DXO Photolab 4 Workflow

[Dismayed]

I've dug through several older posts on DXO Photolab. It's clear that I should not use Photolab for any sort of DAM management. Not a problem because I quite like PSU!

I do, however, have questions about DOP sidecar files. Should I store image corrections in the DXO database, or are there benefits to creating DOP sidecar files?

[Username]

Well PL do not alter the image files.
It stores everything you do adjust, edit and create within the DOP files and in its database. The DOP fully describe how to recreate the developments you have done. If you loose the database and the DOPs you will loose the edits. Unless you have the DOP backed up. Or stored at the same place as your photos.

If we both have the same 100MB raw image and you would send me the DOP for that raw after your edits, my PL will read it and apply everything you did to display your developments using the same unaltered raw I had.

[Dismayed]

The use case of sending a dop and raw image isn't a requirement for me. I share photos, but not raw adjustment. So it would seem that storing the 'recipe' in the PL database should be fine, with backups, of course.

[Sigi]

Hello dismayed,

I am also a DXO user. The database of DXO can corrupt quite easily. If you have dop files you do not need to worry. If you do not care about edit history then of course a corrupt database would not be a problem.

Sigi

[Mke]

As another DxO user, my preference is to delete the PL database intermittently. I do save the DOP files, but more out of habit - once I've exported the image I very rarely return to modify it again, so they rarely serve any subsequent purpose.

Indeed even if I did want to return to them, I now have thousands of dop files that are incompatible with the latest version of PL, because I used Smart Lighting modes that are no longer supported (PL v4 'moved forwards' by dropping support for "DxO OpticsPro 7" and "DxO OpticsPro 9" Smart Lighting modes).

On that basis there can be no guarantee that all your settings, whether saved in dop files or the database, will continue to function in the future. Export and forget

[Dismayed]

Hello dismayed,

I am also a DXO user. The database of DXO can corrupt quite easily. If you have dop files you do not need to worry. If you do not care about edit history then of course a corrupt database would not be a problem.

Sigi

Hmmm. I wonder what database they are using. It's not as if database technology is new.

It's a simple matter to back up the DXO db. So I now have a backup stored on my NAS. Unfortunately I don't see a way to automate the task.

[Mke]

I wonder what database they are using.

SQLite, apparently - the same as the standard version of Photo Supreme. Stability should not normally be an issue.

[Dismayed]

I wonder what database they are using.

SQLite, apparently - the same as the standard version of Photo Supreme. Stability should not normally be an issue.

Thanks, SQLite should be robust enough to store RAW processing recipes. So I will forgo the dop sidecar files, and I will back up the db regularly.