Portraiture or ???????

[David Whatley]

What do you use and why?
TIA
DW

[srwatters]

I assume you're asking about skin smoothing techniques.

I use a combination of hand retouching, Portraiture and/or Nik Color Efx skin smoothing. Rarely will I use the same technique on different body parts. And rarely will I use the tool at full strength. Layers, opacity, and the fade command are my friends.

[ThePhilosopher]

I use portraiture + hand retouching. Usually I'll run a very light portraiture after hand retouching to give even skin tone then duplicate the layer and run a heavier-handed portraiture and tone down the opacity. I'm not a fan the Nik Skin Smoothing.

[flx2000]

portraiture set to default + the heal tool, sometimes the clone tool as well.

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by ThePhilosopher

I'm not a fan the Nik Skin Smoothing.

The trick to Nik is in the selection of the skin tone and the color reach you choose. Play around with those and you might find that it does a better job on some skin types than Portraiture. If you're doing bulk processing, you can't beat Portraiture, but if you have some time to play, Nik will yield some fantastic results.

[The Loft Studios]

Just Photoshop for now.
I've looked into Portraiture and it's an amazing app, but for what I do, I'll continue to use my actions that I already have set up. I downloaded the trial and used it, then compared it to what I already do in Photoshop and there's not much difference. Although, I have to say that it takes me about 30-40 seconds longer thru Photoshop. For me the $200 just isn't worth it.....YET!

[Ahh!]

Portraiture after a little manual touch. I'm also using Ron Nichols to guide the whole process. They have a "one button" connection to Portrature which I like.

[Bo Morrell]

Not to hijack the thread but, on average are skin smoothing techniques done on most portraits?

[Ahh!]

Originally Posted by Bo Morrell

Not to hijack the thread but, on average are skin smoothing techniques done on most portraits?

Me, yes, most of them.

Originally Posted by srwatters

...And rarely will I use the tool at full strength. Layers, opacity, and the fade command are my friends.

Ditto.

[David Whatley]

Thanks Guys, I was wondering what everyone was using for the skin smoothing, so I see its portiture, hands down.

[MicWayWal]

Most of my work to make a person's skin look good is done with the lighting I choose to use with the shot. In post I don't use anything but PS.

[JohnT]

Clone, Healing/Spot Healing, and Portraiture with varying degrees of opacity get the job done for me.

[thumper87]

I've only ever used Photoshop (I was a graphic designer before I was a photographer, so it just came naturally). Duplicate the layer, Dust and scratches on the bottom layer, mask off the top layer and then slowly erase the mask to reveal the smoother skin beneath. I do play with opacity between the 2 layers of course. Before that, I use the clone stamp to get rid of any big stuff.

But I'm definitely going to give Portraiture a try now... I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread!