Simulating a Trendy Depth Mask Bokeh Effect in Photolab 9
It's already built-in ...
A
s the developers of RAW apps seek to differentiate themselves from each other, they add all sorts of exotic features such as AI masks, sky replacement, relighting and adaptive presets. And recently, the trendiest trick in the bag has been depth masks – those fake depth maps that promise creamy background blur without ever touching a fast prime lens.
Adobe were the first to add depth masks to Lightroom in 2023, but only on photos with real embedded depth map data such as on smartphones. But it was On1 who were the first to add depth masks for any RAW photo in PhotoRAW 2025, released in October 2024. Then in their spring 2026 release Skylum added a depth mask tool to Luminar Neo. So if you’re a DXO user you might have been feeling a bit left out, because we all know that DXO’s release schedule moves at glacial speeds. Well fear not Photolab users, you’ve actually been able to pull off this particular trick since the release of Photolab 9.
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Also published in RAW & Unfiltered on Substack.
