How/why I got started in Photography?:

I grew up with a darkroom in the basement and lots of cool cameras to play with. I would take pictures at school and of my dog and of the squirrels in my neighborhood. It was during a college year abroad when I really became interested in photography and then while crewing aboard sailing yachts all over the world, I always had a camera ready to shoot with close by.

Why I use DxO Optics Pro:

I shoot with primarily wide and fisheye lenses in constantly changing lighting situations, leaving me with RAW files which can be tricky to work with. DxO Optics Pro guides me through each stage of processing so I can see before and after effects of each module. Several images in my portfolio would simply not be usable without the highlight restoration, and the fisheye lens distortion corrections are simply amazing.

What specific tip(s) would you give another photographer for using DxO Optics Pro to help them get the most out of their pictures?

I would suggest running seemingly underexposed, or blown out, or noisy or very distorted images through DxO Optics Pro and see just how much math it’s doing for the images. The fact that each lens has certain characteristics at each focal length and that DxO Optics pro has all that information to work with at your fingertips, is amazing. It’s an extension of the whole digital image process that any smart photographer would take advantage of.