Released in 2022, DxO ViewPoint 4 introduced a new tool, ReShape, which DxO said, then, “eclipses rival software in its ability to warp and repair individual parts of a scene. It is now possible to realign nagging details like crooked architecture and broken patterns so that images have greater impact and improved balance. The ReShape tool’s customizable grid and extensive control points ensure precise manipulation, and adjustments are quick and intuitive.”
Fabrizio Dei Tos, Product Manager at DxO, explained, then, this: “We created ViewPoint 4 as the next step in DxO’s continued pursuit of optical and imaging perfection. The ReShape tool is the best solution out there for warping local details, and provides a truly powerful solution for photographers. ViewPoint 4’s other upgrades expand and refine its usability, so whether you’re perfecting architectural images, ensuring distortion-free landscapes, or improving group portraits, this is the software you need.”
We’re in 2024, DxO ViewPoint 5 has just been announced, and the peerless ReShape tool is enhanced, adding powerful local warping of perspective, scale, and horizons, while adding more ways to use DxO ViewPoint’s exclusive volume deformation corrections to combat the stretching caused by wide-angle lenses.
“If you need to adjust perspective or geometry — whether that’s across the whole image or specific areas — there’s nothing else on the market like DxO ViewPoint 5,” explains Product Manager Fabrizio Dei Tos. “For version 5, the increased level of control gives you beautifully simple solutions to otherwise complex and fiddly problems.”
The ReShape tool is upgraded, in version 5, to ReShape Fusion, giving users powerful ways to balance and harmonize images. Previously, users were limited to manually dragging points in the tool’s mesh, but DxO ViewPoint 5 introduces Move, Rotate, and Scale options to perform far more complex edits. Alongside this is the innovative Propagation slider which steadily migrates those effects to surrounding points, allowing for more natural and photographic changes than ever before. Furthermore, the new Sticky Borders checkbox maintains the original crop of the image.
Back in 2022 I wrote “if your photography depends on straight lines, then DxO ViewPoint 4 is for you: the new version enhances all the tools available before and introduces a powerful ReShape tool for local adjustments”. Now I can add that the software really goes beyond the correction of straight lines, and the best way to discover what it does is to watch the videos available… but also to download the free demo and try it for 30 days. You’ll probably want to add the app to your toolbox, afterwards…
In the recently released DxO PhotoLab 8 the company introduced Hue Masks and Local Adjustments, and it’s again about local adjustments that we talk with the new ReShape Fusion tool in DxO ViewPoint 5, which adds more functionality, with new modes for Horizon and Perspective control. These take DxO ViewPoint’s regular Horizon and Perspective tools and combine them with the power of local adjustments. Photographers simply target the specific part of the image that needs to be realigned, make the adjustment, and then refine the changes with the Propagation slider to blend the effect with the rest of the photo. Once again, the Sticky Borders option locks the edges of the frame, so no blank pixels are created after warping.
It’s not just about lines, as ReShape Fusion also can be used to correct volume deformation locally. The company notes that “DxO Viewpoint is the only software that offers a true solution to volume deformation — the stretching that occurs at the edges of photos taken with wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses. Up until now, this distortion could only be corrected globally, but thanks to the power of the ReShape Fusion tool, photographers can now apply it to carefully controlled areas of the image to fix and refine all manner of problems. Again, the Propagation slider and Sticky Borders are on hand to fine-tune editing as required.”
When activated within DxO PhotoLab 8, the new features in ViewPoint 5 bring a new level of control to your RAW workflow, granting the power to warp, correct, and edit geometry with full quality. Alternatively, it can be used standalone or alongside other photo editing software to bring balance to all manner of subjects.
DxO ViewPoint 5 (Windows and macOS) is now available for download on the DxO website, where you’ll also find a 30-day trial of the software. A new perpetual license costs $109, with the upgrade to DxO ViewPoint 5 from v3 or v4 costs $69.