Countdown to ON1 Photo RAW 2027 Photo Contest Winners

We asked photographers to send us the single best image they edited this year, and the response made judging the Countdown to ON1 Photo RAW 2027 Photo Contest a real challenge. Your entries took us from the canyons of Arizona to a railway station in Budapest to the coast of Quebec. Today we’re proud to announce the winners.

Every entry was judged on creativity, composition, technical execution, editing skill, and overall visual impact. The five images below rose to the top because each photographer decided what their photo needed to say and then used ON1 to carry that idea through every adjustment. Thank you to everyone who shared their work with us, and you can browse every entry in the contest gallery.

Grand Prize Winner: “Sunset at the Bend” by Ricardo Cabo

Horseshoe Bend, near Page, Arizona, is one of the most photographed places in the American Southwest, which makes it hard to show viewers something new. Ricardo did it by giving the scene a human scale. A lone photographer stands on the edge of the rock as sunlight breaks through the clouds, and that small figure makes the canyon and the curve of the Colorado River feel enormous.

What sealed the Grand Prize was the light. A sunset this bright usually forces a choice between a blown-out sky and a black canyon, but Ricardo held detail from the brightest clouds down into the shadowed canyon walls. The finished image keeps the drama of the moment while showing the full range of light he saw from the rim.

How Ricardo Edited It

Ricardo merged three bracketed exposures at −2, 0, and +2 EV into an HDR image in ON1 Photo RAW 2026, then added the figure from a fourth frame he shot at the same spot a few minutes earlier. He built separate selective masks for the sky, the foreground rocks, the central formation, the canyon walls, and the river so he could fine-tune each area on its own. Two Dynamic Contrast adjustments finished the image, one to bring out texture in the central rock and another to add depth across the whole frame.

• Camera: Sony A7R III with a Samyang 12mm lens
• Settings: f/8, 1/80 sec, ISO 4000 (ISO varied across the bracketed frames)

Ricardo’s Prize

• 1 Year of ON1 Photo Studio
• ON1 Photo RAW MAX 2027
• Feature on ON1’s official blog and social media channels
• Official title: Countdown to ON1 Photo RAW 2027 Photo Contest Grand Prize Winner

See Ricardo’s full entry in the contest gallery.

Second Place: “Invisible” by György Sziklai

“Invisible” is a quiet photograph about being overlooked, and every choice György made supports that idea. A man sits hunched in a sharp triangle of light in the underpass of Budapest’s Keleti railway station, unseen by the crowd passing through. György kept the frame minimal, so the hard diagonal of light and the dark space around the man tell the story.

We chose it because the editing never draws attention to itself. The black and white conversion, the deep shadows, and the soft glow all lead the viewer toward the same feeling of isolation. It’s the kind of image that stays with you after you’ve scrolled past it.

How György Edited It

György started with a deliberately underexposed RAW file to keep shadow detail and strong contrast. In ON1 Photo RAW 2026 he converted the image to black and white, then added atmosphere and depth with Dynamic Contrast, Glow, and Vignette. He used Quick Mask AI and local adjustments to isolate the silhouette and refine the tones around it.

• Camera: Nikon Z6II with a Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S lens at 120mm
• Settings: f/4, 1/2500 sec, ISO 100

György’s Prize

• ON1 Photo RAW MAX 2027
• 1 Year of ON1 Plus
• Feature on ON1’s official blog and social media channels

See György’s full entry in the contest gallery, and follow his work on Instagram at @gyorgy.sziklai.

Third Place: “Where Architecture Meets Nature” by Ralph M.

Ralph described Fallingwater as “a very often photographed scene,” which raises the bar for anyone who points a camera at it. When he first opened his RAW file, it looked flat, and his challenge was to bring the light back without making the scene look processed.

Ralph’s edit lets the house, the water, and the forest keep their natural character while a soft glow ties the architecture and the landscape together. The image lives up to its title, and it shows how much a careful, restrained edit can recover from a file that looked flat straight out of the camera.

How Ralph Edited It

Working entirely in ON1 Photo RAW MAX 2026, Ralph straightened the crop and lowered the exposure, then painted light back into the scene with a local adjustment brush. He lifted the shadows slightly and added light sharpening and a vignette. He finished the look with Deep Forest Glow at 20% opacity.

Ralph’s Prize

• ON1 Photo RAW 2027
• Feature on ON1’s official blog and social media channels

See Ralph’s full entry in the contest gallery.

Honorable Mentions

These two images stood out to our team for their timing and creative problem-solving. Each earns a feature on the ON1 blog and a community spotlight on ON1 social media.

“Squacco Heron and Its Prize” by Chris K.

Chris caught the exact moment a squacco heron flipped a frog through the air near Sparta, Greece, using the pre-capture mode on his OM-1 Mark II. A moment this fast is almost impossible to time by hand, and his edit keeps the viewer’s attention on the bird. In ON1 he applied noise reduction, a slight crop, and local masks, then used Effects to add glow, Dynamic Contrast on the heron, and a vignette to soften the background a little more.

• Camera: OM System OM-1 Mark II with an M.Zuiko 150-400mm f/4.5 lens at 356mm
• Settings: f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO 800

See Chris’s full entry in the contest gallery.

“The Moon over Forillon Park” by Stéphane Deschamps

Stéphane spotted a glowing half moon over Forillon National Park just before going to bed and knew it needed to be photographed. No single exposure could hold both the bright moon and the dark water, but was able to expose it properly by blending two frames in ON1, one exposed for the moon and one for the water. The canvas was then extended to recenter the composition and added a black border, a simple framing choice that gives the image the feel of a finished print.

• Camera: Panasonic DC-G9 at 100mm
• Settings: f/4.5, 3/5 sec, ISO 3200

See Stéphane’s full entry in the contest gallery.

Edit Your Next Great Photo in ON1 Photo RAW 2027

These photographers used ON1 to hold a sunset’s full range of light, isolate a lone figure in a dark underpass, and bring a flat RAW file back to life. You’ll find the same tools in ON1 Photo RAW 2027, including HDR merging, AI masking, Dynamic Contrast, Glow, and local adjustments. It’s available now as a one-time purchase with no subscription, so the software you edit with is yours to keep.

Get ON1 Photo RAW →

If you’d like to try it first, the free 30-day trial lets you edit your own photos with it before you buy.

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Congratulations to Our Winners

Congratulations to Ricardo, György, Ralph, Chris, and Stéphane, and thank you to every photographer who shared their best edit of the year with us. You can see every entry in the full contest gallery.