What software do you use to polish pictures?

[sirsean52]

I'm noticing alot of people's pictures on here are well polished. Can someone tell me what they are using or what I need to do to achieve that quality? I'm going to post 3 of my pictures so that you can see where I am.

[AllenAyres]

The standard is Photoshop, did you mean something more specific?

[sirsean52]

Like this one. We use CS4, but I'm trying to see if there's something else that we can do to polish them better.


http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...d.php?t=110222

[S-Man]

I do 95% of the work in LightRoom 2, then move over to PS for blemish, skin smoothing, and cloning work.

Oh, and where would we be without Picasa!

[AllenAyres]

Originally Posted by sirsean52

Like this one. We use CS4, but I'm trying to see if there's something else that we can do to polish them better.


http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...d.php?t=110222

If you mean 'skin smoothing', most people obtain that with several actions (like Boutwell's Pro Retouch - very good), or a photoshop plugin (like imagenemonic's Portraiture - also Very Good). A noise-reducing software like imagenemonic's Noiseware can also smooth/polish the skin a bit.

There are others, but the above do an excellent job in the right hands.

[texkam]

or a photoshop plugin (like imagenemonic's Portraiture

If I may hijack a bit ...... So what's the best technique in PS, CS3 off the shelf (no pug-ins)? Other than the healing/patch tools.

[S-Man]

Alot of people use a dodge and burn technique that is time consuming and tedious, using various masks and layers (i think) but the results can look amazing when executed properly. Some of the 'real' pros actually prefer this method to any plugin.

Since I'm no 'pro', I'm just fine using Imagenomic's Portraiture plugin for PS. It works wonders. I combine that with the patch tool and the skin looks great if you don't over do it.

[Rson]

I love imagenomic for noise and slight cleaning of skin. Other than that, ProRetouch is my go to action.

[rockpics]

Not a pro at this either, but sometimes I duplicate the background layer, apply some gaussian blur, layer mask to hide all and then paint blur back in to some slight degree, more in some places than others.

[Cajungaltx]

Imagenomic.... best plug in ever.

[txphotog]

nik color efex pro 3.0- tons of options but I like the dynamic skin softener.

[d2creative]

What about Portrait Professional?
http://www.portraitprofessional.com/...FRxNagodnRRiNQ

Looks like it does even more than just skin smoothing... even changes the structure of the face!

[Nena2007]

I love Imagenomic Portraiture!! :)

[epoh]

Since I can't afford portraiture i had to find another way. I found a great tutorial online that walks you through the steps. I'll post a link when I get home. But you can see the results here: origional shot - http://anticipate.org/_z/brittany/IMG_2134_orig.jpg after skin smoothing - http://anticipate.org/_z/brittany/IMG_2134_vin.jpg (sorry for the large size!)

ETA: Link! http://psd.tutsplus.com/photo-effect...al-retouching/