In summary
Portrait Professional software has been developed to provide a quick and easy way to make portrait photographs look the way subjects would like them to. The software was initially developed for cleaning up and smoothing the skin for female subjects. But it’s come a long way since it was first released. The latest version of the software (version 11) incorporates what the company claims to be ‘the world’s most advanced automatic face, hair and feature detector’.
You must start with a reasonably good-looking original portrait and the image must be correctly exposed. Although you can do a lot with the software, it can’t correct images that were poorly posed or fix really unattractive facial expressions. It also struggles with images that are noticeably darker or lighter than they should be, particularly when details have been lost at either end of the tonal scale.
You also need large enough files to work on in order to avoid processing artefacts. We’d suggest at least 5MB for JPEGs.
Sometimes the outline marking on the face isn’t aligned correctly on start-up. However, in most cases it should be easily corrected with manual adjustments. A little more frequently you could encounter situations where the automatic mask for identifying skin areas doesn’t cover the entire face and/or isn’t aligned correctly. Manual adjustments are easily made with the brush tools available but it’s worth checking alignment for every face you work on.
Most of the adjustments are easy to carry out and real-time feedback makes it easy to know when to stop. Be cautious about the extent of the changes you apply. If overdone they can produce a totally artificial and ‘plastic’ look, as shown in the screen grab below
Full review
Portrait Professional software has been developed to provide a quick and easy way to make portrait photographs look the way subjects would like them to. The software was initially developed for cleaning up and smoothing the skin for female subjects. But it’s come a long way since it was first released. The latest version of the software (version 11) incorporates what the company claims to be ‘the world’s most advanced automatic face, hair and feature detector’.
The latest version of Portrait Professional when supplied as a boxed product. (Source: Anthropics Technology.)
Developer, Anthropics Technology, claims the latest version includes improvements in most, if not all, of the many adjustments it provides. In addition to sliders that provide precise control over adjustments, you can find presets for automated corrections for female and male, girl and boy subjects. A handy feature of the package is that it can be used for subjects of all ages, from young to old.
Who’s it For?
This software is purely for re-touching portraits, which makes it relatively specialised. With a slick user interface and easily controlled sliders, it is cheap enough to attract photo enthusiasts but represents a genuine time-saver for professional photographers who shoot portraits or weddings for a living.
It’s particularly well-suited to portrait photographers specialising in glamour photography but will also be handy for those who photograph weddings and events. And, if you don’t overdo the adjustments, it could make the subjects of family portraits very happy with the end results.
Versions
Portrait Professional 11 is available as a fast stand-alone application and also as a plug-in that integrates with Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop Elements. You get both with the Studio and Studio 64 versions. All three versions are compared in the table below, which also shows the discounted pricing that was available when this review was written.
|
Version |
STANDARD |
STUDIO |
STUDIO 64 |
|
RRP |
AU$79.90 (AU$39.95) |
AU$119.90 (AU$59.95) |
AU$239.90 (AU$119.95) |
|
Free online support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Skin smoothing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Face sculpting |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Eye enhancing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Hair enhancing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Mouth enhancing |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Manual touch-up brush |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Picture controls |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Lighting controls |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Unlimited fully customizable presets |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Enhance more than one person in a photo |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Read & write JPEG and TIFF format |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Available as a Photoshop plug-in |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Read camera RAW format |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Read Adobe DNG format |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Read & write TIFFs containing 48 bits per colour |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Supports conversion between different colour spaces |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Supports setting monitor and working colour spaces |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
JPEG and TIFF embedded colour profile support |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Batch dialog to speed workflow |
|
Yes |
Yes |
|
Optimized for 64 bit Windows and Mac |
|
|
Yes |
|
No limit on image size |
|
|
Yes |
How Does it Work?
Its developer claims Portrait Professional has been ‘trained’ in human beauty, which probably means a bunch of algorithms has been developed to identify and classify facial features and allow them to be manipulated. When you open a file, the software will automatically give the face the enhancements it ‘thinks’ it needs. You can over-ride these at any time with the slider controls.
