diff --git a/components/bio-formats-plugins/pom.xml b/components/bio-formats-plugins/pom.xml
index 7b4c139fea1..598a7d0240f 100644
--- a/components/bio-formats-plugins/pom.xml
+++ b/components/bio-formats-plugins/pom.xml
@@ -72,11 +72,13 @@
       <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
       <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
       <version>${logback.version}</version>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
       <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
       <version>${logback.version}</version>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
 
     <!-- NB: dependency:analyze has false warning about xml-apis:xml-apis. -->
diff --git a/components/bio-formats-tools/pom.xml b/components/bio-formats-tools/pom.xml
index 9af3ceaca8f..9092573cd3b 100644
--- a/components/bio-formats-tools/pom.xml
+++ b/components/bio-formats-tools/pom.xml
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
       <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
       <version>${logback.version}</version>
       <scope>runtime</scope>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <!-- NB: We want this, despite warning from dependency:analyze. -->
@@ -74,6 +75,7 @@
       <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
       <version>${logback.version}</version>
       <scope>runtime</scope>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <!-- NB: We want this, despite warning from dependency:analyze. -->