This evening, I spent a little more time testing out the latest offering from onOne Software. I know that I praised it highly in my last post, and I was curious to see if I would still come away with the same impression. Well, the short version is that I did. In fact I only spent a few minutes working on the photo below. Time is money, and I look forward to using these tools on my next project. The fact that you can finish off some pretty amazing edits quickly almost makes you feel guilty. OnOne’s entire goal is to get you back to shooting, and in this they succeed.

While the suite can be used from start to finish on an image, I would make the following recommendations on how to fit it into your workflow.

Still perform your general/basic edits (eg. white balance/cropping) in your editor of choice. Use this part of the process to start coming up with ideas about what you would like to do with the image. This is important as the “basic edits” that you are doing will directly affect the outcome of how the effects and other tools apply. As much as the process here is meant to be creative, there is a very logical and stepwise method to approaching the editing. Most of the time, these types of process are second nature, and I would assert that most people won’t realize that they are doing it.

Well for now, here is this evening’s photo. I hope that you enjoy it.

I have been a pretty big fan of onOne Software’s products over the years. I’ve used their plug-in suite through the past versions. When I heard that version 6 was on it’s way, I was pretty excited and curious as it seemed as version 5 had just been released. In any event, version 6 is definitely here and I’ve got to say that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this version so far.

The fact that it is a stand alone product which can act solo or accept exports from Lightroom, Photoshop or Aperture. Though I have/use all three for different things, Lightroom is really the application that is the start and finish for most of my work. Exporting and re-importing from and back to Lightroom is seamless and is easy to use. Once in the Plug-in Suite, you are treated to a well thought out layout for each of the different components. The ease of use really does speed up work flow, and their presets stimulate the creative process.

Here are a couple of the photos that I quickly worked on which touched several of the new and improve products. I will be sharing more as I use the suite.

~Jared