Anthropics Portrait Professional Studio 10.9.3 Portable 47.8 Mb Portrait Professional is a sophisticated computer program that has been trained in male and female beauty. The software has been shown hundreds of examples of beautiful photographs of human faces, and using sophisticated statistical techniques, it has learnt how to subtly enhance. Anthropics Technology has indeed done just that with Protrait Professional, a very simple-to-use application that applies the tricks of the trade to any portrait. But the program can go a bit.
- Getting started in PortraitPro 15 is simple. If you’re using the standalone application, simply open the file you wish to work on. From Photoshop (if you’re using the Studio or Studio Max version), go to the Filters menu and Select Anthropics Portrait Professional.
- ANTHROPICS PORTRAITPRO 21: Highly automated portrait retouching software that can be a real time-saver for professional portraitists but also comes in versions priced within the budgets of casual wedding photographers.
When it comes to portrait photography, there seem to be two predominant schools of thought. The first says that retouching is bad, that people should be presented as they are and retouching is a no-no. The second school of thought says that when people have their portrait taken, it should be an idealistic representation of the person, flattering the subject and minimizing any flaws.
The truth, however, probably lies somewhere in the middle. When people have their portrait taken, they want the photographer to make them look as good as possible. Most portraiture requires some level of retouching, and truth be told, retouching was in vogue long before the digital age. Digital photography, however, has brought with it some new tools. One of those tools is PortraitPro 15, from Anthropics Technology.
PortraitPro 15 is available as a standalone application, or as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture. There are three different versions available; Standard, Studio, and Studio Max. PortraitPro Standard is the standalone version, which also has a few other limitations. PortraitPro Studio and Studio Max can both be used as plugins, and they also offer a variety of other options including RAW file support, color profile support, the ability to read and write TIFF and PNG files in 16-bit mode, and a batch dialog. The Studio Max version also offers a Full Batch Mode to greatly speed up your workflow. Compare all editions of PortraitPro 15 here.
Getting started in PortraitPro 15 is simple. If you’re using the standalone application, simply open the file you wish to work on. From Photoshop (if you’re using the Studio or Studio Max version), go to the Filters menu and Select Anthropics > Portrait Professional.
Once your image is open, PortraitPro 15 will detect the facial outline of the subject. It will sometimes detect gender and age, or it may ask if the subject is male or female or a young girl or boy under 12. You will then be shown a side-by-side comparison, with the image on the left showing the outlines of the face that the software will use for its retouching. These outlines can be adjusted to provide better accuracy, but the software does a pretty good job of selecting facial features on its own. On the right is a preview of what the subject will look like after the retouching is applied.
On the far right, you will see a navigator window that allows you to move around the image easily. Beneath that is a list of presets so you can easily apply a particular look to your subject. Beneath the presets is a group of “Portrait Improving Sliders”. Some of these sliders, particularly Face Sculpting may seem a bit controversial. Like most digital photo editing tools, you can certainly go too far with its use. But, there are times when it has come in handy and improved the subject, such as when one eye may not be fully open. As with all things, moderation is the key to using these sliders.
PortraitPro 15 is an excellent application for quick and easy retouching of portraits. Blemish retouching, eye enhancing, and cleanup of hair is simple and can PortraitPro 15 can provide a nice finished look to a portrait. In addition, the ability to adjust lighting can give added pop and make a flatly lit portrait much more interesting. The same goes for the ability to add or enhance makeup. It’s easy to see the effects of the changes you make usingPortraitPro and compare them to the unretouched photo, so you can judge the edits as you work.
My biggest issue with PortraitPro 15 is that it’s easy to go too far with an adjustment and suddenly your image looks fake or digitized, almost like a 3D animation. Like most photo-enhancing filters, a little goes a long way and moderation is required. In the right hands, PortraitPro can be an awesome editing tool. In the wrong hands, it can return some ugly results. Additionally, PortraitPro appears to have some issues when one eye is covered by hair or a hat, or when the face is at a 3/4 angle to the camera. So in those situations, you’ll need to pay extra attention to your selections, and in the case where one eye is hidden, set all sliders for that eye to zero.
Portrait Pro Software
My other issue with PortraitPro is that it does seem to be a resource hog. As soon as I enter the plugin from Photoshop, the fan on my 2014 iMac (with the max amount of RAM) starts up and keeps going until I’m done. Some of the adjustments are slow, and on my machine, adjusting the outlines takes a moment as my computer catches up.
