Portrait software

nicknackgtb

Hi guys,

Am wanting to set up a small home studio and want to get into portrait photography a bit more.

Will hopefully be getting cs6 very soon, as for now just using cs3. Is there program's out there specifically better for portraits? See ads for portrait professional program, is this any good?

Or should I just practice with cs6 when I get it? Just unsure what's good!

Thanks in advance

Paddy

frozenfrozen

cs3 is the exact same as cs6 for colour correction. You could look at getting lightroom though

Effects

The ads I see for those portrait programs look awful. It makes me think if that's the images they use to advertise then I'd hate to see what the regular user would come up with.

Splinters

Portrait professional is the one thats advertised most. Avoid it like the plague. Its provides very unrealistic results and can drastically alter the face to the point where it doesnt even resemble the original person. Learn photoshop, learn skin smoothing techniques and do it manually. It really is the best way and gives you the most control.

gloobag

A lot of people are looking for something that will be a quick fix and achieve everything they need in a few clicks. After years of playing with Photoshop, watching all the 'tricks' videos and trying all the plugins, I can tell you that if you want the absolute best results from your retouching, there is no quick fix.

You can achieve everything you need to do in Photoshop by using layers, masks, curves, the paint brush tool, your own vision of what it is you want to achieve and some patience.

nicknackgtb

Thanks so much for all the replies. Can I ask would you recommend getting a touchpad thing (yoke with the pen as a mouse) or using a mouse? Heard the pads are much better than a mouse once you get used to them?

gloobag

nicknackgtb wrote: »

Thanks so much for all the replies. Can I ask would you recommend getting a touchpad thing (yoke with the pen as a mouse) or using a mouse? Heard the pads are much better than a mouse once you get used to them?

1000% YES!!! But don't get one of those cheap pieces of crap from Aldi/Lidl. Get a decent Wacom tablet. I have the small 'Intuos 5', which is awesome, but a bit pricey. They have a cheaper 'Bamboo' line which pretty good too. You don't need a big huge one the size of a desk, I find the small size much easier to use myself.

Hugh_C

As regards the software, I use a combination of Lightroom/Photoshop and a plugin called "Portraiture" from Imagenomic (I think). Portraiture is a great piece of software for smoothing complexions, but I always use it on a cloned layer and dial its opacity back to about 55 percent so it's pretty subtle.

That said, I do all the donkey work in Photoshop (CS5) mostly using the Healing Brush Tool (J), do a bit of content-aware fill and a lot of cloning using various modes (lighten, darken etc)

squareballoon

I love the Portraiture plugin too. I'm post processing for a few photographers and I just don't have the time to be retouching each face individually for weddings etc. Here is a one click before and after from Portraiture in Photoshop

I wouldn't usually run it this strong but it gives an idea of how it works.

Effects

I just downloaded it based on your example above. It's pretty great.

squareballoon

It's pretty great alright. I couldn't be without it for speed. The default setting is pretty hardcore so work with your sliders to get a more subtle effect and do it on a duplicate layer so that you can mask back or erase if you need to.

gloobag

I'd agree about the Portraiture plugin, I've used it in the past and it would be one of only two plugins I would ever recommend to someone (the other being Color Efex Pro).

It is actually capable of acceptable results, but only if you know how to use it. It's open to abuse just as much as the others and doesn't even come close to what a good D&B session will give you. Of course it's a lot quicker than D&B.

I used to use it only on the large details after I had done my basic skin clean up. So it would smooth out transitions in colour tones on the skin while leaving the fine details intact, then reduce opacity to taste.

Funny story. I was looking through the Youtube channel of a well known photographer a while back and in one video she was using Portraiture, badly I might add. Anyways, one of the developers chimed in on the comments giving out stink to her for using the software incorrectly

Splinters

On Sue Bryce's Creativelive video she talks about Portrature being super quick and effective. She acknowleges a lot of photographers are "anti plugin" but then goes on to say she's "pro making money" so its the best work flow for her to avoid spending 25 - 30 mins editing each individual image from a shoot.

