July 23, 2020 | 12603 Views | By Dan Harlacher

PlugIn to a Bigger World

When most people think of ON1 today, they think of ON1 Photo RAW, our flagship all-in-one workflow app. It combines digital asset management, raw processing, and powerful effects into a convenient, non-destructive layered workflow. As proud of it as we are, we realize that we are part of a broader workflow community. I’ve talked to thousands of photographers over the years, and all of them have a slightly different way of getting their work done. Like there are hundreds of recipes for chocolate chip cookies, there are endless ways to manage and edit your photos.

We recognize that many photographers love Adobe’s products and plan to continue to use them for many years. And that’s fine. Adobe makes lovely products that have empowered creative people of all endeavors for decades. That’s why even today, you can use ON1 Photo RAW as a plug-in to Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom Classic, and Apple Photos. If you look back at the history of ON1, we started by creating plug-ins for the Adobe products long before we created ON1 Photo RAW.

ON1 Plug-In Special – Save over 50% on Effects, Resize & HDR

When we work as a plug-in, our goal is to expose what is unique about ON1 that extends the functionality of the host application. Effects is the perfect example of this. Apps like Adobe Lightroom Classic or Apple Photos cover basic raw processing tasks but fall short for full-featured stylizing. Effects gives you a full stable of flexible filters that go well beyond what you can do in a traditional raw processor. You can stack and mask filters like glows, textures, borders, HDR look, to name a few of the over 20 filters. Even in a robust application like Photoshop, it would take many manual steps to accomplish what a single filter in Effects can. And Effects is just one example. There’s also Portrait for automatic face retouching, Resize for unparalleled interpolation quality and HDR for the fastest, most natural high-dynamic-range photos.

One of the big reasons users move to ON1 Photo RAW is to maintain an end-to-end non-destructive workflow. That means your original photo is left untouched, and you can always edit any step along the way without having to start over on your work. Think of it as non-linear video editing. Unfortunately, that is one thing you may lose when working as a plug-in. Adobe Lightroom Classic doesn’t offer us a way to work non-destructively with it. On the other hand, with Adobe Photoshop (using smart filters) and Apple Photos, you can work non-destructively. That means you can re-edit our settings when used as a plug-in, which is mighty powerful.

Looking to the future, we will continue to support plug-ins. We will take our unique and powerful technologies and extend other applications where we can. We have some pretty cool stuff we are working on today that I know will soon make great plug-ins. If you decide to simplify your workflow into a single app, you don’t have to give up what you have created in other applications. ON1 Photo RAW understands the file formats that photographers use. It can also read the metadata you add, such as keywords, descriptions, and ratings. If you are moving from Adobe Lightroom Classic, we can migrate your collections and even your non-destructive edits, so you can pick-up right where you left off.


18 comments on “PlugIn to a Bigger World”

  1. On July 26, 2020 at 9:38 am Domingos Rodrigues wrote:

    Domingos Rodrigues

    I absolutely agree with what is said in this article.
    As a Photoshop and, Lightroom long time user, I have also been a long time user of On1 software, at least since PhotoTools 2.5, if my mind is working as it should.
    So, I can say that ON1 has been growing very well.
    One thing that I don’t like is those huge icons left in my folders of photos that I adjust with ON1 PhotoRAW. They are big and take lots of space in those folders.
    What I would like to see if, at all possíble, would be those icons gone or make them smaller.
    Thank you for letting me write my opinion.

    Domingos Rodrigues.

    1. On August 17, 2020 at 11:21 am Petr Krenzelok replied:

      Petr Krenzelok

      One of the competing products puts the metadata files into a subfolder. That way, your image space stays quite clean when viewed by an OS tools. I would too prefer such a change.

      1. On August 17, 2020 at 12:39 pm James Gerboc replied:

        James Gerboc

        I agree. When this came to light for me was when I decided to quickly edit a few images after copying them to my desktop. What a mess. And I had renamed the exports so matching everything back up to move them was less than fun.

    2. On August 18, 2020 at 12:23 pm Rich Reininger replied:

      Rich Reininger

      I agree with this idea that the icons are big. Plus (on my Mac OS) I don’t get a preview. Maybe in the future you would consider a preview icon with the ON1 logo in a corner.

