Full reviewWhen we reviewed Portrait Professional Studio 11 in June 2013 we judged it to be easy and fun to use and 'a great time-saver for anyone who makes a living photographing people, particularly those concerned about their image'. The latest version of the software, which was released recently by developer, Anthropics Technology, includes some worthwhile enhancements that make an already good application better and more relevant to potential users. 
The latest version of Portrait Professional when supplied as a boxed product. (Source: Anthropics Technology.) Who's it For?
Portrait Professional software is highly specialised and only usable for re-touching portraits. Like the previous version, Version 12 can be used as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in that can be launched from Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop Elements to enhance an image that is being worked upon. We looked at this aspect of the software in our original review and nothing has changed since then. The software has an easy-to-use interface with many functions controlled by sliders that are user-adjustable so if the automatic setting is too strong or too weak it is easily tweaked. Its price tag is low enough to fit within the 'affordable' range for amateur portraitists and be seen as a bargain for entry-level wedding and portrait photographers, particularly during periods of 'discount' pricing. It's particularly well-suited to portrait photographer specialising in glamour photography. Versions
Portrait Professional 12 comes in three versions, Standard, Studio and Studio Max with different levels of functionality. We used the Studio Max version for this review. The table below lists the main features of the software and indicates which versions they appear in. Feature
| Standard
| Studio
| Studio Max
| RRP ($AU)
| $99.90
| $159.90
| $299.90
| Automatic batch facility
| No
| No
| Yes
| Manual batch facility
| No
| Yes
| No
| Available as a Photoshop plug-in
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Available as a Lightroom plug-in
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Available as an Aperture plug-in
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Reads Camera Raw format
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Reads DNG format
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Read & write TIFFs and PNGs containing 48 bits/colour
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Support for JPEG, PNG and TIFF embedded colour profiles
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Supports conversion between different colour spaces
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Supports setting monitor and working colour spaces
| No
| Yes
| Yes
| Fully automatic gender and age detection
| No
| No
| Yes
| Skin smoothing
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Skin re-lighting
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Skin re-colouring
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Face sculpting
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Eye enhancing
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Hair enhancing
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Mouth enhancing
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Manual touch-up brush
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Picture controls
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Unlimited fully-customisable presets
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Enhance more than one person in a photo
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Read and write JPEG, PNG and TIFF format images
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
| Free online support
| Yes
| Yes
| Yes
|
What's New?
The user interface hasn't changed significantly, with large 'before' and 'after' preview windows and the tool panel docked along the right hand side of the screen. The image displays make maximum use of the screen 'real estate' available. The main changes appear to have been to the processing algorithms that identify and classify facial features and allow them to be manipulated. The new version also appears to offer more attractive and usable automatic enhancements when a file is first opened - at least most of the time.
An example of a portrait that was attractively enhanced with the automatic tools in Portrait Professional 12. The latest version includes the following enhancements: 1. Automatic gender and age detection tools that can detect the gender and age of faces in photographs to enable the right enhancements for female, male, or children’s faces to be automatically applied. 
Age and gender detection has been improved in the latest version of the software. (Source: Anthropics Technology.) 2. High-accuracy face and feature finder speeds up and simplifies the user's workflow. A valuable tool for professional users, version 12 claims to have the world’s most accurate commercially available face and feature finder. It has no limit on the number of faces it can find in a photograph and detects at least 147 facial feature points, as well as detecting the skin and hair areas. 
Version 12 continues to outline key facial features and provide easy tools for identifying gender and age. Users can also select individual faces for enhancement from a group portrait. 3.Face re-lighting technology enables users to improve lighting in subtle ways, after the shot was taken. Instead of simply airbrushing faults away, users can apply subtle toning to faces in order to correct unattractive shadows and minimise flaws while achieving a natural-looking result. 
Face relighting tools allow users to apply subtle toning that corrects unattractive shadows and adds modelling to the subject's face. 4. Clearskin4 technology provides a quick and easy way to eliminate skin faults such as wrinkles and spots, and smooth the skin while retaining the original skin texture for more natural and realistic results.
An example of how Clearskin4 technology removes obvious skin blemishes. 5.Improved face slimming and sculpting tools provide significant improvements to existing tools for 'taking off' the weight that the camera is said to put on. 
An example of the use of face sculpting tools to make a subject appear slimmer. (Source: Anthropics Technology.)
6. Improved feature enhancing with significantly improved eye, teeth and mouth enhancement. Teeth whitening is now more natural and there are new controls to clean and whiten eyes as well as moisten lips and add subtle yet effective makeup to eyes. 
Feature enhancement can make eyes appear brighter and lips plumper while also improving the appearance of the subject's skin and hair.
7. Improved skin colour correction tools to enable skin tones to be kept as natural as possible.
Automatic correction of skin colours, coupled with wrinkle smoothing can remove age-related blemishes without creating an unnatural look. PortraitPro version 12 is also four times faster than its predecessor to ensure the fastest and most productive working experience. To ensure the best possible experience, all PortraitPro editions are now available in 64 bit editions as well as legacy 32 bit editions, for users of older computers. PortraitPro has also been integrated with Facebook, enabling users to post the results of portrait enhancements to their Facebook pages. Comments
As with Version 11, a lot depends on the original the software has to work with. Images that are correctly exposed respond well to the automatic adjustments. Poorly-exposed portraits and portraits with unattractive lighting are often over-processed and can end up looking unnatural, as shown in the illustration below. 
An example of the over-processing that can result when the original image is poorly lit and incorrectly exposed. We found the software was able to handle a wide range of skin colours and textures and, although it may not have eliminated all flaws with the automatic processing, it usually corrected most of them. Under- or over-adjustments were usually easy to correct and most times the software delivered the desired improvements without producing unnatural looking results.
The software was able to process Negroid skin automatically as effectively as lighter skin colours. Most blemishes remaining after automatic correction were able to be removed with the Touch Up Brush, which is located at the top of the screen. The size and strength of this brush are adjustable, enabling users to work on small or large areas and it can be used to fade dark marks, smooth wrinkles and eliminate dark or light spots on the subject's skin. 
Before and after images of the subject shown in the screen grab above after the remaining skin defects were corrected with the Touch Up Brush. The Touch Up Brush doesn't solve all problems. We found it was unable to fully correct some of the light patches on our dark skinned subject and we couldn't eliminate very small light spots. It would be nice to have been able to adjust the 'hardness' of the brush as well as its size and strength to make it better able to handle these tasks. Aside from that, the latest version of Portrait Professional provides all the function available in Version 11, including the easy integration with popular image editors, which can be used to touch up minor blemishes that might have been missed. Professional users will welcome the speed increase in the new version, which will save them time, particularly when working on batches of images that need the same basic adjustments. Conclusion
The caveats we noted in our review of Version 11 still apply. You must start with a reasonably good-looking original portrait and the image must be correctly exposed. Although you can do a lot with the software, it can't correct images that were poorly posed or fix really unattractive facial expressions. It also struggles with images that are noticeably darker or lighter than they should be, particularly when details have been lost at either end of the tonal scale. Potential users will need reasonably large files to work on in order to avoid most processing artefacts. We'd suggest a minimum of 3-5MB for JPEGs. However, on the whole the software does what it claims to do quickly and very efficiently and integration with standard editing software applications makes it easier to correct minor flaws that Portrait Professional may have missed. Professional users should find the latest version improves their workflow speed and efficiency. A visit to the Portrait Professional website (www.portraitprofessional.com) allows you to download a free trial, view video demonstrations and tutorials and participate in product forums. You can also download user manuals (Windows and Mac) before committing to purchase the software. | 
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抱着猫的老鼠
