For anyone who spends hours and hours in a complete time suck of toggling back and forth between devices to access media, ON1’s new 360 workflow solution is a much-needed solution.

Described by the company as a “unique end-to-end photography workflow solution for capturing, editing, and accessing photos seamlessly between multiple computers and devices,” ON1 produced 360 in tandem with its ON1Raw 2020.5 and the free ON1 Photo Mobile (available for both iOS and Android) which allows access on computers and mobile devices.

How ON1 360 Works

At its core, ON1 360 is all about its sync technology, allowing users to sync photos, metadata and edits, as well as albums and catalogued folders between all your computers and devices, external hard drives and even network devices. “Your photos stay where you want them,” says ON1’s VP of Product, Dan Harlacher.

“ON1 360 automatically keeps track of the photos you choose to access from any of your devices, including their metadata and where you want to store them. The desktop and mobile apps share the same processing engine, which enables non-destructive editing settings to remain in sync as well.”

In layman’s terms, a temporary version of your photo is created “under-the-hood” and stored in the 360 cloud. The photo maintains the tone and color of the original photo while using only about 25 percent of the cloud storage space that a typical RAW photo uses. And if you need a full raw file at all times and storage space is not an issue, you can also upload and edit the raw photo if you so choose.

Beta Tester Reviews of ON1 360

British photographer Dave Tucker has been using ON1 Raw as his go-to photo editing system for several years. He says the addition of the new ON1 360 has made his workflow even easier. “Now, using ON1 Raw 2020 on my desktop and laptop, along with the free ON1 Photo Mobile on my cell phone, gives me a flexible, controllable system that is accessible anywhere, and, in my opinion, it is a better system than the old, traditional cloud service and allows photographers to capture, edit and access images seamlessly between their devices.”

“It’s exciting,” adds Tucker, “to now have the ability to easily process my images just the way I like, synchronize them with ON1 360 and then view them on a totally different device—which is great for showing friends and clients while the original images are safe and secure. The ON1 Photo Mobile app has transformed my old Android phone and now allows me to take Raw images rather than the standard JPEG images, and it allows me to send these pictures direct to my home PC almost instantly.”

California-based photographer Scott Davenport agrees with Tucker. Asked for his review of ON1 360, he highlighted the following key features:

• “I have a variety of workflows and capture images with several cameras, including my smartphone. ON1 360 works with them all. I like that I can start my editing wherever I am using whatever device is with me—smartphone, laptop, or desktop. ON1 360 syncs my edits and I can finish work in the studio.

• “The key thing for me is flexibility. ON1 360 gives me complete control over what folders and albums are synchronized. Also, I choose whether or not my originals are stored in the cloud.

• “Creating a portable portfolio with ON1 360 is a no-brainer. Publish an album on your desktop, install ON1 Mobile on your smartphone, and you’re done.

• “I’m looking forward to more editing effects in ON1 Mobile. Certain edits done on a desktop prevent additional editing on a mobile device.”

Davenport that says that, while he uses Adobe Lightroom Classic CC as well, one of its limitations is that “I can only sync one catalog at a time. I can’t, for example, sync my desktop collections to my phone and also my laptop collections to my desktop. With ON1 360, I can do that.”

Davenport says he also likes that ON1 360 lets him sync folders or albums (aka collections). “When I’m on the road, I primarily work with just folders of images and not collections,” he explains.

Tucker’s assessment of ON1 360 aligns with Davenport’s. Tucker says the only other cloud service he’s used is Microsoft’s OneDrive, and by comparison synching photos with 360 is much easier, faster and totally non-destructive across all of his devices.

He is also quick to explain why he switched over years ago from Lightroom and Photoshop to ON1 Raw overall. “I used to use Lightroom and Photoshop for all of my work,” Tucker explains, “until ON1 RAW came about and I found that just for photo-processing ON1 was a far faster workflow, albeit with not as many bells and whistles as Photoshop. But ON1 has improved and the last version, ON1 RAW 2020 allows me to edit my images far faster than before. The print module is very good. From taking the images to printing out a picture, I do it all in ON1 RAW 2020.”

“What killed Adobe for me,” he adds, “was when they went to a subscription service, meaning if I stopped the subs, I lost my program? Again, another no brainer—this way, we are getting much better value for far less money spent! Need I say more?”

Learn more about ON1 360 solutions and view a video demo.