Hugh_C

gloobag wrote: »

Funny story. I was looking through the Youtube channel of a well known photographer a while back and in one video she was using Portraiture, badly I might add. Anyways, one of the developers chimed in on the comments giving out stink to her for using the software incorrectly

ah go on, paste a link

gloobag

Hugh_C wrote: »

ah go on, paste a link

Funnily enough, Splinters just named her above

She gives a very bitchy comment back as well.

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9A6M4MQO4

Splinters

gloobag wrote: »

Funnily enough, Splinters just named her above

She gives a very bitchy comment back as well.

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9A6M4MQO4

Thats gas I must look that up when I get home. The footage of her I seen she was all praise for the software anyway.

Splinters

Just seen it there. Thats hilarious. Im guessing the Creativelive video I seen was before those comments as she probably wouldnt be in a hurry to recommend their product after that.

I suppose I can see both sides of it. She does come across as bitchy but then again it probably wasnt entirely appropriate for the developer to attack her like that in the comments. Admitedly she is using one of their products in such a way as to make it look like its destroying detail in hair and textures other then skin, which it shouldnt do if used correctly. He probably should have pointed it out to her in a private message and possibly released their own set of tutorials to show how its correctly done. Just saves the public agro.

DaireQuinlan

Splinters wrote: »

Just seen it there. Thats hilarious. Im guessing the Creativelive video I seen was before those comments as she probably wouldnt be in a hurry to recommend their product after that.

I suppose I can see both sides of it. She does come across as bitchy but then again it probably wasnt entirely appropriate for the developer to attack her like that in the comments. Admitedly she is using one of their products in such a way as to make it look like its destroying detail in hair and textures other then skin, which it shouldnt do if used correctly. He probably should have pointed it out to her in a private message and possibly released their own set of tutorials to show how its correctly done. Just saves the public agro.

I dunno, if one of your prominent users is using your product in a particular way, and when called on it, gets supported by tons of other users of your product who are having similar problems, it's time to engage with your user base and find out how they use it and how to address their problems, not give out to them for using it wrong

Splinters

Im in no way agreeing with the way it was addressed. I can just see why it would be frustrating for a developer to watch somebody demonstrate their product and have to show "workarounds" for problems that arent even there (if the product is used properly). Of course thats the plugin's shortcoming for it not being obvious enough....but I can see why it might be frustrating. In any case, mouthing off to such a big name endorser of your product in a very public way is not the most wise way of going about it.

DaireQuinlan

Splinters wrote: »

Im in no way agreeing with the way it was addressed. I can just see why it would be frustrating for a developer to watch somebody demonstrate their product and have to show "workarounds" for problems that arent even there (if the product is used properly). Of course thats the plugin's shortcoming for it not being obvious enough....but I can see why it might be frustrating. In any case, mouthing off to such a big name endorser of your product in a very public way is not the most wise way of going about it.

yeah totally. He should have tiptoed his way into that and offered helpful suggestions as to better ways to go about doing what she was doing or whatever. Anyhow.

g.remigi

The Portraiture plugin is superion in my opinion to Portrait Professional and gives more realistic results.
But none of them is actually strictly necessary. Portraiture does automatically what you can do manually using blending modes with the same results.

1 - Duplicate your original picture and convert the copy to black and white. This layer has to be on the top of the stack and for the moment hidden.
2 - Smooth the skin (only the sking using a mask) of the original picture using either Gaussian Blur or Median filter.
3 - Show the Black and White image and select either Soft Light or Overlay blending mode on the copy.
4 - Apply a High Pass filter on the Black and White image to extract the skin details and put it back on the original smoothed picture.

You can also easily simulate the glamour effect of Portraiture plugin in a similar fashion.

1 - Duplicate your original picture and convert the copy to black and white.
2 - Apply the Overlay blending mode.
3 - Apply a Gaussian blur on the black and white image.
This is equivalent to increase the contrast in the image low frequencies.

Consider also to use Gimp together with Photoshop. I normally use Photoshop but Gimp saved my life few times.

You can achieve almost everything with a deep knowledge of Blending Modes.
http://www.kineticsystem.org/?q=node/16

Cheers,

Giovanni

Splinters

g.remigi wrote: »

The Portraiture plugin is superion in my opinion to Portrait Professional

Thats because Portrait Professional is awful. It goes way too far and can change the shape of the face completely. Ive seen some end results where it genuinely looked like a different person. I don't think anybody would call that a desirable result.