Portrait Professional

Portrait Professional or Portrait Pro is a Windows and Mac based portrait imaging enhancement software targeted at professional and keen amateur photographers. Developed by Anthropics Technology Ltd and first released in July 2006, it has been in continuous development ever since.

The current software, version 15, was released September 16, 2015, skipping versions 13 and 14. The just-previous version, 12, was released in March 2014.

PortraitPro, PortraitPro Studio, and PortraitPro Studio Max are image editors for Windows and Mac OS X, specifically targeted at editing portrait photographs.^[1]

Rather than using brushes alone as a traditional image editor does, the user of Portrait Professional first describes where the face is in the picture,^[2] then most of the transformations are done through sliders. One of the unique, but controversial^[3] abilities is automatically reshaping the face to fit a model of beauty.^[4][5]

The Studio editions do the above and additionally handle raw files, 16 bit per color component TIFF files and color profiles. It is also available as a Photoshop plugin.

Features

Below is a list of the features currently available in the latest version of PortraitPro, version 15: ^[6]

• Automatically detect faces in an image ^[7]
• Reshape all or any aspect of the face
• Corrects skin blemishes such as spots or pimples ^[8]
• Smooth out and neaten hair
• Thicken and re-color hair.^[9]
• Reduce and/or remove wrinkles
• Remove grease, sweat or shine highlights from the skin
• Adjust the lighting on the face
• Add realistic looking makeup^[10]
• Remove red eye
• Recolor eyes
• Whiten teeth and eyes ^[11]
• Sharpen individual features like eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth
• Add make-up - cosmetic applications such as lipstick and eye shadow

Plugin

Portrait Professional Studio functions as a standalone, as a Photoshop plugin and as a plugin to Elements, Lightroom, and Aperture^[12]

Language availability

PortraitPro is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.^[13]

Cultural impact

The cultural impact of airbrushing software being readily available to anyone is a proliferation of airbrushed images being used on social media profiles and online dating sites.^[14]

Portrait editing software such as Portrait Professional enables anyone to easily alter their own portrait photographs, making themselves look younger, with less wrinkles and blemishes.^[15][16]

History

Portrait Professional was originally known as My Perfect Picture.^[17] Portrait Professional started at version 4. It required a web server to process the image. Version 5 did so as well.^[18] Version 6 was the first version to run without needing a connection to a web server.

Version 8 improved face sculpting and slimming, user interface, color calibration and raw support in the Studio version.^[19]

Version 9 was the first version to offer ClearSkin skin improving technology and also to work as a standalone and as a Photoshop plugin. Other improvements included the ability to handle profile views, a batch mode, and an intelligent touch up brush.^[20] In response to customer requests, version 10 had improved plugin support for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, a new child mode, and an enhance skin only mode.^[21] Major improvements in version 11 (November 2012) included its automated face and feature finder, an improved handling of multiple faces within one session, and improved face contouring and slimming.^[22]

Version 12, released in March 2014, was rebranded PortraitPro. Major improvements included the ability to change the lighting on the face,^[23] improved feature enhancing, and in the Studio Max edition only, an automatic batch mode with the ability to automatically determine age and gender of each face.^[24]

Versions 13 and 14 were skipped; the next version sold was 15.^[25]

Tools

Presets. Known as Saved Sliders or Presets depending on version, these are pre-loaded slider settings that have been determined to work best for a particular subject, for example to make a young woman look glamorous.

Touch Up/ Restore Brush. The former paints over spots or blemishes in the skin that have not been eliminated automatically; the latter restores them. Adjust the size and strength of the brush with the sliders beside it.

Batch Mode. Developed to particularly appeal to those photographers who retouch a high volume of photos.

Face Sculpt Controls subtly reshape the face to beautify facial features.^[26]

Skin Smoothing Controls improve the appearance of the skin. Also provides tools to refine the areas that Portrait Professional treats as skin.^[26]

Eye Controls improve the appearance of the eyes. Also provides an option to enable red-eye removal.^[26]

Mouth and Nose Controls improve the appearance of the mouth and nose.^[26]

Skin Coloring Controls alter the color of the skin.^[26]

Skin Lighting Controls enhance the lighting on the skin.^[26]

Makeup Controls add and enhance makeup in a portrait. Adjust eyeliner, eyshadow, lipstick, blusher, mascara. Added in version 15 of the software. ^[27]

Hair Controls improve the appearance of the hair. Also provides tools to let you refine the areas that Portrait Professional treats as hair.^[26]

Picture Controls are for various aspects of the whole image, such as brightness and contrast. Also provide a cropping tool.^[26]

See also

• Raster Graphics Editors

References

External links

• Official website