Calling raw processing software “Lightroom Killer” is a cliche. However, this powerful toolkit is starting to eclipse the Adobe Photographer’s Plan. Now it is posing a real challenge to Lightroom and Photoshop. ON1 Photo Raw has another update and it now offers everything most photographers need. That’s why I say goodbye to Lightroom and Photoshop. Will it also tempt you?
ON1 Photo Raw took time to develop into what it is today. I first came across it many years ago with its old name, Perfect Effect. It is a viable alternative to the early versions of Nik software and it works as a standalone plugin and program. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed with its results at the time, which seems to do more than what later Instagram filters did. But it started to grow and develop.
Since then, it has come a long way. It now includes a browser module that incorporates an advanced category. Imagine Lightroom and Bridge’s extraordinary love child. It has a built-in raw development and layer-based editing module like ACR and Photoshop combined. Then there’s AI-based resizing software, plus newly improved denoising tools that knock out almost anything else on the market. It also features portrait enhancement, HDR processing, time-lapse generation, focus stacking, AI-driven sky swapping, a panorama collage editor with advanced search and many other tricks.
Switching between modules is instant. Switching back and forth between raw development and the image editor is much faster than between Lightroom and Photoshop. Also, On1 has obviously put a lot of effort into developing its raw development software, so it doesn’t use the generic algorithms used by some of Adobe’s other competitors. I liked the ON1’s unadjusted results for my camera’s raw files much better than Adobe’s, which I found too sharp and lacking.
The most important change brought by the latest update to ON1 Photo Raw 2022.5 is includes Resize AI inside it. The AI version of Resize uses information trained by millions of photos, so the resizing process adds information to the photo instead of just augmenting the existing data of the photo. It uses real-world texture examples to decide how the image should look. Resizing can be batch-processed for an entire folder of images, and the Resize module also enables bulk printing.
I used ON1’s AI Resize to increase the size of the small images to more than double their original ratio. The detail in the enlarged image is extremely good. I found that with my super sharp OM-1 shots, I had to increase the fineness slider to avoid unwanted artifacts.
Another new feature is the increased number of lenses added to the lens correction feature. As one OM System (Olympus) Great quality professional lens user, lens configuration is not a big deal for me. However, if you have lenses that offer aperture, footpad, vignetting, and chromatic aberrations, this is where software comes into play. It also includes profiles for popular third-party lenses like Tamron and Sigma. Even without profiles built into the software, such as with compact fixed-lens cameras, ON1 Photo Raw estimates exactly what needs to be edited. You can easily make other manual adjustments as needed, such as for photos taken with old film SLR lenses.
Another improvement is with the masking feature in Sky Swap. Advanced masking is an area where ON1 is miles ahead of Adobe. Even the latest introduction to the sky masking feature in Lightroom leaves a lot to be desired, with the boundary between the sky and foreground subject ending in noticeable lines around them. ON1 allows smooth transitions and gaps between branches and leaves are precisely covered.
If you’ve read my reviews before, you know I’m a fan of the ON1 NoNoise AI. It’s a function I rarely need with my latest camera, even though I have some old photos that I still use. It works at a deep de-mosaic level in the roughing and does a great job. But it also works on RGB images, such as JPEGS, PNG, TIF, etc. With that second group, there have been significant improvements in the latest release. It does an amazing job of cleaning out the noise and retaining the fine details in the image.
The individual components on the ON1 act as plug-ins for other applications. If you want to open them from Lightroom, Affinity, etc., the plugins need to be purchased separately or added to the subscription. Likewise, it is possible to send images from the On1 into external applications, the same way one would open another application from Adobe’s software. I like the black and white results I got from Silver Efex Pro, so being able to open it directly from ON1 was essential to me.
The user interface is also taken care of. Some other programs, such as Affinity, copy the look and feel of Photoshop. Many of the same raw developers as Lightroom. But ON1’s user interface is quite different from Adobe’s. There are enough similarities in how it works that it’s easy to change from using one program to another. However, like any new program, some things take a bit of learning.
Since it combines the browser with a catalog, importing photos into the program is not as necessary as you would with Lightroom. However, there is an advanced import method to import images from a memory card. That’s accessible via the file menu; no large input buttons use valuable UI space. A small export button is located at the bottom right of the screen.
ON1 Photo Raw costs less than the Adobe Photographer Bundle. What’s more, you can buy it right away and don’t have to commit to a monthly fee. I still know photographers who don’t know the idea of renting software. Buying it outright costs $99.99, though this drops to $79.99 for the upgrade.
Many photographers are tightening their belts as disposable income is increasingly scarce. As a result, switching to ON1 may be appealing to many people who need to consider their budget. There are a variety of subscription models. $89.99 annually gets you ON1 Photo Raw, plus all plugins and cloud sync with mobile app. Compare that to the Adobe Photography Plan, which costs $119.88 per year and gives you only 20GB.
With 1 TB of cloud storage, ON1 Photo Raw is $179 per year, $60 less than the equivalent Adobe plan. This latest upgrade is free for those who already own ON1 Photo Raw 2022.
What I do and don’t like about ON1 Photo Raw
Photoshop is a clunky program with lots of features that we never use because it’s aimed at digital artists and other creatives who don’t work with photos. ON1, however, is made by photographers and is aimed solely at photographers. What I really like about it is its usability. It is aimed at all levels of photographers. An absolute beginner served by one-click presets. Meanwhile, advanced layer adjustments and creative tools are suitable for editing professionals. Furthermore, ON1 creates a series of video tutorials explaining how to use its wide range of tools.
Unlike Lightroom, the browse module allows me to access folders and files that are not imported into the catalog. Switching between different modules is very fast. I really like the results I get from editing the raw files. Most of my images don’t go any further than just being refined in their raw form. If I need a mask, the ON1s tools are much more advanced and precise than any other I’ve used.
If I do any editing, the layered editing tools are very intuitive and wide-ranging. ON1 has some adjustments that will take a while with multiple layers to reproduce in Photoshop. I’m still particularly interested in Dynamic Contrast and Tone Enhancer to make images stand out. They work much better than Adobe Raw’s clarity and detail sliders. What’s more, the noise reduction far exceeds Adobe’s muddy results.
It’s great that you can import category settings from Lightroom and Grow Module adjustments. Once applied, they’ll give you an approximation of the adjustments you’ve made. However, the import process will take a long time, especially if you also switch the adjustment settings. You may need several hours to do this, depending on the size of the catalog and the speed of your computer.
I had some performance issues in the past, but these have been resolved in the 2021 release. ON1 Photo Raw 2022.5 works smoothly and quickly on my 8 year old computer.
May I recommend it? Sure. The site has a 14-day free trial and worth a try.
