Portrait software

keithinmelbourne · October 27, 2011

I'm looking to get a plugin for retouching portraits quickly and effectively. I'd prefer to keep the image as natural as possible. Some of the retouches I've seen are very plasticky. What have you pros found to be best :scratch

idiotabroad · October 27, 2011

portrait professional

Merlin_AZ · October 27, 2011

I agree, but experiment with the trial.
Just be careful of the sliders--be very gentle.

keithinmelbourne · October 27, 2011

Thanks. I downloaded the trial of OnOne's suite and Portrait Professional. The OnOne version, although simpler than PP is very slow. However, one problem I found with Portrait Professional is that it has a conflict with Nik's Color Efex Pro 4. If you try to use CE4 after using PP, Photoshop freezes. It doesn't seem to be a problem the other way around, but I think I will go with Portrait Professional anyway.

Peano · October 27, 2011

While you're doing trials, try Imagenomic Portraiture.

FlyNavy · October 27, 2011

+1 on Portrait Professional. I tend to back the adjustment sliders down a wee bit after it auto adjusts for a more natural look.

idiotabroad · October 27, 2011

i have all three noted here, i like portrait pro the best followed by onone and then portiture. it comes in last bc its hard to get the look your going for. for the freezing up part not sure about it, i use portrait pro as a stand alone and then open up in cs5. then all my nik will work as well as the onone suite

tebogan · October 28, 2011

If you have not tried the Studio version of Portrait Professional, I would recommend the following link for the trial.
http://studio.portraitprofessional.com/download/ +

:ivar

Tom

Art Scott · October 28, 2011

tebogan wrote: »

If you have not tried the Studio version of Portrait Professional, I would recommend the following link for the trial.
http://studio.portraitprofessional.com/download/ +

:ivar

Tom

totally......I hardly ever use the sliders as I find the presets work great for me 99% of the time ... and I find it fast enuff.....

keithinmelbourne · October 28, 2011

Thanks for all your advice. I have bought Portrait Professional 64, because it is currently selling at a greatly reduced discount. It still has the conflict with Nik's Color Efex 4, but I can work around that easily enough. As Art noted, the Portrait Professional presets seem to be more or less spot on, so its actually a quick package to use.

idiotabroad · October 28, 2011

keith, i use pp then save as tiff then open with cs5 and then use all my nik's and they work just fine. what is causing the problem do you thinkg?

keithinmelbourne · October 29, 2011

idiotabroad wrote: »

keith, i use pp then save as tiff then open with cs5 and then use all my nik's and they work just fine. what is causing the problem do you thinkg?

I have PP 64 embedded in CS5. The problem happens when I've finished working on a file in PP and then apply a Color Efex 4 filter. Oddly enough, if I use Nik's Define 2 after PP, it does't have any problem. In the case of Color Efex 4, it won't open and just freezes CS5. This is not an occasional glitch, it happens in all cases.

If I save the file after using PP and open again Color Efex 4 works normally. It's quite odd behaviour. It just means that if I intend using CE4 on a portrait I do that before using PP.

idiotabroad · October 29, 2011

Keith I find better results from using PP straight from raw and then processing with all the other plugs. What do you think?

divamum · October 29, 2011

I have had very mixed results with PP, so have been sniffing around for other affordable alternatives that may save me doing ALL my retouching "manually" (which has, typically, yielded better results even though it's been time-intensive).

Thanks to this discussion, have now downloaded the OnOne trial version (didn't even know about the product before this thread) and am going to give it a whirl - if it works effectively inside LR (and I don't find the results too plastic-y), it will be a no-brainer for me; about the only reason I take images into PS these days is for skinwork (other than extensive cloning, or specific "creative" processing with various action sets), and if I can do more skin-retouching in LR it will save me a ton of time......

I'll post any samples I create.

keithinmelbourne · October 29, 2011

divamum wrote: »

I have had very mixed results with PP, so have been sniffing around for other affordable alternatives that may save me doing ALL my retouching "manually" (which has, typically, yielded better results even though it's been time-intensive).

Thanks to this discussion, have now downloaded the OnOne trial version (didn't even know about the product before this thread) and am going to give it a whirl - if it works effectively inside LR (and I don't find the results too plastic-y), it will be a no-brainer for me; about the only reason I take images into PS these days is for skinwork (other than extensive cloning, or specific "creative" processing with various action sets), and if I can do more skin-retouching in LR it will save me a ton of time......

