DXO plus Lightroom recommendations

[NRandall]

I currently do not have any up to date software for PP hence all I have been using for the past two years is Nikon View NX2 and a trial version of Capture NX.

I shoot quite a lot at night and in available light, and I have a growing archive of images that need help with noise, distortion correction etc.
Looking forward, I also want to try my hand at more sophisticated PP, combining different exposures of the same shot, etc. etc.

Looking around at what is available, I was thinking of using DXO and Photoshop / Lightroom is some combination.

Will this make for a complete set of software that will cover everything?

Do these two work together well?

Any comments or alternate suggestions will be appreciated. [I realise there are many answers to the wider question]
Thanks in advance

[Mary Anne]

You could try out some of the Free Trials of Noise Removal SoftWare as I find PS CS6 and Lightroom 5.6 not good enough.

[tduell]

I don't know how much you would like to experiment or try different post processing software, so this is just a suggestion.
Darktable, which is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and is FOSS, is alleged to have camera noise profiles, as well as the ability to generate camera specific noise profiles for those not included.
I have no experience with this particular capability, but have used Darktable for general raw conversion and post processing and it does seem to be a good set of tools.

Cheers,
Terry

[NRandall]

You could try out some of the Free Trials of Noise Removal SoftWare as I find PS CS6 and Lightroom 5.6 not good enough.

Thanks for this suggestion Mary Anne, I will try a few as you suggest.

I realise I could have clarified my thinking a bit better too, as I was thinking of DXO [or some other software] specifically for the noise reduction and general corrections first and then Photoshop for the creative side. a

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know how much you would like to experiment or try different post processing software, so this is just a suggestion.
Darktable, which is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and is FOSS, is alleged to have camera noise profiles, as well as the ability to generate camera specific noise profiles for those not included.
I have no experience with this particular capability, but have used Darktable for general raw conversion and post processing and it does seem to be a good set of tools.

Cheers,
Terry

Thanks Terry
I will have a look at this one too.
One of the tools I need regularly is lens correction for the wide angle shots and DXO has a strong reputation there.
I 'll see what it offers.

Anyone using DXO?

[AstonKemp]

Ive used the trial version of DXO. The operation is very simple and straight forward and the results for noise and sharpening and exposure corrections are excellent. The problem in my opinion is the interface with lightroom. DXO can be opened from lightroom and the dxo images can be exported back to lightroom or photoshop as DNG or any other format. If your working with RAW files the time taken to process each image using what they call the Prime setting is very very slow. Your CPU will be working flat chat for ~5 mins for one average size file. For my money I will be sticking with lightroom/ cs6 with topaz suite and nik as add ons, for the time being.

Regards

Dave

[NRandall]

Ive used the trial version of DXO. The operation is very simple and straight forward and the results for noise and sharpening and exposure corrections are excellent. The problem in my opinion is the interface with lightroom. DXO can be opened . from lightroom and the dxo images can be exported back to lightroom or photoshop as DNG or any other format. If your working with RAW files the time taken to process each image using what they call the Prime setting is very very slow. Your CPU will be working flat chat for ~5 mins for one average size file. For my money I will be sticking with lightroom/ cs6 with topaz suite and nik as add ons, for the time being.

Regards

Dave

Thanks for this detailed response Dave, this helps clarify things.

[Hawthy]

Photoshop CC 2014 and Lightroom are available for $9.99 per month on a subscription basis (minimum 12 month subscription). To remove noise try Topaz DeNoise, which works as a plug-in within Photoshop.