Tex Loc: Florida

I everyone, this is a great site for information until now i have not used this. But I am interested in purchasing a Portrait software i have see ArcSoft Portrait+, Perfect Portrait and a couple others. I was wondering if any of you use any Portrait software and if you can help me with recomendations.

I am new to Portraits and there aree of lot of appliactions out there (Confused!!!) I use PS CS5 by the way

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Portrait Professional continues to be my favorite,
(and I'm embarrassed to admit I own three different portrait programs)
but there is always growing competition vying for the top spot.

It really depends on how much control you want (versus automated presets and artificial intelligence) and...
whether or not it operates from within your primary work flow tool (like Lightroom or Aperture).

Tex Loc: Florida

thanks for you help, I have also downloaded their free trial.

wbkern Loc: Cedar Falls

Photo Shop should everything you need. :)

Tex Loc: Florida

Thanks, wbkern

KenL Loc: West OZ

I recently downloaded Portrait professional and love it. Very easy to use with sliders for every facial aspect. For brightening and widening and whitening the eye. This alone is worth the small purchase price.

Tex Loc: Florida

Thanks Ken, I am going to purchase this today..

PhotoGator Loc: Florida

Thanks for the suggestion. I use Lightroom 3 and GIMP, should I purchase this? The samples look terrific and really tempting.

Portrait Professional Studio on sale for $59.95
Portrait Professional Standard on sale for $39.95

http://www.portraitprofessional.com/

Tex Loc: Florida

I just purchased the Portrait Professional Studio ( i shoot in RAW) and have been playing with it last night and today it is very easy and i really like the out come.

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

Portrait Professional works best for me - be careful not to overwork it. You can enhance portraits with Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro but the learning curve is heavy. I find PP simple and effective.

PhotoGator Loc: Florida

Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth and just the truth so Help you God?
Do you hearty recommend Portrait Professional Studio?

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Results may vary based on the experience and talents of the user. It may also vary based on the users concept of attractive.
But the software is easy to use and quite capable.

PhotoGator Loc: Florida

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
In my opinion, retouching should be used to remove certain blemishes and imperfections while thriving to retain a natural look.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

I agree! (on both points).

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

I have used one portrait software program in the past with CS4-5. It was "Imagenomic Portraiture". I quit using portraiture software a little over a year ago. I would strongly suggest you learn how to use the native functionality within PS CS5. You have all the tools to make any modifications you want within CS5. Unfortunately people want the easy out. You can tell in their images they want the easy out.

When people get the software they make several mistakes.

1) They overcook the image.
2) They do not correct underlying problems with the image before apply the portraiture actions.
3) They don't know what to correct before they apply softening.
4) They don't know how to modify(slightly) The light in a portrait.
5) They have no idea about how to change the tone via color.
6) THey have no idea how to create contrast via color.
7) THey have no clue about color and luminance whatsoever.

For many of these on this list the Portrait software will not help you. That's the rub. I would say that it depends on what level you want your photos to be at and how much effort you want to put in to get there.
I would say that most would help their photography and excellence more by going over to 500px.com and looking at the editors choice section. The popular section is also very good. You will quickly realize that you have not arrived and know very little. Looking at lots of quality images and how they're lit will improve your images dramatically provided that you practice shooting and spend an equal amount of time trying to emulate the post processing techniques of these images.

The question you have to ask yourself is:

How good to you want to be?