Photo editing software developer ON1 recently shared two big announcements, including their new ON1 Pro brand, as well as the introduction of Lightpanel, an AI Assistant that works natively in Lightroom Classic. While AI-focused upstarts abound in the photo editing software space, ON1 Pro will have an edge as they bring over two decades of experience to their new brand and AI technologies.
At the center of the launch and their efforts to provide professional photographers with a better means of creating more efficient workflows is Lightpanel, which works directly inside Lightroom Classic and boasts a range of features that promise to leverage AI to deliver “unmatched speed, consistency, and efficiency” throughout every stage of the post-processing workflow. Photographers can use Lightpanel to cull, review, and edit high volumes of photos in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. As renowned Adobe educator Scott Kelby has said, “Instead of making everyone re-learn an entirely new workflow with another product, they are supercharging the workflow we already have [in Lightroom] and cutting our workload in half.”
Key Features of ON1 Lightpanel
Let’s take a look at some of the key features of the new ON1 Lightpanel.
AI-Driven Smart Culling
Perhaps surprisingly, culling is often one of the most time-consuming stages of the photo editing process. It requires paying special attention to the photos so that you can be sure you’re delivering the best of the batch. This can add up quickly when you’re dealing with thousands of photos. Now, photographers will be able to use Lightpanel’s AI-driven Culling feature to simplify the process and automatically group similar photos, identify the sharpest images, flag photos in which the subjects have blurry or closed eyes, and enable quick zoomed-in face comparisons. Again, for those who edit high volumes of photos, this feature alone will prove incredibly helpful.
Granted, there are other software editing options out there that offer advanced culling features, but they typically operate outside of Lightroom and add an extra step to the editing process whereas Lightpanel works natively in Lightroom, which works to streamline the process.
AI-Driven Smart Editing
In addition to any edits you make in Lightroom, whether using presets or individual adjustments, you can use Lightpanel’s AI-driven Smart Editing tool to make intelligent tone and color adjustments tailored to the context of each photo. For those worried about surrendering their own creative input when using AI, you can put those worries to rest. Rather than override your creativity, this tool has been designed to give you control to tune the results of the edits to your personal taste. It can also perform portrait retouching, darken backgrounds, and make the subject pop by automating complex tasks in Lightroom. In addition, and this is a big one, the software can learn your “style” and apply it to each photo. According to ON1, photographers can even download a range of looks from other top photographers.
Job and Order Tracking (Coming Soon after initial release)
One forthcoming attraction to keep an eye on is Lightpanel’s Job and Order Tracking. This feature is designed to track clients and jobs, as well as create and fulfill orders directly alongside Lightroom photos, streamlining both creative and business tasks. Lightroom offers different ways to organize and track photos with keywords, dates, and so on, but this tool simplifies the process and really takes it up a notch in terms of convenience and further streamlining the overall workflow.
“Lightpanel will be used directly inside Lightroom Classic, cutting the most time-consuming tasks—culling and editing—in half without requiring photographers to use multiple apps,” said Dan Harlacher, VP of Product at ON1. “By cutting the time it takes to complete these tasks in half, Lightpanel pays for itself after one event, giving photographers more time to capture photos, market their business, or spend with family instead of editing late into the night.”
Pricing and Availability
If this sounds at all appealing to you, then you can jump on board early and save some money in the process. ON1 Lightpanel is now available for preorder at $199.99/year, a special discount on the first-year subscription price (normally $299.99/year). The subscription term will begin once the product arrives in February, so anyone who pre-orders by December 31st will receive this discount on the first year.
Another incentive to preorder is customers will also receive ON1’s Image Enhancement Bundle today at no additional cost. This exclusive bundle includes full licenses for three professional grade plugins designed for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop: ON1 Resize AI, ON1 NoNoise AI, and ON1 Effects. Plus, enjoy free upgrades—both major and minor—to the 2025 versions of these plugins coming next year. This bundle provides you with perpetual licenses of Resize, NoNoise, and Effects, not subscriptions, so you can use these tools without ongoing fees.
Given ON1’s history of building plugins for Adobe (over twenty years in the making), there’s no reason to think the ON1 Pro won’t deliver with Lightpanel. For professional portrait and wedding photographers, this integration between ON1 Pro and Adobe can prove to be game-changing. On top of that, getting access to the current and future iterations of ON1’s Image Enhancement Bundle with the pre-order makes the purchase even more worthwhile.
More information can be found at https://www.on1pro.com.