I'll post any samples I create.

I'd be interested to see has fast yours is. I found it to be grindingly slow on a late 2010 MacBook Pro. Despite the initial fiddle with Portrait Professional (5 clicks) it seems much quicker and less pancakey (if that's a real word).

keithinmelbourne · October 29, 2011

idiotabroad wrote: »

Keith I find better results from using PP straight from raw and then processing with all the other plugs. What do you think?

I normally do some quick adjustments in ACR and then do some post-processing (light or heavy) in PS. I would normally work on a face before applying general filters. Therefore I like all my filters to be inside PS. For me, the idea of first using ACR, saving, then going to a stand-alone version of PP, saving again, and then going to PS would be a bind.

divamum · October 29, 2011

I've given it a try. It's not particularly fast on my 2008 Dell Studio 15 (4g ram), although not horribly slower than running an action in PS.

That said, not that impressed. While it works FROM LR, it definitely isn't working *within* it - it simply exports a file into the program, just the same as if I were to select "edit in PS".I ran the retouching software on one of the pictures that I was struggling with last week; it really didnt' achieve anything that I don't do better "manually" in PS. And - just like PP - while the sliders seem quicker, I wind up spending so long tweaking them that I think it's probably not really any faster than if I were to do it with cloning and the TRA skin softening action in PS.

Glad to have these free trials, though - without them, I'd probably have spent WAY too much money on things I didn't really like. Portraiture also looks interesting, but at $200 I don't see myself buying it.....

idiotabroad · October 30, 2011

onone suite runs slow on my intel i7 with 8gb ram, so dont feel bad. portraiture is hard to learn without an easy UI so I use PP more. I like the general plugin before I resort to actions and old "skool" editing. Of course there are some things plugs cant or dont do well. I also find it annoying to run things from LR vs running them from cs5. My workflow changes from day to day so I'm still learning when to apply things.

BinaryFx · October 31, 2011

divamum wrote: »

I have had very mixed results with PP, so have been sniffing around for other affordable alternatives that may save me doing ALL my retouching "manually" (which has, typically, yielded better results even though it's been time-intensive).

I have always done things with only Photoshop, however I am not a portrait photographer who does hundreds of head shots each day.

I much prefer a "natural" look to some of the heavy retouching advertised by some of these products.

Something that is often missing from such discussions is a good high resolution photo and a before and after result from third-party portrait filters, with stopwatch timings from opening the image to saving the image.

Stephen Marsh

keithinmelbourne · October 31, 2011

BinaryFx wrote: »

I have always done things with only Photoshop, however I am not a portrait photographer who does hundreds of head shots each day.

I much prefer a "natural" look to some of the heavy retouching advertised by some of these products.

Something that is often missing from such discussions is a good high resolution photo and a before and after result from third-party portrait filters, with stopwatch timings from opening the image to saving the image.

Stephen Marsh

Stephen, I tend to agree with you, however, there are times when someone's skin is blotchy or the subject is off-colour in some that needs fixing (other than converting to B&W, which is my preferred option). For instance, a recent wedding I did had such a large contrast between the groom's face, which looked an unnaturally purpley/red against the bride, who had pale skin with a slight tan. The digital file accentuated the difference, which meant that I had to introduce some balance in the shots. A good filter can do this type of job quickly and efficiently, which is very helpful when you are working with a large number of files (400-500+).

BinaryFx · October 31, 2011

keithinmelbourne wrote: »

Stephen, I tend to agree with you, however, there are times when someone's skin is blotchy or the subject is off-colour in some that needs fixing (other than converting to B&W, which is my preferred option). For instance, a recent wedding I did had such a large contrast between the groom's face, which looked an unnaturally purpley/red against the bride, who had pale skin with a slight tan. The digital file accentuated the difference, which meant that I had to introduce some balance in the shots.

Keith, in my opinion Photoshop has all of the tools required, so I don't see the need for a special third party portrait tool. Productivity*, knowledge, skills, experience, expectations etc will of course vary!

When I was retouching for a fashion/beauty magazine, there were special tricks that helped speed up the process.

A good filter can do this type of job quickly and efficiently, which is very helpful when you are working with a large number of files (400-500+).

*Productivity is where manual methods often fall down, as I said earlier I don't have to process this many portraits!

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh

Portrait software

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