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In the ON1 2021.5 release, ON1 has brought back the Smart Photos feature. If you have been a long-time ON1 user, you’ll remember Smart Photos. This option allows images that have been round-tripped from Lightroom through ON1 to be re-edited at a later time. The Smart Photo keeps track of the ON1 edits so you can revise them at a later time.

This is absolutely great for non-destructive workflows. It also opens up other workflow opportunities with batch processing (read more).

Using ON1 Smart Photos In Lightroom

ON1 has made using Smart Photos very easy:

1. Select a photo in your Lightroom catalog

2. Choose an ON1 plugin from the File > Plug-in Extras menu.

3. In the Export Options dialog, select Smart Photo PSD as the File Type.

4. Make edits in the ON1 plugin as you normally do.

5. Click Done in the plugin to return to Lightroom.

This is a standard plug-in workflow. The only difference is choosing Smart Photo PSD as your file type. The ON1 plugins handle the rest. When you return to Lightroom, your edited image has a “Smart Photo” suffix and is automatically added to your catalog.

Re-Editing A Smart Photo

To re-edit a Smart Photo, simply send the Smart Photo PSD to your ON1 plugin again. The ON1 plugin defaults to Open Original, which is exactly what you want. Directly opening the Smart Photo PSD means the prior edits made will be available. Do not choose other options that create a copy. Those options will create a new image file on disk by exporting the Smart Photo into a new format, losing the saved ON1 plugin information in the process.

Make Smart Photos The Default

You can set the default file type to Smart Photo PSD in the ON1 Preferences panel. When you launch an ON1 plug-in, take a brief detour to the Preferences panel. In the Plug-ins tab, set the File Type to Smart Photo PSD in the Lightroom section.

Additional Notes About Smart Photos

For the best experience with Smart Photos, launch the ON1 plugins from the File > Plug-in Extras menu. This approach to launching plug-ins properly presents all the options a plug-in has to offer. Do not use Photo > Edit In, or right-click a photo and choose Edit In. Not all the plug-in options are presented.

Also, in my work with Smart Photos, I have noticed sometimes (not all the time) the Smart Photo will report a metadata conflict in my Lightroom catalog. I am not certain what is causing the conflict. For this type of workflow, I consider the Lightroom catalog the source of metadata truth, so clearing the conflict equates to telling Lightroom to overwrite the metadata with the information in the catalog. Read more about Lightroom and metadata conflicts here.