Raw files straight out of your camera carry noise, chromatic aberration, and lens imperfections that will follow your image through every step of post-processing. Running your files through a dedicated pre-processor before you ever open Lightroom gives you a cleaner foundation to work from, and the results compound as you edit.
Coming to you from Mickey Pullen with Eastern Shore Photo Instruction, this detailed walkthrough covers DxO PureRAW 6 from the ground up, including what changed in this version and why those changes matter in a real Lightroom workflow. Pullen has been using PureRAW since version one, so he speaks from five-plus years of direct comparison when he calls version 6 the best release yet. One of the biggest updates is the expansion of the Deep Prime XD3 engine, which was previously limited to Fuji X-Trans sensors, to now include Bayer sensors found in Sony, Nikon, and Canon cameras. That means if you shoot with a Sony a7 IV or similar camera, you now have access to the extra-detail denoising that Fuji shooters have had for a while. The other major addition is high-fidelity compression for DNG output. A raw file that previously output as an uncompressed DNG in the 120 to 150 MB range now comes out at 17 to 20 MB with no visible loss in detail or color, which is a significant reduction in storage demand if you’re processing large batches regularly.
What separates PureRAW from Lightroom’s built-in tools or something like Topaz isn’t just marketing. DxO builds and maintains a database of camera and lens combinations, and when you process a file, the software applies corrections tuned specifically to the equipment you used, not a generic profile. More importantly, it applies noise reduction, optical corrections, and lens distortion fixes simultaneously rather than sequentially, which avoids the problem of one correction degrading another. Pullen also walks through the new AI dust removal tool, which works similarly to Lightroom’s version but is still in beta. It does a reasonable job automatically, but he’s candid that Lightroom’s implementation is more refined at this point.
The video then goes deep into the actual interface: the three launch options from within Lightroom, the processing panel with its luminance and force-detail sliders, the masking panel and how it works differently than Lightroom’s masking tools, and the full output panel where you control file format, compression, naming conventions, and ICC profiles. One feature worth noting is the Smart Object export directly to Photoshop, which lets you re-open the PureRAW filter from within a smart layer and re-process without losing your Photoshop adjustments. Pullen also covers the standalone application mode, though he’s upfront that it’s not his preferred workflow and comes with a real caveat: any file operations done outside of Lightroom won’t update your catalog, which can cause files to go missing unless you resync manually. Check out the video above for the full walkthrough.