17 Nov 2019

On1 Photo Raw Adds Impressive Features for 2020 But Problems Remain

The first edition of On1 Photo Raw's 2019 release had some significant performance issues that were largely resolved in an update. Now the 2020 version has been released. I've been working with a beta version since early October and it's more of a contender than last year but it still has some performance problems.

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Perhaps you've wondered why I don't just schedule a gigantic review, examine all of the photo applications, and pronounce one "the best". That's just not possible. The person who would consider Photoshop Elements to be "the best" is a substantially different user than one who would consider On1 Photo Raw or Movavi Photo Editor to be "the best". Instead, I've tried to examine each of the various photo applications to determine how well they perform the tasks they present as their primary advantages.

On1 Photo Raw is a raw processor (obviously) and a photo manager with non-destructive editing and layers to selectively apply modifications. The 2020 version offers nearly 20 new features that On1 boasts about. Some of them are silly but others are quite useful.

One that I consider a bit silly is the Artificial Intelligence Match that On1 describes this way: Match how your raw photos look to what you saw on the back of the camera. This seems to be a feature intended to please someone who heard that all photos should be shot in raw instead of JPEG, didn't bother to learn the differences between raw and JPEG, took a bunch of raw photos, and is now distressed that they appear dull and lifeless compared to what they saw on the back of their camera.

Well, yes they do. That's because the image on the back of the camera is a processed JPEG file and the raw image is, well, a raw image. Think of it this way: A JPEG image is like going to a Mexican restaurant and ordering a quesadilla. You get what you get. If the restaurant is good, the quesadilla will be delicious, but it might not be exactly what you would make at home. A raw image is like the ingredients for a quesadilla you make at home with the exact spices that you prefer. You have to decide how to combine the ingredients and add spices to get what you want.

Raw images have all of the information the camera's sensor could provide but nothing has been emphasized. No spices have been added. The AI Match is simply an attempt to make the first image the user sees one that's more like the processed image that was displayed on the camera. The user still has the ability to make any changes.

Artificial Intelligence Auto Tone is similar to AI Match and corresponds with Lightroom's Auto setting. The new On1 algorithm does a better job than it did a year ago. On1 says that by analyzing thousands of photos, the algorithm has learned how to do a better job, especially on tough images.

The application is supposed to detect the camera and lens in use and automatically apply lens corrections. This doesn't always work. When I don't want to take the digital SLR along, I usually take a Sony RX100 Mark VI. It's a small camera that still has many of the settings found on larger cameras.

But when I load images in On1 Photo Raw, the application indicates that lens corrections have been made (left), but no corrections have been made. The process detects the manufacturer, but not the lens "Lens: No match" even though the built-in lens on the camera is shown in the drop-down list. Particularly when operating at its widest focal length the camera has a substantial amount of distortion and vignetting at the edges. After I manually select the lens from Photo Raw's list (right), the image is corrected. Users shouldn't need to do this.

Custom camera profiles are likely to be popular with pros and advanced amateurs. Every camera is unique, and I don't mean just different makes of cameras or even different models from the same manufacturer. Every camera-lens combination is slightly different and On1 Photo Raw 2020's custom profiles go a long way toward taming these differences. Using the feature requires buying an X-Rite Color Checker for $100 or more, but using the X-Rite system to create a custom profile and then using that profile inside Photo Raw ensures consistent color results.

So those are looks at both ends of the spectrum -- one feature for those who don't want to spend the time learning how to work with raw images and another for experts who want to ensure correct colors in their photos. There are lots of features between those two extremes.

What's Inside

One amusing new feature allows users to change the weather with a variety of rain, snow, and fog overlays. Don't try to turn a bright, sunny day into a snowy day, though. That just won't make sense because you'll have a blizzard in the foreground and no snow accumulation on the ground. The feature can be used well and convincingly to emphasize the weather.

Several years ago, when my younger daughter was considering college in New York City, we visited some of the schools she was looking at in January. There was a lot of snow, so much that schools closed early. At Rockefeller Center there was snow on the ground, but none in the air even though it had been snowing heavily on Fifth Avenue just minutes before we walked back to the skating rink. The photo I captured was nice enough (left) but I thought some foreground snow would replicate the feeling we had when we were there (right). Should we consider this lying? I don't think so. After all, it had been snowing heavily and I have some pictures of my wife and daughter with lots of snow in the foreground.

