Portrait Professional

[DSMITH131]

Have anyone tried this out they have a trial download
http://www.portraitprofessional.com/

[undergrad.]

I could be wrong as I have never used the software but it looks like a dumbed down version of photoshop.

[DSMITH131]

Well I downloaded and messed with it for a couple min. It wont work with raw files, you cant save with the trial, Its not a dumbed down version of photoshop it like a short cut version with limitations. It seem like its not that bad of a program but everything it does you can do in photoshop it just does it quicker but might not be completely to your liking you may have to tweak it a little but it has a lot of controls for that. It will only work on portrait anything below the chin is out. It restructures the facial but you can control the adjustments to your likings removes blemishes add a soft focus and clean up the facial features. I wont make any conclusions now haven't played with it enough but hopefully one of the pro's here can have a look at it and give a little more input

[Bootlegger0173]

If anybody else has a chance to play with this one, I'd be interested in hearing your opinions about it, as well.

[mphodson]

I have it - and think wisely used it is brilliant. Not an alternative to Photoshop - but for editing faces it is quite extraordinary.

There is a version which works with Raw and 16 bit - but not tried that

[Skids]

I have just downloaded the trial and absolutely love it.

I don't have the 'eye' to do this sort of thing in Photoshop and this is just the sort of thing I was looking for.

OK it may be a lazy way to get the job done and could probably be done a lot better by a professional in photoshop but for a layman like me it is perfect.

Now who can lend me £50 to buy it :-)

[u8myufo]

I agree with you, its something than can give you satisfactory results. Here is a comparison before and after. It was just after I bought the camera, I had just popped it down to show me ma8 and his rugrats were in the bath, so I just messed about with different settings on camera. Sometimes it can come out harsher than what is shown before rendering it up, but you just experiment with it, this was my first shot I did so the results speak for themselves. Total time about ten minutes if that.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o125/u8myufo/IMG_0651600x400.jpg



http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o125/u8myufo/IMG_0651_pp1600x400.jpg

[cdifoto]

I have it, I use it, I like it.

[bobbyz]

I have tried the demo and love it. Lot of people doing portraits use it. Sure one can do similar or better in PS but try doing that in couple of mins. I will be buying it soon.

[Bootlegger0173]

I wonder, however- if I would be able to use it easilly, since I'm on dialup and it looks like you'd have to keep loading photos to their terminal?

[cdifoto]

I wonder, however- if I would be able to use it easilly, since I'm on dialup and it looks like you'd have to keep loading photos to their terminal?

It's a standalone application. It's not internet based.

[Bootlegger0173]

Oh, that was the impression that I had gotten about it. I had read somewhere that you had to load your images to their site for them to get analyzed to see how it though best to treat the image. I think the guy said that it was probably some sort of piracy protection for the software. I have never actually seen it used at all.

[cdifoto]

Oh, that was the impression that I had gotten about it. I had read somewhere that you had to load your images to their site for them to get analyzed to see how it though best to treat the image. I think the guy said that it was probably some sort of piracy protection for the software. I have never actually seen it used at all.

Whoever told you that is full of it. I just turned off my wireless card and loaded the program, edited a pic, and saved it.

[u8myufo]

You just buy it from their website, download the demo, and they then send you the activation code to your email address, simple as. :)

[Bootlegger0173]

Outstanding!

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I may give it a try. Doesn't seem bad for the price.

[salexande867]

I have/use the Max version and it does work with RAW files. I really like it. For portraits it saves a lot of time. I never use the feature that changes the shape of the face, but it does great for the skin.

I heard about it on a podcast interview with a very successful portrait photog team. They said they use it a lot with senior portraits and I can see why.

[bobbyz]

Sorry I am getting it confused with Portraiture from Imagenomic, which I think is much better than PortraitProfessional.

Problem with PortraitProfessional is that it only works with face. You can not do anything about the arms, neck etc.

Portraiture does lot more but then cost 3 times more or something like that.