  2. On July 27, 2020 at 7:41 pm Alan Smallbone wrote:

    Alan Smallbone

    The plugin concept is great but also realize there is more in the world than Adobe. Why not install for Serif Affinity Photo which is a very capable editor and can use most Adobe plugins, now even Dxo and NIK support Affinity Photo directly and install for that as well as Adobe products. Please do not be narrow visioned. Expand the utility of the plugins and install for other programs.

    1. On July 28, 2020 at 8:29 am Craig Keudell replied:

      Craig Keudell

      What a great idea Alan! 🙂 I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

      1. On August 17, 2020 at 11:46 am Gerry Fraiberg replied:

        Gerry Fraiberg

        I love surprises 🙂
        And ON1
        And Affinity Photo

    2. On August 17, 2020 at 12:00 pm David Brookens replied:

      David Brookens

      I would echo all those comments asking for a link up with Affinity Photo. I much prefer it to Photoshop andON1 as an Affinity plugin would be a huge leap forward.

    3. On August 17, 2020 at 12:40 pm James Gerboc replied:

      James Gerboc

      I like Affinity option too. I would also like to see Luminar as a plug-in for ON1.

  3. On August 3, 2020 at 8:18 pm Fraser John Thomson wrote:

    Fraser John Thomson

    I will back Alan Smallbone’s Idea Affinity is a great product and works well with other software.

  4. On August 17, 2020 at 3:28 pm David May wrote:

    David May

    I think if you were smart you would offer the ability for users to export to all the social media platforms. I know it is a solution I am looking for.

  5. On August 17, 2020 at 6:41 pm Levin Barrett wrote:

    Levin Barrett

    A technical question if I may, I currently have the full ON1 Photo Raw 2020. Do I need to purchase the individual plugins to make Lightroom/Photoshop interact with On1 OR does the existing ON1 Photo Raw 2020 plug present in Lightroom cover everything?

    1. On August 20, 2020 at 9:51 am Patrick Smith replied:

      Patrick Smith

      ON1 Photo RAW 2020 plug-ins are included. So no need to purchase the individual plugins.

  6. On August 18, 2020 at 2:00 am Ton Heerooms wrote:

    Ton Heerooms

    My age is 79, I have worked with Apple’s Capture, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC and of course Photoshop.

    I think working with Photoshop should be used daily at that age, you quickly forget !!

    I looked at Luminar and ON1 and I chose ON1 (management), I did not regret it for a moment, I am wonderfully working with it. Which I also think is a big plus, are the many good quality tutor videos. Perfect.

    My thanks go to software people at On1, thank you again.

  7. On August 18, 2020 at 3:25 am john shaw wrote:

    john shaw

    I have used PS and Elements for many years now a On1Raw user. As a pro phorographer I want to have a ‘Go To’ tool for all editing jobs and I find most of tools are found in On1Raw but there a couple of fundemantal tools sadly lacking ;
    The Polygon Selection Tool – used my most photographer which for editing images
    Also a couple of filters need tweaking eg The sunshine filter needs to be scalable its no good in its present format !
    I really hope On1Raw develops these tools and you may only need On1Raw for most jobs – On1Raw are nearly there with a couple of additional tools..

  8. On August 18, 2020 at 5:24 am Toine van Steen wrote:

    Toine van Steen

    Hello photography friends.
    I have used PS and LR for my editing for a long time.
    For several years I have used ON1 as a plugin.
    But along the way I found myself doing more and more in ON1 and much less in PS and LR. ON1 became increasingly important. Then I decided to focus on ON1 and dive deeper into this program. I came to the conclusion that I actually no longer needed PS and LR. Now I work completely with ON1 and with great pleasure. The longer I work with it, I also discover more and more of the power of this program. From now on, ON1 is my main program for editing my photos. And I don’t regret for a second that I switched. My thanks go to the team that developed this program and to the people who help us learn to work better with the program through the learning videos on their site. Kudos to ON1 Photo Raw.

  9. On August 18, 2020 at 10:36 am Andreas Brunn wrote:

    Andreas Brunn

    One more vote for ON1 as a plugin to Affinity Photo!
    DxO/Nik Collection and Skylum Luminar can be used in Affinity as plugin without any problem. Why not also ON1?

  10. On August 23, 2020 at 6:12 pm George Wells wrote:

    George Wells

    Love the products. But would be great to be able to use other products from Blake Rudis etc.
    Just a thought

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