ON1 Photo RAW 2025 has a new Depth Map feature – here’s how it works

A depth map is a mask that can separate objects at different distances from the camera. Some phones have depth mapping built in, but cameras don’t. However, ON1 Photo RAW 2025’s new Depth Mask tool can use AI to analyse the objects in a scene and work out their distance. Imagine a luminance mask, but applied to distance not brightness!

It’s a very clever feature and can work very well. The AI does seem to be very good at working out objects and distances, although as with all AI masking, if you push the adjustments too far it can start to show up edge artefacts and miscalculations. Right now, AI doesn’t seem to be good at coping with objects that have holes in them and selects these along with the object.

So this isn’t going to work perfectly on every scene, and you may not be faced with too many situations where you need it, but my sample shot is an interesting test because the grass and this squirrel’s fur look as if they could be tricky for any masking tool. What I’m going to try to do is darken the background but not the squirrel, just to give it a bit more ‘pop’ and background separation.

If you like the look of this feature but you don’t currently use ON1 Photo RAW 2025 or have an older version, just download the 30-day free trail to try it out. You’ll have plenty of time to decide if this is the software for you.

Step 01: Where to find the ON1 Depth Map tool

Here’s my start image in ON1 Photo RAW 2025. It’s a nice enough shot (I feel bad that I didn’t have any snacks for the squirrel) but while the background does have little blur the lighting just rather flat and boring. I want to use the Depth Mask tool to see if I can lighten the squirrel and tone down the background.

Step 02: The Local panel

To do this, I need to swap to the Local panel in the right sidebar and click the Add Adjustment button. This opens the Masking panel where I can click on the Create Depth Mask button at the bottom. This automatically creates the Depth Mask – you don’t need to do anything else.

Step 3: Viewing the Depth Mask

You can view the Depth Mask that’s been created by clicking the View Mask button at the bottom of the Masking panel. It looks like a pretty good result – the tool has clearly separated the body of the squirrel and even worked out that its head is closest to the camera and its forepaw and the rest of its body are a little further back.

Step 04: Inverting the mask

Now this mask would be fine as it stands if we wanted to apply an adjustment to the objects nearer the camera. In fact, it’s the background I want to modify, so I need to click the Invert Mask button at the bottom of the Masking panel to swap it around. In effect, I’m reversing the Depth Mask so that the adjustment is applied to the background.

You’ll see that there are some other adjustments I can make in the Masking panel. In particular I could try adjusting the Feather value and the Levels to fine-tune the mask. This can be effective but for now I think I’ll leave it as it is.

Step 05: Making Depth Mask adjustments

OK, so now I can disable the View Mask option and start making adjustments. All I’ve done is reduce the Exposure value and slightly increase the Temperature value to darken and warm up the background.

ON1 Photo RAW 2025’s Depth Map feature has actually done a really good job here and I’m quite pleased with the outcome. It looks like a completely natural lighting effect with no visible masking artefacts at all. Good job!