Best methods/software for Portraits

Okay I'm a Mac person for a reason- they make my on a computer doable. I am not a real literate person on a computer even though I've been using Mac's since before the Internet.

One of my major focuses in photography is headshot portraits and most of these are of women and men above fifty. Processing us older people can be really difficult, my MKIII/85L shows skinmand wrinkles far in excess of what I notice when talking to a person.

Yes, yes the lighting and yes I have a 74"'Octabank but shoot more in available light looking for both softness and yet hanging on to some of the character each person has.

Smoothing e erything over is not an option, I have to show most of what is without making what is distracting.

I have CS5 but have been too intimidated to learn it- yes I have 3 books at least but can't seem to keep the attention concerted enough to make a go of it. Live classes are out of the question as I have very damaged hearing and have to read lips to assist what I can hear.


So my base software is LR3 and Imadd to this Portrait professional but it's a love hate affair, when I download to it I have to contiguity their whole point process only to usually turn off all the auto stuff when Infinally get to where I can work on the image.

Okay to cut this short, I'm never quite satisfied with what happens to the skin, it's at best okay but seldom what I want to say is entirely satisfactory.

I would love to keep documenting beautifully the senior citizens of the world for another decade or more but the image processing has to improve and make more sense in the process.

https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=11189343#po​st11189343

This techniques explained, and some more links. Maybe too in-depth / technical: https://photography-on-the.net …27728&highlight​=frequency

I haven't used it, but Imagenomic Portraiture has a pretty good reputation. They have a plugin for Lightroom. Download the trial and see if it is better than what you are using now.

Thanks, I've got it bookmarked for the moment.

Jannie, one thing to bear in mind, and you mentioned it in your post, is that the software packages for portraits have a reputation for overdoing things when you use the default settings. This means you have to tweak them to get the results you want -- it's not good for automatic in/out processing. A lot of people actually prefer to use them as Photoshop plugins to give them even more control because then they can put the adjustments on their own layer and work with things like Opacity.

Now, I've heard a lot of portrait photographers go even farther and have stopped using these apps because they are happier doing the work in Photoshop alone. And, of course, some of us stubborn souls would like to master the Lightroom brushes to the extent that a professional portrait job could be accomplished in LR3!

Anyway, I'm not trying to scare you away from those apps, just giving you a heads up there -- try them out but be sure not to just take the default settings. Put some work in things and you might get very nice results!

Jannie--
Always lots of live portrait retouching webinars to be found here:

http://www.retouchpro.​com …-dresser-rebroadcast.html

I use Portrait Professional occasionally with pretty good results. However, I always start it without any default settings and work my way thru the processing very gently.

Even so, there are times the plugin won't do (or can't do) what needs to be done to the image. Then its over to Photoshop. There are times for me at least when Photoshop is the only way to touch-up portraits. There are some step by step procedures and actions that can help but like a lot of images each requires special attention. Try using Portrait Pro w/o any defaults (your image should initially appear as the original) then moving the adjustments slowly.

I used Portrait Professional for a while, but I stopped using it when it seemed like I was turning most stuff off as well. I've been using Imagenomic Portraiture now for a while, first as a CS4 plugin and now on 64-bit CS5, and I'm quite happy with the results. It focuses just on skin smoothing and doesn't go overboard with the processing on the lowest two settings (where you can still adjust things). I'll often use the lowest setting first and then use the healing brush in CS5 to fix small blemishes and things that didn't get fixed.

Imagenomic Portraiture works quite well, imho.

Well one of the things I struggle with in PP is skin textures, there are 5 settings and I knd of think they are all weird sometimes and it's a matter of choosing the least offensive. Generally with a person under 50 or who's skin is in good shape, Intend to do well with LR3.

I'll do the trial on the one suggested but kind of thinking that since I already have CS5 maybe I should gomslowly and learn it, doing all I can in LR3 (it's almost automatic flying through it- I love it.
Thanks for all the input.

sdipirro wrote in post #11230766
I've been using Imagenomic Portraiture now for a while, first as a CS4 plugin and now on 64-bit CS5.... It focuses just on skin smoothing. I'll often use the lowest setting first and then use the healing brush in CS5 to fix small blemishes and things that didn't get fixed.

Portraiture doesn't fix blemishes? And other things? Could you elaborate on what would those be?