DxO PhotoLab 9 arrived in September with a headline feature that genuinely changed how local adjustments work: AI Masks. Select a subject, a sky, or a background with a single click, then refine with DxO's U Point technology for surgical precision. It was the update that closed the gap between PhotoLab's world-class image processing and the modern editing workflows photographers expected.
Version 9.2, available now as a free update, makes those AI Masks significantly better and addresses a handful of workflow frustrations that power users have been vocal about.
Smarter Edges, Cleaner Selections
The headline improvement in 9.2 is upgraded AI Mask matting. DxO has refined the sensibility threshold for edge detection, producing cleaner, more accurate boundaries around complex subjects. Hair, fur, tree branches against bright skies, translucent fabrics — the subjects that expose every masking algorithm's weaknesses — all get noticeably better results.
This is the kind of improvement that's hard to demonstrate in a press release but immediately obvious in practice. If you've ever spent ten minutes cleaning up a mask edge where strands of hair meet a blown-out background, you know exactly what better matting means. It means less time fixing the machine's work and more time making creative decisions.
Combined with U Point technology for manual refinement, PhotoLab 9.2's masking system is now competitive with anything Lightroom or Capture One offers — and in many cases, more precise.
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Mask Organization That Should Have Been There From Day One
Here's a feature that experienced PhotoLab users will quietly celebrate: you can now drag and drop masks and sub-masks to reorganize them. You can also duplicate masks and have them automatically labeled with sequential numbers.
If you've ever built a complex portrait edit with eight or nine local adjustment masks and then realized you needed to restructure them — you understand why this matters. Previously, the order of masks was fixed when created. Now you can rearrange the entire stack, group related adjustments together, and keep complex edits navigable.
The automatic numbering on duplicated masks is one of those small touches that eliminates genuine confusion. When you duplicate a "Skin Tone" mask for a different area of the image, it now becomes "Skin Tone 2" instead of another "Skin Tone" sitting right next to the original. Simple, obvious, and somehow missing until now.
New PhotoLibrary Filters
Three new filters have been added to PhotoLab's PhotoLibrary: Unedited Images, Edited Images, and Edited Images with Local Corrections. These sound basic, but they solve a real problem in production workflows.
After importing 400 images from a shoot, you want to quickly find which ones you haven't touched yet. Or you want to review only the images where you've applied local adjustments — the ones with the most editorial investment — to make sure they're consistent. These filters make both tasks instant instead of manual.
For photographers managing large libraries, this is the kind of workflow improvement that saves meaningful time across thousands of sessions.
Windows Users Finally Get Persistent History
Mac users have had this for a while, but Windows users can now celebrate: the History panel remembers your edits between sessions. Close PhotoLab, reopen it tomorrow, and your entire editing history is still there. You can step back to any point in your workflow, even across multiple sessions.
This brings Windows to parity with macOS for the first time on this feature, and it's a significant improvement for anyone who doesn't finish every edit in a single sitting. Which is most of us.
Where PhotoLab 9.2 Sits in 2026
The RAW editing landscape in 2026 is more competitive than it's ever been. Lightroom continues to iterate. Capture One keeps refining its color tools. ON1, Luminar, and Affinity Photo are all pushing hard. DxO's advantage has always been image quality — DeepPRIME noise reduction and their lab-measured lens correction modules produce results that nothing else matches at the pixel level.
What held PhotoLab back was workflow. The editing tools were powerful but the organization of those tools felt dated compared to Lightroom's polish. Version 9 started closing that gap with AI Masks. Version 9.2 continues the work with mask management, library filtering, and persistent history.
PhotoLab 9.2 is a free update for PhotoLab 9 owners. New users can start a 30-day trial with no restrictions and no credit card. It runs on macOS and Windows with a one-time purchase — no subscription required.
For photographers who prioritize image quality above all else and want a Lightroom alternative that doesn't require monthly payments, DxO PhotoLab 9.2 is the strongest case DxO has ever made.
Transparency Note: This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed and edited by the ShutterNoise team. We believe in complete transparency about our process. Sources are cited throughout.