DxO ViewPoint 6 Adds AI Masks to ReShape Fusion and Opens RAW Files

DxO ViewPoint 6 changes how you fix geometry after the shot. According to DxO, the release is available now, and its headline feature is simple: AI masks now build the ReShape Fusion mesh around the element you select. We have not tested the software yet, so the facts below come from DxO’s own pages, and the opinions are mine.

ViewPoint is the DxO tool for straightening leaning buildings, correcting wide-angle stretch, and reshaping parts of a photo. Its warping tool arrived in ViewPoint 5. Instead of the whole frame, it reshaped one part of a picture. However, it worked from an even grid, so you moved whichever control points happened to fall near your subject.

The easiest geometry fix is the one you never need. A hot shoe bubble level, a leveling base, and a ball head with a built-in level all help you start straight, so ViewPoint has less to correct. The grid below includes the Anwenk hot shoe bubble level, the K&F Concept TG14 leveling base, and the NEEWER metal ball head with bubble level.

Prices come from DxO’s US storefront, and other regions show different amounts.

The mesh now follows your subject. In ViewPoint 5, a grid sat evenly across the photo. Now you choose a grid, click AI, and drag a rectangle around the element you want to change. ViewPoint then finds the element’s outline, or its interior, and wraps the mesh around it.

The control points therefore sit on your subject instead of beside it. DxO says a correction once needing patient grid work now takes a few moves. The selection uses the same AI masking DxO built for PhotoLab. Meanwhile, the uniform grid remains the default and behaves as it did in ViewPoint 5.

DxO also states the feature is not generative. No pixels are invented, and every correction moves the photograph you took. For me, this is the right call for geometry work, because the result stays true to your original shot.

DxO names three jobs for the new mesh. First, you move and resize a subject. Select it, drag it where it belongs, and scale it until the proportions look right.

Second, you straighten a single leaning building without tilting the whole frame, and you control how far the correction spreads. DxO’s own examples include a church in Iceland, shot on a Canon EOS R5 with a 15-35mm f/2.8 lens. If you shoot buildings often, our guide on how to photograph architecture covers the in-camera habits behind less correction.

Third, you return a stretched subject to natural proportions. Wide-angle lenses stretch whatever sits near the frame edge, and in a group shot this is usually somebody’s face. ViewPoint’s Volume Deformation tool already corrects the stretch across a whole image. It now handles one subject too.

For the first time, the standalone app opens RAW files alongside TIFF and JPEG. There is no pre-conversion and no round trip through a host application. DxO renders the RAW with its own camera profile in DxO Wide Gamut, and ViewPoint corrects distortion automatically from the lens data in the file. Exposure Compensation and White Balance also live in the standalone app.

Sidecar files are the other addition. A sidecar is a companion file stored beside the image, and every correction saves to it as you work, so your original is never altered. ViewPoint writes its own sidecars, kept separate from the ones PhotoLab writes, so the two applications will not interfere with each other. Exporting to TIFF or JPEG still works, but it is no longer the only way to keep your work.

In my view, the sidecars are the quiet upgrade, since closing the app leaves your edits where you left them.

Nothing you learned in ViewPoint 5 goes away. The uniform grid stays the default, while the AI-built mesh, direct RAW opening, and sidecars sit on top of it. DxO says ViewPoint 6 opens RAW files in the standalone application for the first time. If you own ViewPoint 5, the choice comes down to whether the AI mesh, direct RAW opening, and sidecars earn the upgrade fee. Outside Adobe, our comparison of Lightroom alternatives shows where DxO fits among the other RAW editors.

Sidecars also change how you store files. Because corrections save beside the image, keeping each shoot and its sidecars in one folder matters. A portable drive such as the Samsung T7 1TB portable SSD holds both together, and the ProGrade Digital PG08 UHS-II card reader moves files from your SD cards onto it.

ViewPoint 5 owners pay $84.99 for the upgrade instead of the $129.99 new-license price. The RAW and sidecar changes matter most when you edit RAW files in the standalone app.

If you own DxO PhotoLab 10, DxO says the ViewPoint tools also appear inside it. Specifically, they work on the images you are already editing. Check what your license includes before you buy a second one. Our report on the DxO PhotoLab 10.1 update covers the Affinity export added in 10.1.

If you work in Lightroom Classic or Photoshop, the plugin route keeps the editing in your current workflow. Everyone gets the 30-day trial, which needs no payment details. DxO supplies the before-and-after images, so treat them as marketing until independent tests arrive. I would run the trial on your own leaning-building shot before paying anything. If you rarely fix geometry by hand, the mesh is unlikely to change your routine, and waiting for independent tests costs you nothing.

Geometry problems are easy to see and tedious to fix. A leaning building drags a good frame down. So does a stretched face at the edge of a group shot, or a subject sitting slightly wrong. The new mesh aims to shorten this work, and the non-generative approach keeps the result honest.

Sidecars and direct RAW opening are less flashy, yet they smooth the daily routine. Your safest move is also the cheapest: download the free trial and test the mesh on a frame with a leaning building.

If the results hold up, the $129.99 price is a one-time cost with no subscription, and ViewPoint 5 owners pay less. Should the results fall short, you lose nothing but an afternoon.

DxO lists a perpetual license at $129.99 on its US storefront. The license covers Windows and macOS.

No. ViewPoint 5 owners get a special upgrade price of $84.99, which saves $45.00 against the new-license price.

No. DxO says nothing is generative, no pixels are invented, and no content is filled in. Every correction moves the photograph you took.

Yes. DxO says it works as a plugin for Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop, and as a standalone application.

Yes. The standalone application now opens RAW files alongside TIFF and JPEG, with no pre-conversion step.

Yes. DxO offers 30 days of full access with no payment details, no watermarks, and no export limits.