Photography: ON1 Photo RAW 2020


ON1 Software’s non-destructive raw photo converter/editor, Photo RAW 2020, is now in public beta with the official release scheduled for next month. I have been using this software for several versions now, and the latest release has some impressive features.

Here are the most useful changes I have found:

First, the presets in the Browser are either brand new or remodeled previous offerings. After selecting a preset, there’s a slider for controlling the intensity without having to open the Effects module. The black and white film presets appear to have been reworked and much better than those in RAW 2019.

Second, the Develop module in much improved. The Auto button does a better job of balancing the contrast in a troublesome image without blowing the highlights. There’s an AI Match option that shows you to change to the look of the image you saw in the camera EVF when you took the picture. After choosing either Auto or AI Match, a master-control slider changes the intensity without having to spending a lot of time adjusting, blacks, whites, highlights, shadows, midtones, etc. This is a real time-saver.

Here's an older Olympus ORF raw file I reworked in ON1 Photo RAW 2020 Beta. The major settings were the Auto button in the Develop module and a Landscape preset in Browse. About 60 seconds. The border was then added in Effects and the watermark was added when the image was exported to a JPB
Third, the Noise Reduction section does a much better job of reducing luminance noise without losing all of the detail.

ON1 Photo RAW 2020 appears to be the version which could win over more photographers who have a love-hate relationship with Adobe Lightroom.

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