Like I mentioned in the previous video, ON1 could well be a choice for photographers, but, there are issues that one should be aware of before shifting to ON1. I will cover some of the better features in the next video.
I use both Luminar 4 and ON1 2020.1 along with Lightroom Classic 9.2.1 for now. I still import and cull in Lightroom since that is a lot simpler and faster there. Both Luminar and ON1 use the same top-level folder and automatically update the same.
So far, I have no issues using this setup. Might also add Capture One if it comes up with a reasonable deal like with Luminar and ON1.
I have been working with and using ON1 for the last few weeks and so far, I have found the following issues…
Import Options for folder creation. When importing, the filenames for continuous shots are named as “copy xx”, so, don’t go deleting those.
Preferences icon could be replaced by import. I cannot actually visualise a daily use for preferences over importing from the camera.
The Catalog does not show counts for images in a folder which can be an issue at times. I use my rule of 100 per session as mentioned in an earlier video.
Metadata is not really organised in a usable fashion. For example, I add a “Title” and a “Description” to my photos in Lightroom, but, you have to find the 2 fields here. Perhaps the “None” option could be replaced by better “Defaults”.
The exported EXIF also seems to be lacking some basic information which is picked up by sites like Flickr etc. Yes, I always share the EXIF.
Camera profiles…You do not have all the camera profiles. I use a flat profile which is absent in ON1 for my Nikon D850. Colour is also different from the actual camera if you look at the same image in Nikon’s own Capture NX-D app.
Canvas and Crop. The crop size is not visible anywhere!!! I was totally shocked at the issues with the crop tool. Such a basic, fundamental feature, does not work as one would expect.
There is no lock for the aspect ratio. Similar to photo size in export.
Freeform is not freeform anymore when it comes to swapping to edges…By design according to ON1 support. I have a response from the ON1 support that this is a “cosmetic” bug and no comment on when it might be fixed.
Basic settings and Noise reduction work very differently from Lightroom as also most of the similar controls.
Text Watermarking…Work-around using the text tool, but, tedious to do.
Consistency in behaviour is missing across functions. For example, the Option key does not work in all the places it should for a greyscale view. If you select all images in the browse mode, you have to deselect all as well to remove the selection or select a different folder. Clicking on the “GPS” takes you to your browser in Google Maps. If you quit the app, the state of the app is not saved. Although we do have a reset and reset all option, it does not reset any transformation that might have been applied. When using a local adjustment, no effect is applied to the image by default, but, if using filters (in effects) or layers, the effect is applied to the whole image by default. The down arrow on the Export does not even display on my MacBook Pro, although, I know from the ON1 manual that there are a couple of options on the dropdown. The same applies to cursors. For example, the colour picker…Has a Plus sign instead…
The UI/UX leaves some to be desired.
Using layers will create a new ONPhoto file which can be equivalent to a similar file created in Photoshop, so, this is not a non-destructive process and takes up additional space.
The ON1 sidecar files are generally 5-10 times the size of the Lightroom XMP files. Not a major issue, but good to know since the XMP files are around 10k, the ON1 files are around 100k.
Keyboard shortcuts are a cross between Lightroom and Photoshop.
There are some bugs which would not really matter in normal working, but, in case I come across some more serious ones, I will share those so those can be avoided.
#Photography #Lightroom #Wildlife #ON1
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