DxO PhotoLab 9.10.0 Mac

DxO PhotoLab is RAW editing and optical correction software built around the camera and lens combinations it supports. The current version runs on macOS 14.7 and handles Bayer and X-Trans sensor files through the same pipeline. If you are opening the app for the first time, the order below surfaces the tools that do the heaviest lifting before you touch a slider.

1. Apply an optical module

PhotoLab reads the camera and lens from the metadata and offers a matching module when one exists. Accepting it pulls in the sharpness, distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration corrections DxO measured for that specific pairing. It is the most precise starting point you can give the image, and it runs automatically once the module is active.

2. Turn on DeepPRIME noise reduction

DeepPRIME combines demosaicing and noise reduction in a single AI-driven step. The XD3 variant is available for both Bayer and X-Trans sensors. Switch it on in the Detail palette before you adjust exposure or color, because cleaner luminance and chrominance channels change how far you push shadows and highlights later.

3. Set overall light balance with Smart Lighting

DxO Smart Lighting works on localized contrast rather than a global curve. Pull the slider to the right and watch shadowed faces or backlit foregrounds lift without blowing the sky. The control is simple enough to try first, then fine-tune with the tone curve once the broad balance feels right.

4. Mask a subject with one click

The AI Masks panel recognizes skies, people, backgrounds and animals. Click the subject label and PhotoLab builds a mask you can refine with the brush or eraser. This is the fastest route to a separate exposure or white balance pass on a person against a bright window, or a sky that needs its own saturation treatment.

5. Make a local adjustment with U Point

U Point places a control point that samples color and luminosity under the crosshair and spreads the adjustment across similar pixels nearby. Drop a point on skin, reduce saturation slightly, and watch the change stay within the face without brushing a mask at all. The radius and opacity sliders let you dial the influence back if it reaches too far.

These five steps lean on PhotoLab’s automated corrections while leaving you manual control over every mask, point and slider. The app reads HEIC, HEIF and ProRAW files alongside standard RAW formats from more than 600 digital cameras.

On deadline with a wedding gallery

A wedding photographer opening 700 RAW files from a dimly lit reception hall has one evening to deliver proofs. The DeepPRIME XD3 toggle goes on first, batch-applied to every frame shot at ISO 6400 and above. After the noise falls away, the AI Masks panel picks out the bride's dress against the dark dance floor in three clicks, lifting exposure on the subject without touching the background. Smart Lighting then pulls the groomsmen's faces out of the shadows in the group shots. The photographer pastes those local adjustments across a dozen similar frames, exports JPEGs, and closes the laptop before midnight.

Prime your catalog and trigger lens corrections early

Point PhotoLab at your RAW library and let it scan a few folders before you edit anything. The optical modules download only when you open a file from a new camera-lens pair, so open one image from each combination you shoot regularly to cache the corrections locally.

Build a preset that includes DeepPRIME, lens sharpness, and a conservative Smart Lighting value of 15–20. Apply it on import. The preset saves you from re-enabling the same three corrections on every image and gives you a clean starting point that already looks better than the camera's embedded JPEG.

Spend ten minutes with the U Point tool on a portrait where the skin needs to stay natural while the jacket needs more texture. Drop a control point on the cheek and reduce saturation slightly, then place another on the lapel and push microcontrast up. Watching how the two points interact teaches you the radius slider faster than any manual.

• macOS 14.7 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel processor