Sunday 14 March 2010

Portrait Professional 9 - My new best friend

The debate about “photoshoped” or “airbrushed” images of models being used in magazines and advertising is one that’s been rolling on for sometime. But whatever your opinions on the subject the reality is almost everyone wants to look 10 years younger in there studio portraits.

For me that usually means hours on Photoshop reducing wrinkles, smoothing skin and deleting spots. I’ve always viewed it as just another part of the job, but all that has changed thanks to a clever piece of software called Portrait Professional 9 from Anthropics Technology. For the record, I’m in no way connected, employed or getting any kind of kick backs to promote their product, I just love it.



This picture is the final product of about 40 minutes at the computer. Without Portrait Professional that would have been more like 90 minutes. Although the makeup effect was added in Photoshop, the underlying skin tones were smoothed in Portrait Professional.


I could go into great detail about the benefits of the software, but to really understand what a game changer Portrait Professional is I made this short video review.

For a clearer look at the difference, click the image above for a before / after view.

And so the question you really want to know is… What the price of this software ? Unusually for a software company, Anthropics Technology is asking a very fair price of £50.00. Better still for a limited time you can get 10% discount if you use the promo code dp4010 when you buy Portrait Professional online. They also offer a free trial of the software so you can make up your own mind.

10 comments:

Erin Johnson said...

I would love a tutorial on how you did the makeup!!!

Thanks!

Kitty said...

One of the guys at the Camera Club to which I belong, has this software and was raving about it. It's very tempting, I must admit.

Gavin Hoey Training said...

Erin: I've added to the list for a Quick Shot video.

Kitty: If you do lots of portraits (and you like/need this effect) then it will pay for itself in no time. Remember to use the discount code.

Unknown said...

This is an amazing program. I tried the trial version and hinted for it for Christmas. It is really simple and easy to use.

Keyser Söze said...

Nice! I'm gonna download the trial now.

Worst said...

I happened to try version 6 of this software and it was pretty good even then. It does a very good job of cleaning up blemishes in essentially zero time. (Wedding and portrait photographers would hugely benefit from this by the time savings alone.)

What's new in version 9 besides the look?

Keyser Söze said...

Hey Gavin, On this same editing/work-flow topic. Do you Photo Mechanic? I've heard a lot of good things about it. I've been using Picasa and am now starting to use Bridge CS3. I'm curious if it's worth spending money on.

Fernando Barão said...

I don't do so many portraits but now I'm tempting to use it more. I'm with Erin, would be nice to have a tutorial with this software complemented with Photoshop.
What I like most in your tuturiais is the way that you explain it, making seem so simple.
Thank you Gavin.

natts said...

Just bought it!...........thanks to you Gavin

Unknown said...

I got this last week after seeing live demos at Focus on Imaging. It's very powerful but you have to remember not to over cook it, like HDR. I agree with Gavin the face moulding feature should be turned off.

One think I have noticed, if you use it on say a half body shot with a clothed model the effect you apply will be added to clothes. Not sure if that supposed to happen.

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