Click on the Open button, or select Open… from the File menu to select the portrait to work on. Select the subject’s gender and age from the dialog box that appears.
Then check that the outline marking the main features on the face is shown correctly. You can change the subject’s expression by raising the points at the corners of the mouth to produce a smile and/or lifting the ends of the eyes slightly.
The Touch Up Brush (indicated by a red arrow in the screen grab below) can be used to remove skin blemishes that weren’t totally corrected by the automatic adjustments. You can adjust the size of the brush (shown as a black circle with a central dot) with the slider at the top of the frame. The restore brush lets you undo changes you don’t like.
If several faces are detected, they ought to be shown in the displayed image. Should the software miss one out ““ or mark in a face that isn’t there ““ you can correct the mark-up with the manual controls. If no faces are detected automatically, a dialog will appear to let you know. When you close that dialog, you will be taken to the manual location tools.
The software can automatically identify individual faces in a group portrait and provide drop-down menus for selecting the subject’s gender and age.
The default setting for the workspace is to display the original portrait on the left of the screen and the enhanced version on the right with the tools panel ranged down the right side of the screen. You can modify the display by using the View Before And After and View After Only tabs above the picture and flip between the before and after views by holding down the Enter key.
You can zoom in on the main parts of the face to check the position of outlines and while using the Touch Up brush on small areas. (This happens automatically when faces are in profile.) Portrait Professional also lets you select individual features, such as one of the eyes or eyebrows ““ or the mouth. We found little need to fine-tune the selections in this way; it seems the outline doesn’t need to be set precisely.
If you’re happy with the automatic adjustments you can save the enhanced portrait by clicking on Save in the File menu at the top left of the screen. If you would like to take a break and resume editing, select Save Session to save the whole project.
Adjustments
One of the best features of Portrait Professional 11 is its live preview function. You can easily see the effects of adjustments in real-time as you are making them and, if you’re not happy with them, hit the Undo button or use the Restore Brush to go back a step or two and try again.
All aspects of facial structure, colours and textures are adjustable, the majority with sliders that provide fine control. The tools panel contains the following adjustments:
1. The Face Sculpt Controls contains sliders for adjusting face shape, nose width, eye tilt and width, mouth shape, the plumpness of lips and the length of the neck. It also has a button for restoring the shape of glasses if they are distorted by other adjustments. These controls allow you to make subjects look slimmer
2. The Skin Smoothing Controls include a button that will show you the area that will be adjusted by masking it in mauve, as shown below. Clicking on the View/Edit Skin Area button lets you adjust the masked area with brushes that can extend it or cut it back.
Other tools in the palette are provided for spot removal, detecting and removing thin wrinkles, fine shadows, pores and shine as well as smoothing skin and adjusting skin texture. A drop-down menu of 10 skin types is provided for the latter.
3. Eye Controls include a drop-down menu with 12 settings for adding reflections to the subject’s eyes plus a button for automatic red-eye removal. There are also sliders for whitening and brightening eyes, sharpening eyes or eyebrows, brightening the iris and darkening the pupil. You can even change the eye colour!
4. Mouth and Nose Controls let you adjust the colour contrast and saturation of the lips and add a moistening effect. The outline of the mouth can also be sharpened and the nose contrast adjusted.
5. The Skin Colouring Controls provide sliders for adjusting the white balance and exposure levels as well as the tint of the skin and cheek colouring. You can also ‘fake’ a tan.
6. Skin Lighting Controls cover adjustments for the contours of the cheekbones as well as sliders for tweaking shadows, contrast and highlights. The Relight slider is for correcting unsatisfactory lighting on the face.
7. The Hair Controls include a Hair Recolour panel that is accessed with a click and shows samples of different options. The change is applied with an overlay and may not work as expected if you make a substantial adjustment to the original colour.
8. The Hair Tidying Controls provide sliders for filling in hair shadows and smoothing the surface of the hair. The result of a 100% adjustment is shown in the screen grab below.
