightroom, Photoshop, PS Elements, and Photos for macOS. With its help, you can significantly expand the functionality of your main editing software by introducing AI-based tools, layers, masks, adaptive Luminar Looks, and over 50 features for performing color correction, retouching, and adding effects.

Smart AI Sky Replacement feature. Luminar allows you to instantly replace the sky in your photos. In doing so, the software adjusts the lighting across the entire image to ensure the scene fits the newly added skies. Its algorithm also takes care of selecting the optimal orientation. The software lets you pick between using one of the included skies or adding some of your own.

This AI-based technology provides terrific selection results, as it recognizes and preserves small details like birds, leaves, or hair while also dealing with halos, artifacts, and rough edges. Once it’s finished, the tool lets you tweak the foreground brightness and saturation should you want to make any further adjustments.

Realistic portrait enhancement. Luminar’s Skin Enhancer employs human-aware algorithms that detect all the skin featured in a photo, smoothen it, and get rid of flaws while ensuring the pores, texture, and hair remain untouched. You no longer have to pick which areas need to be enhanced manually, as the software will do so automatically.

The program also has Shine Removal and Slim Face 2.0 tools, which were developed to speed up your workflow and provide higher quality retouching results. Once you’ve dealt with excessive light and slimmed down the face, you’re guaranteed to receive a natural, well-balanced portrait image.

Automatically detects which areas need enhancement. Luminar performs auto object detection (people, faces, houses, cars, water, etc.) and improves them in a smart, content-aware fashion. The AI Structure feature excels at enhancing the dynamic range and textures without increasing the noise level or creating artifacts. Additionally, this tool never applies too many adjustments to people, ensuring their faces and skin look natural while the scene around them has more depth and crispier colors.

Deletes unwanted objects in a single click. The Erase tool generates a sample texture that can be employed for pixel replacement. It effortlessly blends the edges of the removed area into the rest of the picture, delivering a realistic-looking result with no traces of removal. You can also use it for dealing with complex backdrops, gradients, and sensor dust spots.

Templates could be more diverse.

DxO PhotoLab can be tested for free for 30 days. Afterward, you have to choose one of the available paid versions. The DxO PhotoLab ESSENTIAL Edition provides unique local adjustment and enhancement tools while being offered for $139. Meanwhile, the DxO PhotoLab ELITE Edition provides cutting-edge lens correction functionality along with demosaicing and noise reduction tools that rely on advanced AI. Its current price stands at $219.

Luminar offer a free trial version, and it does come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can purchase the current version of Luminar AI for $47, while the upcoming Luminar Neo version can be pre-ordered for $69. Together, these 2 versions cost $98.

If we were to talk exclusively about shots retouching quality, then the images enhanced in DxO PhotoLab look significantly more realistic compared to the results delivered by Luminar. DxO PhotoLab provides functionality that can only be rivaled by leading retouching software, with its PRIME denoise tool being particularly impressive. Thus, if you often take photos at higher ISO values (over 3200) and want to deal with excessive grain and noise, DxO is the clear winner in the DxO PhotoLab vs Luminar battle.

If you’re more tempted to get an all-in-one software that is used for both managing and editing shots while offering a non-destructive workflow, then Luminar is the best option for you. This software will be especially to the liking of beginners who don’t want to waste time on manual editing. Luminar’s most impressive AI-based features include sky replacement and portrait enhancement.

Presets are advanced tools designed for helping users enhance their images and receive impressive results in just a few clicks. You can apply such a preset to add stylish finishing to an image or adjust its parameters to establish a coherent look for your portfolio. All files are provided in .lmp format.