[cdifoto]

Problem with PortraitProfessional is that it only works with face. You can not do anything about the arms, neck etc.

Yes you can. You can mask any part of the image you want.

[Bootlegger0173]

I also think that Imagenomic is probably the better program, but right after the holidays, and with the impending purchase of the 580 EX, it is out of my pricerange.

So, would you recommend using it first, and then re-opening the image in Photoshop to sharpen it properly?

[Bootlegger0173]

Also, in a semi-unrelated question:

I like the skin tone that it does on the faces, but after that, ( say, if working on a 3/4 length shot that had hands or arms visible- how would you go about matching the skin tone to them, so that they looked like they belonged to the same subject?

Or would you just not use that program at all on something like that?

[bobbyz]

Yes you can. You can mask any part of the image you want.

The demo I tried only let me work on the face. Am I confusing it with something else? Isn't this program where you click on eyes, mouth etc. and then you can edit facial features (if you want to) and then you click on some sliders for sking smoothing, teeth/eye whitening etc. If it is then there was nothing in the demo about hands, arms etc.

[cdifoto]

The demo I tried only let me work on the face. Am I confusing it with something else? Isn't this program where you click on eyes, mouth etc. and then you can edit facial features (if you want to) and then you click on some sliders for sking smoothing, teeth/eye whitening etc. If it is then there was nothing in the demo about hands, arms etc.

Maybe the demo is crippled that way. I have the full version and I sat here and masked a girl's arms, neck, chest, etc and it processed those areas just as it did the face. You can also adjust the masking on the face to include or exclude areas as desired. You can't actually sculpt those non-facial areas but you can use the skin cleanup tools. 95% of the time that's good enough for me, since I have no intentions of transforming a large girl into a tiny one. I also find the liquify tools to be easier to use on the body than the face so I can always go there as well...and tweak the Portrait Professional sculpting if desired. It's not a replacement for a photoshop professional but it's excellent for the quicker fixes. At the price you can't really go wrong. Great for senior portraits and such - not powerful enough for a Calvin Klein ad.

[u8myufo]

You got it in one Bobbyz, thats portrait professional. Maybe Cdifoto could enlighten me on using masks and alter skin tones to other parts of the body. When you say in the full version this is possible, are you talking of portrait professional Max version? Because I have the normal full working version and I cannot find any refference to doing this either in the programme itself or on their support site. Maybe I have overlooked something so any advise on how to do that would be great.

[cdifoto]

Once you get through all the steps of the points selection, take a look at the controls. There are little mask icons (the theater type) with pluses and minuses next to them. Those are for adding and removing areas.

I haven't tried it on a group shot though so honestly I can't tell you how it'd do on skin tones there...whether it would try to add a massive ugly global change or if it lets you work on a person at a time and use individual settings. I would imagine the latter since you have to go back to select the 2nd, 3rd, etc person's sculpture points.

[u8myufo]

Nice one thanks a lot, I will give that a go later. :)

[cdifoto]

Oh and to add, you can also increase or decrease the amount of cleanup in specific areas with two other brush type tools. So if you want less emphasis on the neck, mask it off with that brush but use the minus paint brush for reducing the actual strength of the touch-up, or use the plus brush to increase it. Each of the four brushes (+/- masking, +/- retouch) has a size and opacity control slider as well.

Once you start digging into the more detailed controls you'll see that there is quite a bit of complexity to the software. You can adjust skin tones, lip hues, general photo features (shadows, highlights, contrast, etc). You'd just want to experiment a bit and then it'd become second nature.

[Bootlegger0173]

I think that answered my question, as well. Thanks.

[u8myufo]

Well I have gone right through mine a couple of times, and Im buggered if I can see any icons on the control panel. Oh well I have sent their tech support an email.

[cdifoto]

You should have a Tools palette and a Adjust Sliders to Enhance the Face palette. There's also a way to quickly change the skin selection in the top menu. See attached screenshot.
232763

[u8myufo]

Righty ho. I was looking for the icons in the tools palette :o

[JeffreyVB]

Great topic. Just saw an ad for this in Popular Photography and have been playing with the demo. May have to pick this up.

