Photo Lab guide

1. Getting started

Press Import (or drop photos on the page) to add photos, or Try sample photos to play with four made-up scenes. Double-click a photo (tap it on a phone) to open it in Develop. Move the sliders; when it looks right, press Export.

The top bar switches between Library and Develop. The dodo logo goes back to the list of PixelDodo editors.

2. The library and importing

• Import takes JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF photos, many at once. HEIC opens only in Safari.
• RAW files (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF and others) are developed from the sensor data as they come in, on your device, with LibRaw: the camera's white balance, full size, turned the right way up, with bright highlights kept rather than clipped. It takes a few seconds a photo. Those photos have a RAW badge, and ⋯ › Photo info says how each was made.
• A very big RAW file (over 30 megapixels on Android, 16 on an iPhone or iPad) is developed at half size, so the phone doesn't run out of memory. A browser that can't run LibRaw, or a file it can't read, gets the JPEG the camera put inside the file instead (sometimes smaller than the photo). Photos imported before RAW developing came (October 2026) keep that JPEG; import the file again to develop it.
• The camera's notes (camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, date and place) are read as photos come in. They show in the info column on the right of a wide screen, under the histogram in Develop, and in ⋯ › Photo info.
• The grid shows each photo as you edited it, in rows that keep each photo's shape. The square button at the end of the bar switches to square cells; the slider beside it sets the size. On a phone the grid is square cells filling the width: pinch it for 2 to 6 columns.
• The info column on the right shows only when a photo is chosen. With several chosen it shows how many, and its stars, flags and labels change them all.
• Choosing: a click chooses one photo; Ctrl+click adds or takes away; Shift+click chooses a run. Ctrl+A chooses all. On a phone, hold a photo to start choosing several, then tap more. With two or more chosen, a bar at the bottom has All, Pick, Rate, Label, Add to album, Sync, Paste, Export and Remove.
• The photo with the ring is the current one: Develop opens it and Sync copies from it.
• Remove (Delete) takes photos and their edits out of the library. Your own files are never touched.

3. Ratings, flags, labels, filters and albums

• Stars: 1–5 rate, 0 clears. Or click the stars in the info column, under the photo in Develop, or on a photo in the grid (point at it on a wide screen; that rates only that photo). On a phone in Develop, the star button under the photo opens the stars, flags and labels.
• Flags: P picks, X rejects (the photo fades in the grid), U clears.
• Colour labels: 6 red, 7 yellow, 8 green, 9 blue, or the coloured dots (purple and none too).
• Search above the grid by file name, camera or lens. Filter beside it shows only a flag, a rating and up, a label, or edited / unedited photos; its number says how many filters are on, and Clear takes them off. Sort by date taken, date added, file name or rating (on a phone, Sort is in the Filter sheet).
• The column on the left has All photos, Last import, Picks and Edited, then your albums. On a phone it opens from the button at the start of the filter bar.
• Albums: + beside Albums makes one. Add photos with Add to album in the bottom bar, or drag them onto an album. Right-click an album to rename it, take the chosen photos out of it, or delete it (the photos stay in the library). Photos imported while an album is showing go into it.

4. The Develop view

• Left column: Presets, Snapshots and History. The sidebar button at the start of the bar under the photo hides it; on a narrower screen it is hidden and that button slides it over the photo (tap outside it or Esc to close).
• Middle: the photo. A wheel or a pinch zooms where the pointer is; drag to move round when zoomed. Double-click (or Z, or the Fit button) switches between fitting and 100%. Under it: previous and next photo (← →), before / after, hold to see the original, clipping warnings, the zoom, then the photo's stars, flags and label. The filmstrip below shows the photos the library was showing, with their stars, a pick flag and a blue dot on edited ones; drag its top edge to make it taller.
• Right column: the histogram (red, green and blue; the corner triangles light up when shadows or highlights are clipped), the camera settings, then the tools Edit, Crop, Heal and Masks. Edit shows the sections Light, Tone curve, Colour mixer, Colour grading, Effects, Detail, Optics and Geometry; tap a heading to open or close it. A changed section has a reset button in its heading.
• The row of icons above the sections jumps to one (a dot marks the changed ones). The button at its end, or Alt+click on a heading, keeps one section open at a time.
• Every slider: drag it, or type a number in the box. Double-click its name (double-tap on a touch screen) to put it back. Shift+drag moves it ten times slower, for fine steps. Hold its name to see the photo without that change. A changed slider's name is bold.
• Under the sliders: Copy, Paste, and ⋯ for Previous and Reset.
• ⋯ › Keyboard shortcuts (or ?) lists every key.
• Clipping warnings (J) paint blown highlights red and crushed blacks blue.
• Develop works on a copy of the photo up to 2560 pixels long (2048 on phones), so sliders answer at once. Exports are made again from the original at full size.

