Portrait Professional
Portrait Professional allows photographers to make both subtle and dramatic changes to the sitter's appearance in a portrait. You can use it to fix skin blemishes, remove wrinkles, grease, sweat and shiny highlights, adjust lighting to make it more flattering and perform routine tasks like red eye removal and teeth/eye whitening.
The software's built-in intelligence allows the user to perform retouching operations without the need for special skills. For example, the automatic airbrush "really does do all the hard work for you," according to the vendor. It has a slider control interface, each slider being dedicated to a separate task, such as "Imperfections," "Thin wrinkles," "Fine shadows," "Remove pores," and "Tan." Used to its full extent it will even make adjustments to a face's underlying bone structure.
Portrait Professional comes in two editions: a standard edition for amateur photographers and a professional edition with RAW file and 16-bit support. The pro edition can also be plugged into Photoshop.
Comment
Portrait Professional is a sophisticated retouching package that is a lot easier to use than the equivalent tools in Adobe Photoshop. Where speed is essential, Portrait Professional is a viable option, although the results you can achieve with slider controls may never quite match Photoshop precision.
It has to be said: there is something deeply scary about the way in which Portrait Professional can transform the appearance of the human face.
Tech info
- Plugs into (pro edition of Portrait Professional only): Adobe Photoshop
- OS: Windows 2000 onwards; Mac OS X
- Price level: Standard edition $60; Portrait Professional Studio $80
Anthropics Technology
Based in London, UK, Anthropics Technology is a commercial spin-off from the UK's National Film and Television School.
From the same vendor:
- (two editions of Portrait Professional)
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