Overall, I love PortraitPro 15 and the ability it has to retouch portraits quickly and easily. While I prefer not to use all of the features all of the time, such as face sculpting or skin lighting, things such as skin smoothing and eye retouching really help give my portraits a finished look. The learning curve is not terribly high and it is fairly easy to tell when you’ve gone too far. It’s become an essential part of my portrait workflow.
ANTHROPICS PORTRAITPRO 21: Highly automated portrait retouching software that can be a real time-saver for professional portraitists but also comes in versions priced within the budgets of casual wedding photographers. Offering the most comprehensive retouching toolset currently available, it will require time to explore its capabilities but can yield good results for users who can work within its limitations.
RRP: $80 – 240
Now in its 21st version, UK-based Anthropics’ portrait retouching software has long been popular with studio ‘glamour’ photographers but has steadily evolved to become a very powerful application. The latest version provides the most comprehensive retouching toolset currently available and includes artificial intelligence with image processing algorithms that make the software as easy-to-use as possible. Sophisticated automation enables the software to identify faces as images are uploaded and classify them by gender and whether they are adult or child.
PortraitPro 21 will also apply automatic enhancements to colours and tones, eye, lip and face shapes and hair. In many cases these are subtle enough to be acceptable without further adjustments, making PortraitPro 21 a great time saver. This feature makes it especially useful for wedding photographers who like to display their photos to wedding guests as soon as possible after the ceremony. It could also be handy for school photographers when editing individual portraits.
Anthropics Portrait Professional Studio
Like previous versions, PortraitPro 21 comes in three editions to suit different types of users. The Standard edition ($79.95) is a stand-alone application targeted mainly at amateur users. It only works with JPEG or TIFF files, doesn’t support batch processing or 48-bit colour, and is unable to handle raw files or files with embedded colour profiles.
The Studio ($119.95) and Studio Max ($239.95) editions offer the ability to process raw files and can work with 48-bit colour. They also allow users to convert files between different colour spaces and both versions can operate as a plug-in that can be launched from Photoshop or as an external editor with Lightroom.
The main difference between the two Studio editions is the speed available for batch processing. The Studio edition only supports manual batch processing while Studio Max offers an automated Full Batch mode that can apply the same adjustments to a selected batch of files and will deliver finished images much faster.
Anthropics offers a free trial of PortraitPro 21 through its website at https://www.anthropics.com/portraitpro/download/.
New features in the latest edition include:
– Sky Replacement, which uses technology from the company’s LandscapePro application to enable users to change skies with the click of a button. PortraitPro 21 will change the overall look of the image to reflect the mood of the new sky. A selection of pre-selected stock images is included with the software and users can upload their own sky images for a more authentic look.
– Lighting Brushes enable users to ‘paint on’ different light effects and improve portraits by modifying shadows and highlights as well as adding localised brightness with different light sources. From glowing light streams to realistic re-lighting elements, these new tools are powerful as well as quick and easy to use.
– The new Clone tool provides precise control when removing items or imperfections by allowing users to copy exact details and colour from one area of an image to another.
– The History tool enables users to quickly and easily switch between any recent state of the image within the current working session, allowing users to track individual changes and restore a portion of an image to an earlier state.
– Hair Highlights tools make it easy to add highlights or ombre-style treatments to subjects’ hair and enable users to customise undertones, adjust strength and increase vibrancy for professional colouring results. These tools augment existing tools for modifying hair colour, texture and contrast.
– Colour styles allow users to quickly change the appearance of their photographs with filter-like features, optimised colour handling and a master slider for skin lightening and colouring. A special feature (also new) adds the ability to add and move individual catchlights in subjects’ eyes.
– De-Noising and Sharpening tools provide a quick and easy way to reduce noise and sharpen images without sacrificing quality. These tools are handy when working on images shot in low light levels and with high ISO settings and/or slow shutter speeds.
– Another useful tool is the Layers function, which can be used for background replacements, especially when removing unwanted people or other items from the image. Area brush tools are also available for refining the area covered by a layer mask where the automatic pre-set doesn’t quite get the boundaries right.
All brush tools are ‘smart’ brushes, which can automatically detect the edges of regions in an image. However, adjustable sliders enable users to fine-tune brush sizes. In addition, functions like Extend are available for painting over areas you want to include in the mask, along with a Cut Back control for selecting areas you want to remove.
Portrait Professional Pro
Distributor: Anthropics Technology, https://www.anthropics.com/