Capture One with DxO Photolab Workflow Color Variation

Just curious if anyone is using Capture One & DxO Photolab as part of their workflow. My question surrounds the color variations between the two applications. I first import the Canon RAW files to Capture One then select the photo(s) I wish to further process and open them in DxO. What I notice immediately is the color variation in DxO, the images are lighter. I have tried to get the color to match what I see in Capture One but no luck. Has anyone else experienced this? Been able to correct? I was using DxO (Trial Version) for the Noise Reduction/sharpening/l​ens corrections which is noticeably better than C1 and then export back to C1 as a DNG for further processing. I am taking a lot of indoor basketball pictures so noise is an issue. Appreciate any info.

Tom

If color accuracy is important consider starting with a camera profile made by your camera and a Color Passport. You can make DNG or ICC profiles depending on the need of the app. As I remember you can add your profile C1P. Not sure if DxO will allow you to bring in your own color profile.

I bring in my own camera profiles to Lr/ACR and can definitely see a difference compared to the Adobe default profiles....even the ones they think are camera matching.

You will have to be more specific about your workflow. CaptureOne has a few different ways to pass image files to another application.

1) Edit with ...
2) Open with ...

"Edit with..." will render the raw file into an RGB image file (like a TIFF or JPEG) with the CaptureOne settings applied and pass that rendered file to the application of your choice.

"Open with..." will simply pass the raw file to the application of your choice, without any CaptureOne edits applied.

When you bring your images into CaptureOne, it will render the previews that you see according to whatever the default settings are (for example, it will choose the camera's ICC profile and the Auto curve type, the As Shot white balance, etc.). It will then create a preview of the raw file according to these settings.

If you "Edit with..." then CaptureOne will apply these settings and make a TIFF or JPEG that looks like the CaptureOne preview and pass it to DxO.
If you "Open with..." then CaptureOne just passes the raw file to DxO, with no edits applied.

When the passed file comes into DxO:

The "Edit with..." TIFF or JPEG will look like the CaptureOne preview because CaptureOne made the TIFF or JPEG with the CaptureOne settings.
The "Open with..." image will be DxO's raw preview rendering, according to all of the default settings and automagic stuff that it does to a raw file from your camera.

This is probably where your difference is coming from, but without more info, it is not possible to pinpoint the root of what you are describing.

See this thread:

https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=19004952

for a workflow description related to CaptureOne and DxO and using CaptureOne to pass the raw file to DxO for NR and lens correction and then passing the resulting DNG from DxO back to CaptureOne. If you really like the CaptureOne colors or editing tools, but require the DxO NR, then you probably want to choose files in CaptureOne, use the "Open with..." command to send the raw files to DxO, do the NR there, and export DNGs (they will be linear DNGs [demosaicked] so that the pixel operations of NR can be applied to the data) back to CaptureOne for further editing.

Kirk

One other thing: When you pass ANY image(whether RGB or RAW) to DXO Photolab a preset is applied to the image. By default the "DXO Standard" preset will be applied. This standard preset includes DXO's excellent automagic "Smart Lighting" which is AI and reacts differently to different images(notably it makes darker images lighter). There is an option in Preferences to apply no preset to incoming images(each of RGB and RAW handled separately). I suggest that you try this option and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks Kirk. I import to C1 then “open with” DxO. Use the NR then export back to C1 as a DNG. I cannot “edit with” as a DNG as DxO errors out when opening. I’d have to “edit with” as a TIFF. I used the DNG format as after some research, it seemed to maintain more RAW information than 16-bit TIFF. I will have a look at the link you provided. I really only want DxO for the NR. It really does seem to be superior but I am losing the ‘vibrancy’ of the colors in DxO. DxO is only a trial for me right now.

I looked in to profiles a bit but it seemed like it would take some getting used to and was situational on the location of the shoot, unless I read that wrong?

Oh nice! I didn’t know. I will have to give that a shot later. Thank you.

That was it Mark, Bingo, thank you. It was the default preset. IMHO, that preset was sucking the color out of the photo. I now just apply my NR, Lens Sharpness & Chromatic Aberration then export back to C1 as a DNG and can continue with any changes. I am just amazed at the Prime NR DxO renders. Am I missing anything or would other agree?

That DXO Standard preset contains many other adjustments, some of which definitely will affect colors(camera color rendering for example). I personally like the preset as I do my RAW conversions nearly exclusively in DXOPL and the preset provides a good starting point for a wide range of RAW files. If any of the adjustments doesn't work for a given RAW file I will simply turn that adjustment down or off. Other adjustments included in the preset include lens distortion correction(which is very good in DXO) and lens sharpening(also excellent) but if you are applying these corrections in C1 then they would be doubly applied with the preset enabled. For your needs IMO turning the preset off and adding your own adjustments is definitely preferred.

WRT the DXO Prime NR, yes it is amazing! Incredible amount of detail retained even at very high settings and no noise. It's the best NR application that I have personally found.

Hi Tom;
I'm using three RAW converters: Capture One 20; Lightroom classic 9 and DxO Photolab 3. I don't use Capture One much because I just don't like the colors. No matter what I do I can't recreate the same colors I can get from Lightorom or DxO but that's another story.

Anyhow; I agree with you. If you export TIFF some informations are lost compare to DNG file.
The other thing I agree with you is about DxO and vibrancy. I like DxO but sometimes I have to do a lot more work to get the same results as I can get from Lightroom and mostly I just can't rescue as much highlights and shadows without getting weird results.

So yes; I understand your workflow. No tool is perfect for all jobs. I use DxO mostly for high ISO images. For contrasty files with lots of highlights and shadows I gave up on DxO so I just use Lightroom.

Thank you as I forgot that I need to disable the NR, etc. in C1 when I bring back the photos. I appreciate the input.

I know, crazy that there isn’t one package to get it all done. My DxO trial is winding down so at least I can feel comfortable that the issue for me was found.

You should give Topaz Denoise AI a try.