This is one of those high contrast situations, that DxO handles so well: Expose for the highlights, lighten up the shadows and use DxP PRIME noise reduction to get rid of any noise creeping up. On my Mac it takes 40 seconds per image. That’s slow, but when you realize, that for every pixel DxO analyzes 1000 neighboring pixels (at least that’s what I remember to have read), it’s actually fairly quick. The result is the best I’ve ever seen for any noise reduction software.
It’s only, that it doesn’t work anymore. Today I wanted to start it and see if there’s an upgrade. I’m not sure if I’ve ever used it since upgrading my Mac to Catalina. In any case, it hangs on start.
It obviously lacks permission to access the pictures folder and external drives. I can see that in the Security and Privacy panel. Other programs are listed, DxO is not. Normally, when a program tries to access a location where it has no permission, the system asks whether to grant or refuse the request. That’s how programs get into the list.
With Catalina, Apple has taken away the option to manually add a program to the list and give it permissions. It’s also not a matter of just entering something in Google and getting the solution. Other people seem to have no problem.
There have been initial problems with DxO and Catalina, but DxO considers them fixed. They warn to upgrade the program before upgrading to Catalina. Well, I didn’t, because I need the program only once in a long while.
This makes me the proud owner of DxO Photolab 3 Elite, a wonderful tool that I can’t use at all. Now I can only sit and wonder who to blame, DxO or Apple 😡