Mjump54

I am starting to do more portrait shoots and find myself spending a lot of time manually editing in Lightroom and Photoshop for blemishes, skin tone, etc.
What is the best software to purchase for Lightroom/Photoshop that can automate a lot of this process? And is it worth it or do you find manual post work better?

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Give Luminar AI a try

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Luminar AI has a portrait mode which runs from outstanding to outlandish and everything in between. Your choice.
Smile,
JimmyT Sends
😁

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

Definitely try Portrait Pro. I have found it to be better than anything else. Just be careful not to overdo the corrections.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

It is too easy to “overdo the corrections” with Portrait Pro.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Consider looking at PORTRAIT-PRO. There are several versions that offer pre-sets as well as user control levels.

Portrait retouching is an art form in and of itself. Experienced retouchers, mainly old-timers or old-school kinda folks, knew all about facial structure, lighting components of portraiture and importantly, what to retouch and what not to retouch and when to stop retouching to maintain a natural yet flattering likeness.

Inexperienced folks will pick away at blemishes or may attempt to subdue wrinkles and "bags" or discoloration under the eyes without address issues of facia sculpting. The PORTRAIT PRO programme seems to address many of these issues so it can work well for the experienced and novice retoucher.

If you use a preset and feel it is overdone, you can cut back on many of the effects and corrections. It enables a pretty fast workflow.

The subscription is not terribly expensive and upgrades and special deals are offered every now and again. Their customer service is outstanding. Downloading is easy and fast.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Have you tried the soften skin effect with a brush in LR?

But Portrait Pro is having a 50% off sale. https://www.anthropics.com/portraitpro/

R.G. Loc: Scotland

If you do find software that automatically removes blemishes my prediction is that it would be a liability. Things like blemishes need to be assessed individually and dealt with accordingly. I would advise against total removal of blemishes unless specifically requested to do so since it could cause offense.

My advice would be to have a look at presets, filters, automatic adjustments etc and try to work out what they're doing, then learn how to replicate the effects manually. No matter how clever the programming, there will be times when automatic adjustments will not be appropriate. The trouble is, if you become dependent on automatic adjustments your own learning process will stagnate. On the other hand if you learn how to do things yourself you'll be able to optimise every portrait that you work on.

My understanding is that Lr is geared up for giving professionals what they need and a large part of that is adjustments for portraits. I believe that was the inspiration behind the Vibrance tool and the Healing tool. So if you already have Lr you're off to a good start and you have a good learning tool to work with.

jsfphotos Loc: New York, NY

0n1’s PhotoRaw 2021 has a separate Portrait Module with AI and manual settings to not only smooth skin but brighten eyes, teeth, make eyes the same size if the angle was off, etc etc. it’s really good!!!

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I get you.
But, for some, having it done automatically and then seeing how hard it is to back track automated adjustments is all part of the learning process.

anotherview Loc: California

Probably all you need for this purpose already exists in the full Photoshop. You can find the techniques online via YouTube and other sites. I do portraits, too, and use PS for retouching.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

For a light and fairly quick retouching effect try creating a brush in LR with the texture slider moved up to your liking. Brush the skin you want softened and leave the eyes sharp. If all images are too sharp, use the texture slider without a brush for a total softening effect. This could be synced for all images first, and then use the brush effect for faces needing more. It’s been several years since I tried auto retouching software and I’m sure it has improved greatly but I never found it to show realistic and quality results as an automatic solution to retouching. Every face is different and requires a certain custom effect to do justice to your subjects.

jsfphotos Loc: New York, NY

ON1 is non- destructive snd shows a history of edits made. You can always reset to original RAW image and start over.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I've just had a look at Portrait Pro 21 and it sounds like there's quite a lot of control over the adjustments. Plus the automation is there if you want it but the user decides how much is applied and when. In that context there's the opportunity to learn what's being done and to control it. And the OP specifically asked about assisted processing so they're obviously interested.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I use the healing brush in photoshop, so easy.