ON1 has made its name with its all-in-one photo organizing, editing and effects tool ON1 Photo RAW. This is a very effective Lightroom/Photoshop alternative which offers many of the same tools, a huge catalog of preset effects and, should you want it, a subscription-free purchase. But now it’s setting off in a new direction with Lightpanel, an AI-powered Lightroom add-on for image culling and styling.
Just to be clear, this is not an ON1 Photo RAW replacement. ON1 Photo RAW carries on as before. Lightpanel is a whole new product which you won’t even find on the regular ON1 website – instead, it has its own website at on1pro.com/lightpanel.
They say if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and that’s what ON1 appears to be doing with Lightpanel, which works as a Lightroom Classic plug-in, or extension, however you want to look at it.
It has two modes. Cull mode is an AI-powered culling tool for finding your best images from a shoot, checking for duplicates, sharpness and even faces in the frame to see who’s sharp and who isn’t, even who’s got their eyes closed.
The Develop mode offers a whole series of adjustments for specific subjects and areas in your photo, where moving one slider in Lightpanel moves a whole bunch of sliders in Lightroom. Lightpanel is not replacing Lightroom Classic’s own adjustments, it’s offering what you might call a shortcut interface to make routine tasks quicker and simpler – such as darkening a background or smoothing skin. It also offers its own AI Auto Tone slider to sidestep Lightroom’s own. There’s even an AI Style adviser to help you find the perfect look from adjustments you’ve made before.
Lightpanel does seem to be on a bit of a collision course with Lightroom’s own rapidly developing AI masking tools and adaptive presets, but it seems to be designed specifically for busy commercial portrait and event photographers who may indeed find its approach quicker and more intuitive than Lightroom’s.
ON1 is pitching this as a professional tool with a price to match with an annual subscription of around $299, subject to any deals and offers. That’s quite a lot, but you can try it out free with a time-limited trial version to make sure it improves your productivity. It is targeted heavily at commercial portrait and event work, so you will have to decide if you like the results and it saves enough time in the long run to make it worth it. You can find out more about Lightpanel here.