High-dynamic-range (HDR) processing isn't new in this version, but it's faster than it was in the 2019 version. The process works the same as before: Select the images you plan to merge. This will usually be three or five images with varying exposures. It's best to use a tripod for the series, but Photo Raw can align images that have been taken carefully with a hand-held camera.

The HDR process examines the photos and merges them in a way that attempts to maintain good exposure in the resulting image.

When the HDR image has been created, a process that took less than 30 seconds in this case, the user then has the opportunity to make additional tweaks or add layered effects on top of the composite image.

Coming Soon

On1 is also working on a bunch of other applications that will be released over the next few months.

• On1 Photo Mobile 2020 for IOS and Android: This is the first step to place On1 in direct competition with Adobe Lightroom by allowing users to capture raw images on smartphones.
• On1 Sync: This is the second part of On1's competition with Adobe. It will be an extra-cost add on that will allow users to store photos in the cloud and synchronize them across devices.
• On1 Video 2020: Video editing is something that On1 hasn't offered previously. A public beta of the application is expected by the end of the year. On1 positions it as an application that doesn't require the the user to master the complexities of video editing.
• On1 Plus and On1 Plus Pro: These annual subscription services provide educational videos, free ebooks and presets, and more. Subscribers to the Pro version also receive automatic updates to the applications.

On1 Photo Raw 2020 is priced at $80 for those who are upgrading from a previous version of $100 for new users. For a "limited time" (On1 doesn't say how long), the application is bundled with 100 presets. A single On1 Photo Raw license works with both MacOS and Windows and can be activated on up to five computers. A free 30-day trial is available.

New features and planned enhancements really make me want to love On1 Photo Raw, but .....

Perfection Eluded

No matter how good a program is, there's always something to complain about. One problem that seems to vex some users is slow operation. The first release of the 2019 version was unusably slow for some, but the mid-year update helped. The 2020 version seems more responsive but there are still some problems.

I have a lot of photos on the computer and that's probably the case with most people who will consider On1 Photo Raw. For me, "a lot of photos" equates to something more than 100,000. Photo Raw creates a cache of all those images and, by default, it's placed on the C drive in the AppData folder and that turned out to be a problem for me. The computer's boot drive (a solid-state device) is small -- just 500 GB -- and the cache files consumed more than 150 GB, about one third of the disk's space.

This created two problems: First, it consumed a lot of space on the small boot drive and second, it extended the amount of time needed to back up the boot drive and exceeded the amount of space I had on the backup device. During the installation process, the application should notify users that it plans to place a large cache file on the boot drive. Had that been done, I would have specified an alternate location. The application's default choices simply are not acceptable.

It's easy enough to move the cache to another location. I wanted the 169 GB of cache files to be stored on the F drive. That's easy enough to accomplish in the Settings dialog, but the process took 4 hours and 40 minutes. I hope that the developers add alerts to the application's installation process and also add notifications when the user selects folders to watch.

The cache files compare unfavorably to Lightroom's catalog. The 105,683 photo files on the D drive consume 666 GB. Lightroom's catalogs add 80,392 files to the F drive and consume just under 82 GB of disk space. Compare that to One1 Photo Raw's 1,030,700 files that consume 169 GB of disk space. I've also found that simply starting On1 Photo Raw 2020 causes an extended period of high disk access -- approximately 10 minutes during which system performance is degraded. This is followed by another hour's worth of disk access that affects performance minimally, but it happens every time I open the application.

Some performance problems still exist, too. When I attempted to export an image as a full size JPEG, On1 Photo Raw swamped both the computer's CPU and RAM. After more than 15 minutes, I killed the On1 Photo Raw application and rebooted the computer. After making sure that other applications that might consume significant amounts of CPU or memory resources were disabled, I tried again. The result was the same.

Another option called Quick Export seems actually to export images quickly. There are no options to resize the image, but at least the process runs to completion in about 30 seconds.

It may be worth noting here that the computer I use has an Intel Xeon 2.8GHz 8-core system with 64GB of RAM. On1 recommends an Intel Core i5, Xeon, or better with 8GB of RAM. Clearly the system it's running on far exceeds the recommendations. Because not all users experience these performance problems, it's likely that the root cause has several components: On1 Photo Raw 2020, hardware, protective applications, and possibly other running applications and background processes. Despite the application's feature set, I can't give it my highest recommendation.

