Rangefinder - April 2017

FIRST EXPOSURE

each workspace is a tool palette, and next to the tools is a panel appropriate to the selected module. The center of the screen is dominated by a large preview image that you can quickly change to a view of the original. To the right of the preview is another panel appropriate to the module selected and at the far right are icons used to switch between modules. Along the bottom of the interface are intuitive icons for selecting different viewing options as well as icons appropriate to the module you are in. I rarely needed the menu bar at the top of the interface. Photoshop users will appreciate that the keyboard shortcuts are, for the most part, identical.

WHAT WE LIKED

Photo RAW’s new functionality worked largely as expected. It is certainly capable of processing RAW files, and the ease of making local adjustments by masking with the Perfect Brush is very welcome when compared with the difficulties sometimes encountered making local adjustments in other software. The revised look to the interface makes it easy to navigate through Photo RAW, with all of the modules presenting themselves without major redraws of the screen. And the ability to copy and paste only certain adjustments is a nice feature, although Capture One does this far better.

WHAT WE DIDN’ T LIKE

While the new Develop module includes sliders for all essential adjustments, the range of adjustments is fairly limited. Noise reduction is particularly weak even though I like the option of applying it to shadows or mid-tones without applying the noise reduction to highlights. The Skin Retouching pane softened portraits more than I would have liked even when using its lowest setting. And when using the white balance eyedropper, I would have preferred to have a read of the color temperature value or at least see the slider move to a new position.

As for the speed increases in Photo
RAW, I did find it faster than Photo 10,
but switching between modules in
Photo RAW was not as instantaneous
as I expected. Adjustments sometimes
needed to be rendered before switching,
and the browser would occasionally
introduce artifacts into my RAW files from
older Nikons that are not there in Bridge.
Unfortunately, these artifacts carried into
the Develop module too.

As for the final exported TIFF output, I found it on par with Adobe Photoshop/ Camera Raw and Lightroom, but still not at the level of Capture One, which remains my gold standard.

HOW IT COMPARES

For photographers unwilling to accept the Adobe subscription model or the cost and learning curve of Capture One, ON1 Photo RAW 2017 represents an excellent option. This is especially true if your image processing involves the use of presets, which, while not new to Photo RAW, are available in abundance, along with the ability to create and save your own custom presets. There are functions that Photo RAW does not offer, but if those functions are not part of your workflow, you have a much cleaner interface to deal with. All in all, if you need an image-processing program for RAW, TIFF or JPEG captures, ON1 Photo RAW 2017 works quite nicely.

Stan Sholik is a photographer based in Santa Ana, CA, specializing in still-life and macro photography. His latest book, Shoot Macro, for Amherst Media is available now.