A button in the toolbar lets you return to the original image and start again if you decide you have gone too far for the Restore Brush to make the necessary corrections. There’s also a cropping tool for eliminating unwanted areas in the original shot before the adjusted image is saved. Clicking on the Save button at the top of the workspace lets you save the adjusted image as a JPEG, TIFF or PNG file with a slider for adjusting file size and image quality. Saved files are automatically tagged _pp to indicate they have been edited in Portrait Professional.
Although mainly designed for use on faces, Portrait Professional can also be used on portraits that include other parts of the body, right up to full-body shots. For such images, you should use the skin area tools to identify areas that will require skin enhancements.
Portrait Professional Plug-in
The Studio editions of Portrait Professional include a plug-in the can be launched from Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop Elements to enhance an image that is being worked upon. In Photoshop it is accessed by selecting Filter > Anthropics > Portrait Professional, which transfers the file to Portrait Professional.
Launching Portrait Professional from Photoshop.
When used in this way, the only command in the File menu is Save & Return because once the image has been enhanced in Portrait Professional, you should return to the original editor. The crop tool is not available in plug-in mode because the original editor expects the image to remain the same size after enhancement.
The Portrait Professional filter works like other Photoshop filters in being applied to the current selection (or globally when there is no selection). If the plug-in isn’t installed when Portrait Professional is set up, you can run the installer from the settings menu of Portrait Professional (File>Settings>Plugin>Run Plug-in Installer).
Conclusion
You must start with a reasonably good-looking original portrait and the image must be correctly exposed. Although you can do a lot with the software, it can’t correct images that were poorly posed or fix really unattractive facial expressions. It also struggles with images that are noticeably darker or lighter than they should be, particularly when details have been lost at either end of the tonal scale.
You also need large enough files to work on in order to avoid processing artefacts. We’d suggest at least 5MB for JPEGs.
Sometimes the outline marking on the face isn’t aligned correctly on start-up. However, in most cases it should be easily corrected with manual adjustments. A little more frequently you could encounter situations where the automatic mask for identifying skin areas doesn’t cover the entire face and/or isn’t aligned correctly. Manual adjustments are easily made with the brush tools available but it’s worth checking alignment for every face you work on.
Most of the adjustments are easy to carry out and real-time feedback makes it easy to know when to stop. Be cautious about the extent of the changes you apply. If overdone they can produce a totally artificial and ‘plastic’ look, as shown in the screen grab below
However, for simply ‘cleaning up’ small imperfections and turning spur-of-the-moment portraits into ones that looks as if they were produced in a studio, this software is difficult to fault. It does a great job with mature faces, both female and male, as shown in the screen grabs below.
We had a couple of instances where small artefacts appeared in adjusted images (indicated by a red arrow in the screen grab below). We have no idea what caused them and the Touch Up brush didn’t remove them, although they were easily corrected with the Healing Brush when the adjusted image was opened in Photoshop.
On the whole, Portrait Professional 11 is a great program for enhancing portraits. It’s easy ““ and fun ““ to use and will make your subjects happy to sit for you again. Used carefully it will be a great time-saver for anyone who makes a living photographing people, particularly those concerned about their image.
A word of caution: images that are retouched cannot be used in situations where altering someone’s appearance can have legal consequences. They can’t be used for passport or ID photos and issues will arise if pictures in resumø©s and on dating sites look different from the person in real life. But that’s not the fault of the software.
A visit to the Portrait Professional website allows you to download a free trial, view video demonstrations and tutorials and participate in the product forums. You can also download user manuals (Windows and Mac) from the support page at http://www.portraitprofessional.com/support/.
SPECS
Features: Automatic face detection, enhancements for every facial feature and shape plus hair, slider-controlled adjustments, pop-up help
Systems compatibility: Windows 8, 7, Vista, s XP or 2000; Mac OSX 10.5 or later (Intel Macs only)
Systems requirements: Intel CPU 1Ghz or better
Disk space requirement: 68MB
Minimum RAM: 2GB (for Studio version)
Rating
RRP: Standard AU$79.90, Studio AU$119.90, Studio 64 AU$239.90
- Features: 8.8
- Ease of Use: 8.5
- Performance: 8.5