Portrait Professional

[Shadowman]

I did a quicky with Portrait Professional. I didn't spend any time on it and just did this with the defaults of the program..



I have found that the females of our species generally like what portrait pro does. However, I usually tone down the results a bit...

Richard,

I purchased the software immediately after seeing the results of the free trial. I noticed that some portraits are more difficult than others to process. Have you noticed this also? Example below. I had to manually align the points, image below not edited.

[gregj1763]

Hi John, I have been using this software for a while. My wife has a hair and beauty salon and some of the girls like photos taken when they are finished.
Moderation is the key with this software as it is easy to go over the top very quickly.

[Shadowman]

Hi John, I have been using this software for a while. My wife has a hair and beauty salon and some of the girls like photos taken when they are finished.
Moderation is the key with this software as it is easy to go over the top very quickly.

Hi Greg,

I've seen the results, the default setting seems to do the job. I experimented with a few of the manual retouches, such as lip saturation and it can add texture if not used properly.

[hoffstriker]

I completely agree with all that is said here. I have PP and use it sparingly for those persons that have really bad complexions. When you need it, it's great! However, I only use it on approx. 5% of all portraits I take.

[Shadowman]

I completely agree with all that is said here. I have PP and use it sparingly for those persons that have really bad complexions. When you need it, it's great! However, I only use it on approx. 5% of all portraits I take.

Hopefully you can reduce your current statistics, but ever so often you are faced with a portrait that no amount of post processing seems to help and that is when a program like PP can be an asset.

[rpcrowe]

You can do everything in Photoshop (and likely Photoshop Elements) that you can do using Portrait Professional. However it takes both skill and time. The defaults in Portrait Professional do a fairly good job and you very often end up with a portrait of how the female "would like to look"...

It can be overdone but, the default results can be mitigated to be less overwhelming...

If a person would like to learn to do the facial retouching in Photoshop CS6 (and possibly some earlier editions), I recommend the book, "The Photoshop CS6 Book for Photographers" by Scott Kelby. If you are working with an earlier edition of Photoshop CS"x", Scott has books available for those versions. You can often purchase those books used on eBay...

BTW: I don't always touch up images and when I do, it is usually of females or of young men with a bad complexion. IMO, having suffered from acne as a youngster, I don't want to increase that suffering by my photography. As we might adjust camera angle and lighting to minimize some problems such as a bald head, thin or fat face and others; I think that it is morally, ethically and artistically O.K. to help out people with poor skin conditions any way we can, including retouching...

As I mentionaed in an earlier post, I have not shown a Portrait Pro retouched portrait to a woman who did not like the results...

Finally: I don't think that there is any way to touch up a profile portrait in Portrait Professional. At least, there wasn't a while ago when I contacted the Portrait Professional help desk...

[Shadowman]

You can do everything in Photoshop (and likely Photoshop Elements) that you can do using Portrait Professional. However it takes both skill and time. The defaults in Portrait Professional do a fairly good job and you very often end up with a portrait of how the female "would like to look"...

Finally: I don't think that there is any way to touch up a profile portrait in Portrait Professional. At least, there wasn't a while ago when I contacted the Portrait Professional help desk...

True, but it takes so much longer in Photoshop. Actually, the only issue I had with Photoshop Elements was a portrait I shot in a studio. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get rid of the noise underneath the subject's chin. It made her look like she had a beard. One swipe with Portrait Professional and the problem was solved. Perhaps there is a quick edit function within Elements that would do the same. And by the way, the noise editing function in PSE is very limited.

[Colin Southern]

True, but it takes so much longer in Photoshop.

But one can get a MUCH better result, and with practice I can retouch a portrait in about 15 minutes.

[Shadowman]

But one can get a MUCH better result, and with practice I can retouch a portrait in about 15 minutes.

I can do a standard editing workflow in about 15 minutes, but add any use of brushes, dodge and burn tools and start adding on the minutes. The problems I was having (excess noise around the chin and neck) could have been cured with the spot healing brush or clone stamp tool but it was so much easier with Portrait Professional. Granted my setup (or should I say the main photographers) was less than stealor, I was shooting over his shoulder and he had two lights setup and a strobe which he was firing electronically, I was tagging onto his light afterward.

[hoffstriker]

But one can get a MUCH better result, and with practice I can retouch a portrait in about 15 minutes.

Very true, but what takes 15 min. in PS takes 5 in PP. And unfortunately, a lot of people like the results. When you are editing 100 or so photos for "first looks" let me tell you Colin, that extra time adds up. I also would like to note, The final image I use for submission is always reedited off the plain raw with my photoshop guru next to me. Maybe someday I'll take a class on PS and not have to rely on help, but right now I'm just too busy. I'm getting better though.

[dubaiphil]

I've used it very occasionally. I echo everyone else's sentiments - it's very easy to go over the top and see how Michael Jackson's surgeons drew their inspiration.

[Colin Southern]

Very true, but what takes 15 min. in PS takes 5 in PP. And unfortunately, a lot of people like the results. When you are editing 100 or so photos for "first looks" let me tell you Colin, that extra time adds up. I also would like to note, The final image I use for submission is always reedited off the plain raw with my photoshop guru next to me. Maybe someday I'll take a class on PS and not have to rely on help, but right now I'm just too busy. I'm getting better though.

Hi Chris,

I batch process images for levels / saturation etc (what I term "level 1" processing) (so one can do 50 or 100 images at once) and then present those to the client for initial selects -- then I process those selects to "Level 2" which includes normal retouching. I probably spent a couple of hours on around 400 images

100 images @ 5 min ea is 8 hours of work!

[hoffstriker]

Hi Chris,

I batch process images for levels / saturation etc (what I term "level 1" processing) (so one can do 50 or 100 images at once) and then present those to the client for initial selects -- then I process those selects to "Level 2" which includes normal retouching. I probably spent a couple of hours on around 400 images

100 images @ 5 min ea is 8 hours of work!

Exactly my point. I don't do too much batch work, because of so many variables. Mainly different locations and different lighting. My "level 2" is usually on no more than 5 images outta the batch. I spend a lot of time and I have no extra to spend with trying to do massive edits to photos that will never be used in PS.

With my PJ work, I'm usually going through anywhere from 1200 photos (for a football game) to 36 for a fluff piece. Funny thing is, they both take me an equal amount of time. Around 2 hours from bringing into LR to upload to my editor. Keep in mind that includes writing tags on all photos submitted. I submit anywhere from 8-20 depending upon the event. These jobs I do batch edits because the edits are so minimal there is no reason not to.