Labs FilmPack 5 Essential Edition Image Processing Software for Macintosh & Windows

The DxO FilmPack 5 software is a rich library of vintage and creative photographic film emulations that can be applied to an image. These simulate having taken the picture with a silver-based or custom special-effects film. Included are popular/common vintage films, lesser known professional/commercial ones, and a large number of ‘films’ that were created (‘Designer Presets’) to deliver specific effects.Once a film effect has been applied, the software offers a very limited toolkit. The tool interface has only a small selection of sliders that can be used to modify, emphasize or attenuate the selected effect. These adjustments apply to the entire image.The interface is reasonably comfortable to use. It has no apparent serious flaws. However, you should NOT expect this software to be a general-purpose post-processing package or artistic tool.Of the three software packages marketed by DxO, FilmPack was my initial purchase. It was not bought from Amazon, because I used a gift card from another vendor. The software introduced me to the DxO company in a positive way. Based on my experience with FilmPack 5, I acquired their other two offerings: Viewpoint 3 (an image distortion corrector/applicator) and PhotoLab 1 (a general post-processing package). These are reviewed separately.If you own DxO’s FilmPack and ViewPoint, they are immediately integrated into the PhotoLab interface when that software is installed. As a result, I no longer use FilmPack as a stand-alone product. However, the thumbnail renderings of each film option are not available in PhotoLab as they are in the stand-alone FilmPack. Consequently, you cannot peruse thumbnails of effects before selecting one to apply to the image you have active in PhotoLab. In the PhotoLab tool interface, only the names of the FilmPack effects are listed as selection options. While in PhotoLab, you must either be very familiar with each film effect, or try each one on your subject image. The alternative is to open FilmPack as a stand-alone environment, load a copy of your active image, work within that richer visual environment, determine a candidate effect to apply, and return to PhotoLab to finally select that effect from the list.This workflow is a clumsy kludge.FilmPack 5 also apparently interfaces with Adobe Lightroom, which I no longer use for post-processing. Likewise, all three DxO software products also apparently interface with Adobe Photoshop. How this is accomplished within Adobe’s cloud environment is untested and unclear to me, because I decline to use cloud-based products. I have not yet explored the interaction of DxO’s products with my stand-alone (non-cloud) CS5 version of Photoshop. My Lightroom is version 6, the final down-to-earth version available for purchase and use in a privately controlled setting. I can attest to the smooth interaction of all DxO software with V6 Lightroom within a single stand-alone computer system.On a positive note, the FilmPack tools, as sets of sliders, are smoothly integrated into the PhotoLab environment. They are, in practice, clearer and easier to use there than within the stand-alone situation.Both PhotoLab and FilmPack are offered in ‘regular’ and Elite versions. The latter (which I purchased for both software) offers more kinds of film emulations and a richer suite of capabilities/functions.DxO FilmPack 5 is a creative library of starting points for expressing your visual art urges. The actual workbench for realizing your final masterpiece must, however, be a robust dedicated post-processing package, such as DxO PhotoLab.I RECOMMEND ALL THREE DXO SOFTWARE PRODUCTS (ELITE VERSIONS), USED EITHER ALONE OR TOGETHER.A bio of my photography background is included with my Amazon review of the DxO ONE camera.

Ich benutze dieses Programm nun seit rund einem 3/4tel Jahr und bin von der Qualität der mit DxO entwickelten RAW-Dateien mehr als begeistert. Mir ist kein anderes Programm bekannt, welches derart perfekte Bilder liefert - egal ob im Automatikmodus oder mit den selbst vorgegebenen Parametern. Meiner Meinung nach ist DxO derzeit konkurrenzlos auf dem Markt.Wichtig ist, dass DxO die jeweilige Camera-Objektiv-Kombination unterstützt, um die jeweiligen optischen Fehler beheben zu können. So werden beispielsweise objektivbedingte Verzerrungen, CA's oder Vignettierungen automatisch korrigiert.Dank DxO kann man bedenkenlos Teleobjektive - wie bsp.weise das 18-200 VR von Nikon - einsetzen und muss sich keine große Gedanken um objektivbedingte Schwächen machen, da das Programm diese praktisch komplett herausrechnet.Vor dem Kauf sollte lediglich geprüft werden, ob die eigene DSLR-Objektiv-Kombination von DxO unterstützt wird und das ein leistungsfähiger Rechner vorhanden ist (mit meinem etwas älteren P4 - 2,66 GHZ PC dauert die Entwicklung einer RAW-Datei im Schnitt 1-3 Minuten)

Enorme Qualitätsverbesserung der Bilder, als hätte ich eine neue Kamera (benutzte Canon EOS 20D). Verwende die Software zur Bearbeitung der RAW-Bilddateien vor der endgültigen Bearbeitung mit Photoshop. Diese Software erfordert einen zusätzlichen Arbeitsgang bei der alleine die Entwicklungszeit pro Bild circa 1 bis 2 Minuten (bei einem durchschnittlichen Rechner) dauert.Bedienung war zwar anfänglich etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, aber wenn man die Logik des Workflows erkannt hat, kommt man gut zurecht. Die bearbeiteten Bilddateien sind entsprechend speicherintensiv. Bei den besonders gelungenen Fotos lohnt sich der Aufwand auf jedem Fall. Benutze die Software bereits einige Jahre und bin immer noch begeistert.