

It’s just a thrill to take a decent picture. I’m a hobbyist, I like to share my photos but I’m not out to impress anyone. It’s good enough to be a one-stop shop for many pictures. Also DXO Photolab is not a one-trick pony. One thing nice about DXO is that the noise reduction (if you are shooting raw and using”deep prime”) tends to work great with default values. Topaz JPEG to Raw hasn’t been real helpful for me. Topaz Gigapixel AI works very well too, though I have only used it a couple of times. Here you can see some of my pics-I think in all of them since last April (2020) or so I used Topaz DeNoise or Topaz Sharpen at some point: / The defaults tend to be too strong for my taste. I also find Topaz Sharpen AI to be superb, but again I back off of the default settings a little. On Topaz DeNoise AI I usually back off of the default settings a little and adjust as needed.

Check out the Dpreview retouching forum for real-world comparisons. It will correct for lens flaws, and buy you an f-stop or two extra with best in class noise reduction. If your aspiration is to cover ground optically and for noise reduction through software that would otherwise be covered by more heavier and more expensive gear, DXO Photolab 4 (Elite) is pretty awesome (as long as you are shooting raw with a supported camera). I love the Topaz DeNoise AI, but there is a new champ in town that does noise reduction even better-DXO Photolab 4 Elite.