5. Light: white balance, tone and presence

• White balance: Temperature (blue ↔ yellow) and Tint (green ↔ magenta). Auto makes the average colour grey. The picker (W) sets it from something you click that should be grey or white.
• Colour / Black & white switches the photo to black and white; the Colour mixer then mixes the grey (see below).
• Tone: Exposure (in stops, ±5), Contrast, Highlights (lower brings back bright skies), Shadows (higher opens dark areas), Whites and Blacks (the brightest and darkest points). Highlights and shadows look at each area's surroundings, so edges keep their contrast. Auto sets them from the photo's own spread of brightness.
• Presence: Texture (fine detail like skin or bark), Clarity (contrast in the mid-tones), Dehaze (cuts haze; below 0 adds it), Vibrance (lifts dull colours more than strong ones) and Saturation.

6. Tone curve

• Point curve for RGB, or for R, G and B on their own. Tap the line to add a point and drag it; drag a point off the box to remove it. The ends move too, to lift the blacks or dim the whites. The photo's histogram is drawn behind.
• Parametric curve: Highlights, Lights, Darks and Shadows sliders, and the three splits that set where each range starts.
• Straighten this curve resets the curve shown.

7. Colour mixer and black & white

• Eight colours (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple, Magenta), each with Hue (turns it towards its neighbours), Saturation and Luminance. Show one kind at a time or All.
• The picker beside them: drag up or down on the photo to change the colour under your finger (whichever kind is showing; Saturation when All is).
• In Black & white, the same eight sliders set how light each colour turns. Auto gives a starting mix.

8. Colour grading

• 3-way shows wheels for Shadows, Midtones and Highlights: drag in a wheel to choose a tint (the angle) and how strong it is (the distance from the middle). Double-click a wheel to clear it. Each has a luminance slider.
• Shadows, Mid, Highlights and Global show one wheel with exact Hue and Saturation sliders. Global tints the whole photo.
• Blending sets how much the three ranges overlap; Balance moves the line between shadows and highlights.

9. Effects: vignette and grain

• Vignette darkens (below 0) or lightens the edges of the cropped photo. Midpoint sets how far in it reaches, Roundness how round it is, Feather how soft, and Highlights keeps bright areas bright in a dark vignette.
• Grain adds film grain: Amount, Size and Roughness.

10. Detail: sharpening and noise

• Sharpening: Amount, Radius (the size of the detail sharpened, in pixels of the original), Detail and Masking (at 0 it sharpens everything; higher leaves smooth areas such as skin and sky alone). Check it at 100%.
• Noise reduction: Luminance smooths grainy brightness, Detail keeps more edges, Colour removes coloured speckles.

11. Optics: lens corrections

• Distortion straightens lines that bow out (barrel, above 0) or in (pincushion, below 0).
• Vignetting brightens (above 0) or darkens corners that the lens left dark.
• Red / cyan fringe and Blue / yellow fringe fix coloured edges (chromatic aberration) by moving those colours towards or away from the middle.

12. Geometry: level and upright

• Level finds the strongest near-level or near-upright lines and turns the crop to match.
• Upright by hand: Vertical fixes buildings that lean back, Horizontal walls seen at an angle, then Rotate, Aspect, Scale and Offset X / Y.
• Constrain crop makes the crop as big as it can be without the empty corners these leave.

13. Crop and straighten

• Crop (R) shows the whole photo with the crop on top. Drag a corner or side to size it, inside to move it, outside to turn it. The grid shows thirds.
• Aspect: Original, Free, 1 : 1, 4 : 5, 5 : 7, 2 : 3, 3 : 4, 9 : 16, 16 : 9. Portrait / landscape turns the ratio round.
• Angle turns it by a set amount; Straighten: draw a line, then drag along something that should be level or upright; Auto level finds it.
• Keep inside the picture stops the crop going past the photo's edges.
• Done (or Enter) shows the cropped photo. Reset crop goes back to the whole photo.

14. Heal, clone and red eye

• Heal (Q): tap a spot, dust or blemish. Photo Lab finds a matching place nearby (the dashed circle) and copies its texture, blending its colour into the surroundings. Clone copies it exactly. Drag either circle to move it.
• Red eye: tap each red pupil; Darken sets how dark it goes.
• Size, Feather and Opacity are for the next spot, or for the spot you tapped. Delete spot (Delete) and Clear all.

15. Masks

A mask picks part of the photo, and its own sliders change only that part (on top of the global ones). A photo can have up to 8 masks. Open Masks (M) and pick a kind:

• Subject: finds the main subject with an open-source model. The first time, it is downloaded from jsDelivr / IMG.LY (about 40 MB); it then runs on your device, and your photo is not sent.
• Sky: finds smooth sky joined to the top of the photo, without a model. It works best on clear or cloudy skies with a clean horizon.
• Brush: paint the mask. Size, Feather, Flow, Erase (or hold Alt), and Auto mask, which keeps the brush on colours like the one where a stroke starts.
• Linear gradient: drag on the photo; full effect at the first line, none past the last. Drag a line to move it, the middle dot to move both.
• Radial gradient: drag out from a middle. The side dots size it (Shift keeps it round), the line on top turns it, Feather softens it, Inside / Outside chooses which part.
• Colour range: tap a colour on the photo (Shift+click or Add colours for up to five); Range widens it.
• Luminance range: tap a brightness, or set From, To and Softness.

