What is wrong with me/On1

[some-alpha-user-99]

After evaluation which software is best for me (price/workflow/features) and discussion here, I've choosen On1 Photo Raw 2025 (Lightroom is better but price is so high for hobby usage only and prefer one time payment).

I haven't got time to work with this software until I've come back from my holiday. A lot of my photos was taken with ETTR and wanted to edit raws to have better photos than jpgs.

I've opened few raws and noticed that even sharpened looks like piece of s***. I've used theshold, AI and everything led me to effect worse then jpg sooc. What I'm doing wrong?

Examples below (made with snipping tool in Windows - 100% magnification):

A7II - JPG Sooc in Windows default photo viewer (Fine quality, I've not touched sharpening in the camera it's default - sharp, nice structure of the wood visible)

Raw in On1 without any changes:

Tresholds of masking (comparing to LR works strangely):

Threshold 0

Threshold 2

The only one usable threshold is 1.

Manual sharpening to not oversharp it (bigger diff is with grass or hairs) - I was very dissapointed with results, photo looks worse than jpg

So I've checked AI sharpening - and seems to work much worse than manual sharpening. Everything is sharpened and I don't see mask (threshold) to avoid sharpening water. I've lowered to the half of default strength.

So I've downloaded trial version of LR to compare:

LR before any changes:

Photo looks much better than in On1, sharper, wood structure is much more visible, closer to jpg and not so dull.

Masking threshold works much smoothly:

And sharpened not too much (almost like jpg - LR sharpened also distant line of trees what require to fix in further working):

What I'm doing wrong? Can you tell me what to do to get decent quality of jpgs from raw?

I don't know why I've not found it before purchasing.

 

[jpegman]

On1 has a 30 day guarantee - so you may have a bit of time if you're' within the 30 day window.

Jpegman

--
Epson P800

 

[ishwanu]

What I'm doing wrong? Can you tell me what to do to get decent quality of jpgs from raw?

Photo RAW installs with some sort of default preset, but I don't even remember what it was. Every processing option and parameter (with the exception of the demosaicing algorithm) is adjustable or cancelable - sharpening (AI or otherwise), noise reduction (AI or otherwise), AI decision-making (called Brilliance AI), color, contrast, etc. If at first you're not seeing what you'd like to see, you need to dig in and explore the many changes you can make.

I don't know how you generated those 'threshold' images, or what they tell us other than you're not choosing the right parameters for your purposes. What I know is that you have to be the one to optimize the many parameters to your own liking, and then save them as your personal presets. That won't necessarily be a quick process because Photo RAW is a very deep product with an approach that probably won't feel 'intuitive' to someone accustomed to something else. To get where you need to be, you must refer to the user manual frequently and watch some of the numerous video tutorials provided by ON1:

https://www.on1.com/videos/

(Many of the videos were made with earlier versions that had user interface differences compared to v2025, so the more recent ones will be more helpful.)

Another suggestion: Pick a RAW file from among the ones DPR offers, run it through Lightroom with the sharpening parameters you like, and post the result. I can try to take the same RAW file through Photo RAW to produce a similar result.

 

[s_grins]

If you want to reveal the texture of the wood, try NoNoise AL. It is a part noise reduction and sharpening panel inside develop module

If you want to fix your ETTR, I'd recommend 3 sliders (highlights, midtones, shadows) of TONE & COLOR panel which is a part of develop module. BTW, I've founf that ON1 better works with slightly underexposed pictures, it is easer to lift up shadows.

I have no clue why do you use all these luminocity masks. I guess you used a long FL with f 4.0 or wider for a landscape, so enjoy your in-focus wooden structure and out of focus everything else. I do not know how save this photo with sharpening.

And please, do not strip off information about your photo (ISO, A, S, FL). It helps to understand the picture.

Regards

S.

 

[ajscullard]

I had a similar experience with regard to sharpening - if you use the defaults it is brutal. This is especially true if you have fluffy clouds or soft-edged elements in your image, ON1's "deblur" does horrible things to the soft edges, making the hard.

In the Develop module, under Noise and Sharpening, I select "both", then after the initial process finishes, I drag the "deblur" slider down until the artefacts disappear. I almost never change the "microsharpening" slider.

You also need to be very wary of the Brilliance AI options. They can be exceptionally good and quick to use but you have to work the Amount slider quite a lot to get the best result and also make use of the sliders under the Regions> options to adjust things like "sky" and "water" as these are frequently over-saturated and darkened.

Note that I use ON1 as a preliminary plug-in for Photoshop which is then used to do final masking, layering and so on. I wouldn't use ON1 as my only editor, but you have different criteria.

 

[T Evergreen]

Since you're using ETTR, the RAW images likely are bright already and will end up even brighter (and possibly blown highlights) when opened in the Develop Module using the ON1 Standard Profile. Try using the Linear Raw Profile, which will give you a more subdued starting point.

Regarding sharpening and noise reduction in the Develop Module, by default you're stuck with sharpening and noise reduction of the entire image. However, you can limit their application to specific areas by creating additional Layers along with the appropriate masks.

Alternatively, you can use the Effects filters for sharpening and noise reduction together with a mask to apply the filter where needed.

 

[IanYorke]

After evaluation which software is best for me (price/workflow/features) and discussion here, I've choosen On1 Photo Raw 2025 (Lightroom is better but price is so high for hobby usage only and prefer one time payment).

I haven't got time to work with this software until I've come back from my holiday. A lot of my photos was taken with ETTR and wanted to edit raws to have better photos than jpgs.

I've opened few raws and noticed that even sharpened looks like piece of s***. I've used theshold, AI and everything led me to effect worse then jpg sooc. What I'm doing wrong?

Examples below (made with snipping tool in Windows - 100% magnification):

A7II - JPG Sooc in Windows default photo viewer (Fine quality, I've not touched sharpening in the camera it's default - sharp, nice structure of the wood visible)

Raw in On1 without any changes:

Tresholds of masking (comparing to LR works strangely):

Threshold 0

Threshold 2

The only one usable threshold is 1.

Manual sharpening to not oversharp it (bigger diff is with grass or hairs) - I was very dissapointed with results, photo looks worse than jpg

So I've checked AI sharpening - and seems to work much worse than manual sharpening. Everything is sharpened and I don't see mask (threshold) to avoid sharpening water. I've lowered to the half of default strength.

So I've downloaded trial version of LR to compare:

LR before any changes:

Photo looks much better than in On1, sharper, wood structure is much more visible, closer to jpg and not so dull.

Masking threshold works much smoothly:

And sharpened not too much (almost like jpg - LR sharpened also distant line of trees what require to fix in further working):

What I'm doing wrong? Can you tell me what to do to get decent quality of jpgs from raw?

I don't know why I've not found it before purchasing.

Please post the raw file in DropBox or something similar and you will get an accurate response rather than best guesses.

Ian

 

[some-alpha-user-99]

Unfortunately, no option to return - I have it longer than 30 days.

I haven't got time to check all things mentioned is your answers, only NoNoise AI. And that seems to be promising. I hope to dig deeper during weekend.