So I get non-stop ads flash up for Portrait Professional softwear no matter what I do on-line and it's really starting to bug me.
Hi David,
Welcome to the internet, where clicking on a link once will haunt you forever. I also get irritated by that, especially if I have already bought a product after thorough internet investigations.
Generally, in the ads, the retouching looks like it was done by a chimp and looks plastic and terrible.
Curious if that was just the ads I clicked the link today and was STUNNED at how bad the sample photos are.
Not the original photos - the retouched versions.
As always, there is the possibility to reduce (or increase) the amounts of correction that one applies. Just like with food, seasoning with salt, herbs, and spices, requires a delicate hand. I guess it's also similar to the over-processed HDRI tonemapping, at which I usually cringe.
Does anyone actually use this ??
Yes, and it's a real time saver, just dial back some of the controls, and create one or more presets that are more to your liking. I'm not saying one cannot do a better job by laborious retouching, but that takes
a lot more time and experience to do better than Portrait Professional can achieve in a fraction of the time.
Cheers,
Bart
P.S. I've added a before/after animated example (not necessarily how I'd prefer doing it myself), demonstrating how much effect a 're-lighting' operation and some skin-tone adjustment (removing the reddishness as with make-up) has. That would take a lot of work to do without the assistamce of Portrait Professional. The original shot's lighting is pretty poor for a flattering portrait shot, but then I assume that a glamorous depiction wasn't the goal. One can of course also blend the result with the original.