[UPSGuy]

Oh, that was the impression that I had gotten about it. I had read somewhere that you had to load your images to their site for them to get analyzed to see how it though best to treat the image. I think the guy said that it was probably some sort of piracy protection for the software. I have never actually seen it used at all.

Seems like you're not too far-fetched with the idea...

"Version 5 and older do use a server when enhancing each picture. The software contacts our server http://bprocessor.anthropics.com using Internet Explorer settings on the standard HTTP port 80. The server performs a small but vital part of the processing algorithm. Since version 6 the server requirement was removed and the software can now be installed and run on a machine that has never had an internet connection."

[Cybnew]

I just got the MAX version of this program and I am quite impressed. Granted I could do all the work in photoshop, but this speeds it up a little.

[Az2Africa]

I use the Max version. Used sparingly, it is another useful tool. Great for sculpting a face without using liquify.

[zagiace]

I use it, its great. Saves my time for shooting.
I do not use the morphing though.

[BoldBelvoir]

I just tried this and thought the smoothing results looked rather plasticy compared to my tool of choice, Imagenomic's Portraiture plugin.
Other aspects, however, impressed me, such as the sculpting and eye whitening/sharpening.
It's a shame it doesn't come as a PS plugin so it can be used with layers.
Horses for courses, I suppose. Try it and make your own mind up!

[tomdi]

I've just bought it as well. It's a great piece of software.
I am an avid Photoshop User and love using it, but always thought I was loosing too much time working on skins when needed. I can spend more time shooting now :)

Before using it I was afraid it would be too generic, but you can really tweak the settings to fit the skin in the picture.

Tom

[mdw]

Does anyone have some before and after pictures with this program?! :D

[Az2Africa]

263207263208

[Alexajlex]

Just revisited this program and downloaded the demo.
I recommended it highly to a friend that does senior pics.
He really liked it because he does a lot of volume and this will save him time.

[ajayclicks]

Tried the demo. Concerned abt aligning the blue lines to the nose tip etc, the finished results have more imperfections as a result

[Alexajlex]

Tried the demo. Concerned abt aligning the blue lines to the nose tip etc, the finished results have more imperfections as a result


The lines are really flexible and you can drag them up and down to get them to match better. The trick is to put a bit of up and down movement on them. You cannot really truly bend them manually to adjust them.
Take the blue line that shapes the face around the jaw. When you start it is almost always too high. If you move this down to the area where the jaw begins you will notice that it conforms to the face outline quite well.

The only time I've see any have issues is if you try to use this on a non traditional portrait shot. Say you have taken something from a high angle looking down on the subject.

I've tried about 20 different pics with the demo and all came out flawless.

I did try a high angle one just to see what happens and it complained that the distance between the eyes was too close.
After I went trough the whole process I noticed it shifted the nose and it looked like a bad PS job. All I did was turn off the face shaping tools (first button on the panel) and it took care of that.

Overall I was still able to tweak this pic up even though I was asking the software to work on something that is a bit out of it's scope.

Hope this helps.

[ajayclicks]

The only time I've see any have issues is if you try to use this on a non traditional portrait shot. Say you have taken something from a high angle looking down on the subject.



This nails it. I was trying the demo on some baby potraits, where the baby was in the mothers lap, so composition wise, they werent the standard stuff. Infact in one shot, the lens was pointing up- towards the nostrils....

[rks221]

I think you can mask the arms like CdiFoto said but I've only used it on headshots. It seems to be a useful tool for that. I do usually turn off the face shaping features, I found that if the person is smiling or does not have a closed mouth in the shot that the faceshaping does not really work (I know the ask mouth open or closed when you are doing the blue line profiling of the face but I still don't like those results) but for enhancing the eyes and tweaking the skin smoothing I like the sliders and the use of the touchup brush on it.