Combine kinds in one mask with the + (add), − (subtract) and ∩ (intersect: keep only where they overlap) buttons beside Parts; the parts list shows each with +, − or ∩. Tap a part to change it. Under it come the sliders for inside the mask, then Amount (how strongly it all applies) and Invert. The mask's ⋯ has Rename, Duplicate, Duplicate and invert, Delete. The eye hides a mask's effect. Overlay (O) tints the picked mask red.

Inside a mask: Temperature, Tint, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Texture, Clarity, Dehaze, Saturation, Sharpness (below 0 softens), Noise, and a Colour tint (hue and strength).

16. Presets

• About 40 presets in groups: Fixes, Portrait, Landscape, Black & white, Vintage & film, Cinematic and Colour. Each shows as a little picture of your photo with it. On a wide screen, point at one to see it on the photo; click to use it. On a phone they are in the Presets tab.
• After using one, amount sets how strong it is (0–200%).
• A preset changes only the sliders it has; crop, masks, healing and geometry are never in a preset.
• Save as a preset (the ⋯ beside Presets): tick the groups to keep. Your presets are in My presets; the × deletes one.
• Import presets: Lightroom presets (.xmp, and the older .lrtemplate) and Photo Lab's own .json. From Lightroom presets it reads the basic sliders, tone curves, HSL and B&W mix, colour grading (and the older split toning), sharpening, noise, lens distortion and vignetting, vignette and grain. Lightroom's masks, profiles and lens profiles are left out, and its maths differs from Photo Lab's, so the look is close rather than exact. Export my presets downloads yours as one .json.

17. History, snapshots and before / after

• History lists every change with its value. Click a step to go back to it. Undo Ctrl+Z, redo Ctrl+Shift+Z. The last 60 steps are kept with the photo, so they are there next time.
• Snapshots keep a version of the edit under a name, to come back to. + takes one.
• Before / after (Y): first a split (drag the line), then side by side, then off. Hold the eye button, or \, to see the original. "Before" keeps the crop and geometry so the two line up.
• Reset puts everything back, or everything except crop, masks, healing and geometry. Previous uses the settings of the last photo you edited (not its masks or spots). Both are under the ⋯ beside Copy and Paste.

18. Copy, paste and sync settings

• Copy (Ctrl+Shift+C) asks which groups to copy: White balance, Tone, Presence, Tone curve, Colour mixer, Colour grading, Detail, Lens corrections, Transform, Vignette and grain, Crop, Masks, Healing. Paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) puts them on the current photo, or on every chosen photo from the library's bottom bar.
• Sync: choose several photos in the library; the settings of the one with the ring go onto the others.
• Sky and subject masks are found again on each photo (the subject when the photo is opened or exported).
• On the filmstrip, Ctrl+click chooses more photos without leaving Develop.

19. Export and Edit in Photo

• Export (Ctrl+Shift+E) the current photo, or the chosen ones from the library.
• Format: JPEG, PNG or WebP, with a Quality for JPEG and WebP.
• Size: full size, a long edge, a short edge (in pixels) or a percent. Photos are never made bigger than the original.
• Camera info (JPEG only): keep all, keep without the place (the GPS position), or remove. The orientation is set upright and the camera's small preview is left out. PNG and WebP files never carry it.
• Watermark: text, size, opacity and one of nine places.
• File name: {name} is the photo's name, {n} its number in the export (001, 002…), {date} the day it was taken.
• Several photos come as one .zip, or as separate downloads if you untick it.
• Edit in Photo (in the Export window and the ⋯ menu) opens the developed photo in PixelDodo's Photo editor, to add text, layers or a template.

20. On a phone

• The library grid fills the screen (pinch it for more or fewer columns); tap a photo to develop it, hold one to choose several. The folder button opens the albums; the filter button opens a sheet with the filters and the sort.
• In Develop, six tabs along the bottom: Presets, Edit, Crop, Heal, Masks and History. Edit has a row of chips for its sections (Light, Curve, Colour, Grading, Effects, Detail, Optics, Geometry); a dot marks a changed one, and Reset puts the one shown back. Swipe the photo sideways for the next one when it's fitted; pinch to zoom.
• Drag the little bar at the top of the panel to make it shorter or taller (tap it to switch between half and tall); each tab remembers its height. Masks opens tall, Presets short.
• While you drag a slider, its name and number show over the photo.
• The star button under the photo shows its rating, flag and label; tap it to change them.
• The ⋯ menu has the Library, Edit in Photo, Photo info, copy and paste, reset, presets and this guide.

21. Keys

22. Good to know

• Your library (the photos, their settings, history and snapshots) is kept in this browser on this device. Another browser or device starts empty, and clearing the browser's site data removes it, so export what you want to keep.
• Photos are kept at their full size, so a big library takes room in the browser.
• Develop needs WebGL 2, which current browsers have.
• The sliders are Photo Lab's own maths. Names follow Lightroom's, but the same numbers won't give exactly the same look.
• Very large photos are exported at the biggest size your device's graphics chip can handle (often 8192 or 16384 pixels long).
• Only Select subject reaches another site (see Masks); nothing else in Photo Lab leaves your device.