DxO Labs launched PhotoLab 10 as a perpetual-license RAW editor with AI Depth Masks, upgraded people and face selection, advanced color grading, and a direct handoff to Affinity. Digital Camera World covered the release and called it DxO’s most powerful RAW editor yet. We shoot San Antonio events and headshots on the Nikon Z9 and Z8 (and have since each launched). We have not switched our daily cull-and-deliver stack to PhotoLab 10, so this is a practical look at the announcement — not a review.
What DxO announced
Based on DxO’s PhotoLab 10 launch page and Digital Camera World’s coverage:
- Depth Masks. AI builds a depth map so you can target foreground, midground or background without painting every edge by hand. Feathering controls how soft the transition feels.
- Smarter AI people masks. Select everyone in a frame, group people into one mask, or split individuals. Face segmentation can target eyebrows, eyes, irises and pupils, sclera, teeth, facial hair, skin or lips.
- Advanced color grading. One color wheel for shadows, midtones, highlights and overall balance, with options to move linked points together.
- U Point upgrades. A Control Brush, elliptical Control Points, and the ability to refine an AI mask with the U Point eyedropper by color and luminosity.
- AI dust removal. Detects and cleans sensor dust at the RAW stage.
- Affinity handoff. Open a file from PhotoLab into Affinity for finishing. Affinity’s free iPad app has been part of the wider editing conversation this fall; we covered that separately.
- Price. About 249.99 USD for a new perpetual license, or about 129.99 USD to upgrade from PhotoLab 8 or 9, per Digital Camera World. DxO also offers a free trial.
Why depth and face tools matter on real jobs
A wide ceremony or summit frame is not one flat subject. The string-lights ceremony above has chairs and aisle in front, guests in the middle, and the couple and hills beyond. Depth Masks are built for that kind of layered scene: lift the midground, soften a busy background, or balance light that falls differently across distance — without redrawing every selection.
For headshots and environmental portraits, face segmentation is the headline. Being able to nudge eyes, lips or skin separately is the kind of polish clients notice on LinkedIn and team pages. Group masks matter at networking mixers and team photos, where you want even skin tones across several people without baking the wallpaper.
Dust removal sounds boring until you deliver a gallery. Sensor spots show up on clean skies, light walls and conference backdrops. Cleaning them once at RAW saves time across a whole set.
How this fits a Grey Bug-style workflow
We still plan shoots around capture first: good light, consistent white balance and a Nikon Z9 or Z8 that can keep up in a ballroom. Editing software does not fix a muddy exposure. Where PhotoLab 10’s pitch lines up with event and headshot delivery:
- Local adjustments that respect distance, not only color, for venue and ceremony establishing frames.
- Faster portrait cleanup when facial features need a light touch rather than a full retouch pass.
- A perpetual license model if you prefer buying once over another subscription — confirm current terms on DxO’s site before you buy.
- An Affinity path if you already finish layouts or composites there.
We already wrote about Capture One’s recent stray-hair tools for headshot retouching. Different apps are chasing the same problem: get clean, natural people photos out the door faster without looking over-processed.
Tips if you are shopping for a RAW editor update
- Match the tool to your bottleneck. If selection speed is what slows you down, Depth Masks and face AI are the features to trial. If color science or tethered capture is your bottleneck, test those too.
- Trial on your own RAWs. Use a real Z9 or Z8 event card — mixed LED light, skin tones, banners — not only demo images.
- Keep a delivery standard. Clients care that skin looks natural and the room looks like the room. Fancy masks should serve that, not replace judgment.
- Budget for the whole pipeline. Cull, color, retouch and export still need a clear path whether you use Lightroom, Capture One, PhotoLab, Affinity or a mix.
- Do not update the night before a big job. Install, test and rebuild presets on a quiet week.
What San Antonio clients should take away
New editing features help photographers deliver cleaner galleries and sharper headshots. They do not change what you should ask for when you hire: a plan for lighting, timing, file delivery and how your photos will be used. For conferences, team headshot days and celebrations around San Antonio, we still start with the room and the people, then use whatever edit tools make the final set consistent.
If you have an event, summit or headshot session coming up, reach out to Grey Bug Photography. We will talk through timing, lighting and delivery.
Sources: DxO Labs “Introducing DxO PhotoLab 10” announcement; Digital Camera World coverage of PhotoLab 10 (published September 1, 2026).
