Well, I don't like photoshop. Period.
I don't use XN's autolevel. It's usually better than the unadjusted image, but not as good as other methods.
Somtimes I use XN's manual level adjustments (very useful when you're trying to get part of the image to be pure white), but most of the time I use Colorcast fix from DCE tools. It automatically detects whether the image is too yellow, cyan, magenta, etc and adjusts accordingly. It auto-adjusts levels in the process of correcting colorcast (although it does nothing if it detects no colorcast). I also use DCE tools AutoEnhance tool (which is actually more manual than auto), which can adjust saturation, contrast, brightness, enhance detail, and reduce noise. The DCE tools are photoshop plugins, but unfortunately they don't work in Xnview.
) and am mostly using Photoshops, because I like the better/harder result. If Photshop messes, I normally use no autolevels at all.
