ON1 just refreshed the open beta of Photo RAW 2018. I literally found out about this 5 minutes ago - my machines are updating now. If your 'Check For Updates' doesn't work immediately, try again in a little bit. Sometimes it takes backend systems a while to roll out new bits across the globe.

And you're trying out the beta, right? I really want you to check it out - powerful stuff. One of the improvements in the beta refresh is to my favorite addition - masking improvements. Grab the beta and read more about what has me most excited about Photo RAW 2018.

Try ON1 Photo RAW 2018

And if you want to learn more about Photo RAW, join me next week for a free Photo RAW 2018 webinar.

Here are some of the biggest fixes and enhancements in ON1 Photo RAW 2018 Beta 2 (12.0.0.3956):

Reduced the preflight requirements for HDR — You can now use different ISOs and mix changes in shutter-speed and ISO in your HDR brackets. We will also let photos without metadata through as well, such as manual focus lenses or lenses used in an adapter.
New Default Looks for HDR — When you use ON1 HDR the first time you can choose your default HDR processing preference. This tunes the initial settings to your preference. You can always change this preference in the Default Look pop-up. We continue to improve the HDR algorithms as well.
Pano Exposure Compensation — We now detect and try to compensate for exposure differences between frames in a panorama shot in automatic modes. We are finding this works pretty well most of the time. We still have work to do to correct for white balance issues as well as extreme edge fall-off from some lenses. It’s always best to shoot on a tripod, overlap your photos 30% and shoot in manual on a consistent white balance. Also shoot with your lens stopped-down to reduce edge fall off. You can adjust your frames and turn on lens correction before using Panorama as well.
Name Filters and Adjustment Layers — You can now double-click on a filter name in Effects or an Adjustment Layer and add your own label as a prefix. This is handy to identify the purpose of a layer such as Sky or Water, or Skin and Eyes.
Crash on Export — There was a nasty crash when exporting (or going to Layers, Resize, Print, Share, Send to, etc.) that could occur after using a retouching tool.
Pink HDR Files from Fuji XTrans Cameras — We had a ton of feedback from Fujifilm camera users who had a pink cast when using the new HDR feature.
Midtones Slider — We renamed and moved the new Brightness slider to the Midtones slider. This adjusts the midtone brightness and is handy for adjusting HDR photos.
Tuned Advanced Masking — We have improved the new Window and Color Range masking options to select and feather ranges better.

ON1 Just Refreshed The Photo RAW 2018 Beta