 On1 makes an ambitious effort Photo Raw 2020, but doesn't always succeed

There are so many excellent features here but as much as I'd like to say this is a 5-cat program, for many people it won't be. Some users have reported no performance problems but others find the application to be nearly unusable. If you're a new user, take advantage of the free trial program to confirm that it will run well on your hardware. If the 2019 version runs well on your system, the 2020 version should, too. There's a great deal to like here, but only if it runs well.
Additional details are available on the On1 website.

Short Circuits

Reducing a Silly Annoyance

Microsoft makes it possible for Windows users to create a slide show that runs on the desktop, silently changing images ever minute, every 10 or 30 minutes, every 1 or 6 hours, or once a day. If you like this feature but find that Windows periodically reverts to just a single image, there's a way to fix it permanently.

Although I like the slide show, I don't pay much attention to it because both screens are normally filled with applications. The directory that contains the images for the slide show has more than 240 pictures and I have it set to change every 10 minutes. Because I don't watch the desktop images carefully I didn't notice when the slide show stopped. Invariably I did stop, though, and each screen would have a single static image. Then I needed to revisit Settings to change the background type from picture to slide show, navigate to the directory with the slide show images, and fix several other settings. Eventually this minor annoyance elevated itself to "OK, I need to fix this!" status.

Research suggested that the problem occurred when the Windows theme was synchronized with other computers. I turned theme syncing off and went back to work, confident that the minor annoyance was gone. But it wasn't. When I realized that the background images were static again, I went back to Settings and changed the background type from picture to slide show, navigated to the directory with the slide show images, and fixed several other settings. Several iterations later this still minor annoyance had elevated itself to "OK, now I really need to fix this!" status.

That called for more research. Along the way I found that this is an annoyance for a lot of people and fixing it is relatively simple unless your computer is running Windows 10 Home. You need the Group Policy Editor and it's not included with the Home version of Windows. If you have the Home version of Windows 10 and you want to fix the annoyance, TechSpot describes how to install the Group Policy Editor or how to install a free, open-source application that does what the Group Policy Editor does.

To fix the annoyance permanently, start by updating the settings so that they're the way you want them to be. Then open the Group Policy Editor by pressing the Windows key, typing gpedit and selecting Edit group policy.

Expand (1) Administrative templates by clicking the disclosure mark. Expand (2) Control Panel and then select Personalization in the left panel. Right-click (3) Prevent changing lock screen and logon image and selet Edit from the context menu. Mark the policy (4) Enabled and then click (5) OK. Close the Group Policy Editor and the problem will now be gone.

At least until Microsoft does something to make it return. Note, though, that Windows 10 still occasionally switches back to individual image mode, but now it happens a lot less frequently.

Microsoft Edge (Chromium) Continues to Develop

You already know that Microsoft is dropping its proprietary display engine in the Edge browser and switching to Chromium. It's not yet fully baked and anyone who wants to have a say about how the new browser will work can do so by installing the version that's still being developed.

You have three choices: Beta, Dev, and Canary. The beta channel has the most stable version and is updated at six-month intervals but it hadn't been available until recently. If you want to take a look and still avoid the most serious bugs, you'll want the Beta channel. The Dev build is the right choice for those who want to see the newest work and won't be bothered by some bugs. Updates are issued weekly. For the more adventurous, there's the Canary build, which is updated daily and is therefore the least stable. Download any of the three versions from Microsoft's website. The Edge Insider program is available for users of Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10, and also for the MacOS.

The home page includes icons for quickly launching often-visited sites. What may not be immediately apparent, though, is that scrolling down reveals news, sports, finance, and lifestyle stories. The contents of the page can be customized. There's no scroll bar, which seems odd. Perhaps it will be added later or maybe Microsoft presumes that swiping on touch-enabled devices and using the scroll wheel on a mouse for desktop devices obviates the need for the scroll bar.

Those who have used Chrome will see a lot of familiar icons and menus. One difference, of course, is that plug-ins and extensions for Edge are served from the the Microsoft Store. Also, unlike the Chrome browser, only 130 or so extensions are listed. This will increase over time.

Every website page I've examined with the Chromium-powered Edge browser displays properly. Microsoft hasn't announced plans for when the new browser will replace the old browser in Windows 10 other than to say the switch will be made when the new Edge browser is stable enough for production use.

I haven't made Chromium Edge my default browser and may not to so even when it is stable enough for production use. Chrome is currently my primary browser with Firefox as a backup. Many people (and I'm one of them) switch between Chrome and Firefox as their primary browser depending on each browser's features and foibles at any particular time.