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Collage of six winning entries from ON1's America's 250th Anniversary Photo Contest: Mount Rushmore lit at night, a grizzly bear catching a leaping salmon in Alaska, two people watching a Pikes Peak sunrise with an American flag, two barred owlets on a branch, American flags at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the orange hoodoos of Bryce Canyon.

America’s 250th Anniversary Photo Contest: Meet the Winners

When we launched the America’s 250th Anniversary Photo Contest, we asked you to help us build a living time capsule of what America looks like at 250, from iconic landmarks to the quiet corners of your hometown. Photographers from coast to coast sent in shots from dozens of states. We judged every entry on creativity, composition, technical execution, editing skill, overall visual impact, and sense of place: how well the image captures the spirit of the state it calls home.

August 10, 2026 • 162 Views

Mosaic of pop-art false-color Marfa, Texas photos behind the Just Try It blog title

Just Try It (or how I learned to let go of expectations and just try new ideas.)

Most people think of photography as an art form. But because it’s an applied visual art, we put expectations on ourselves that other art forms don’t carry. People ask what kind of photographer you are, and you feel pressure to pick a lane. You say “I’m a landscape photographer” or “I’m a portrait photographer,” and instantly you’ve built a wall around what your work is supposed to look like. Even if you shoot several subjects, each one carries a hundred years of visual vocabulary we’ve all absorbed without realizing it.

August 7, 2026 • 197 Views • Posted by Dan Harlacher

Hero blog image showing the logos for both ON1 and Topazlabs

ON1 vs Topaz: Which AI Photo Editing Tools Are Right for You in 2026?

ON1 Photo RAW and Topaz Labs solve different problems. ON1 is a full RAW editor, with organizing, masking, layers, and effects built into one app you buy once. Topaz sells separate, narrower AI tools, like Photo AI and Gigapixel AI, each built for one job: noise reduction, sharpening, or upscaling. For a single program that edits a photo start to finish, ON1 is the better fit. For best-in-class upscaling or noise removal layered on top of an editor you already use, Topaz’s specialized tools still lead there.

August 5, 2026 • 537 Views

ON1 Photo RAW July 2026 Recap collage featuring Sky Swap AI, NoNoise AI, and more editing tutorials.

July 2026 ON1 Recap: Sky Swap AI, Photo RAW 2026.5 & More

A flat, gray sky or a grainy high-ISO shot can undo a photo you were otherwise happy with, and July gave you two new fixes for exactly that: a Sky Swap AI tutorial for washed-out skies and a NoNoise AI edit for noisy wildlife shots. ON1 Photo RAW 2026.5 also shipped as a free update, a fresh set of Perfect Look LUTs landed in the Creative Library, and the blog covered everything from a $500 home studio build to July’s photo contest news. Here’s everything new from ON1 this July.

August 4, 2026 • 4035 Views • Posted by Kahlie

July 2026 ON1 Plus Recap collage featuring Histogram & Tone, Sync Settings, and Creative Library LUTs tutorials

July 2026 ON1 Plus Recap: New Workshop, Patagonia Edit & More

July was one of the biggest months yet inside ON1 Plus, the number one resource for ON1 Photo RAW training and photography education. The headline release is Build a Faster, Bolder Editing Workflow, a six-lesson workshop recorded live during ON1 Plus Day that walks through a faster editing process, professional color grading, custom effects stacks, and precision AI masking, then ties it all together in one full start-to-finish edit.

August 4, 2026 • 2326 Views • Posted by Kahlie

Meet the Experts

Dan Harlacher

Dan has been shaping ON1's software from the ground up for nearly 20 years, and chances are, if there's a feature you love in ON1 Photo RAW, he had a hand in it.

Learn more about Dan

Dylan Kotecki

With nearly 10 years of experience behind the camera and in front of it as an instructor, Dylan brings a uniquely engaging style to ON1's educational content.

Learn more about Dylan