Portraiture 1.0.1

Reviewed by: Mario Georgiou
Published by: Imagenomic
Requires: Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3 or Elements 3/4/5 or a recent edition of a plug-in compliant program; Windows 2000, XP or Vista; Mac OS X 10.3.x/10.4.x; 256MB RAM, 10MB available hard disk spaceMSRP: US$169.95

The Portraiture plug-in is designed is to simplify the process and shorten the time it takes to carry out digital photo portrait retouching. With features like intelligent smoothing and blemish removal, an auto-mask feature that recognizes optimal skin tones and controls for fine-tuning the effect, you really can't go too far wrong. Portraiture is available separately or as part of the Imagenomic Professional Plug-in Suite which also includes Noiseware Professional and RealGrain.

The presets that come with this powerful plug-in, are more than enough to retouch most digital images. However for the user who requires finer control over the look and feel of retouched images there are a wide array of fine control sliders which will allow exacting Retouchers to adjust things to their hearts content.

The plug-in is really easy to use. In fact, I very quickly began asking myself if that was all there was to it. Obviously, there has been a lot of effort put into this tool and it's pretty evident when you see just how simple it is. My only complaint is that although I can see the benefit in time saving alone, I can't understand why Portraiture v1.0.1 is a full $100 more than the Noiseware Plug-in which is also part of the Imagenomic Professional Plug-in Suite along with Portraiture.

Version 1.0.1 is the latest release of Portraiture and fully supports native Intel Mac systems, as well as Microsoft's Vista operating system. Portraiture v1.0.1 is also optimized to support Photoshop CS3 in both its release and public beta versions.

Although there is no built in spot removal or blemish removal tool, the absence is forgivable mainly because those sorts of photo repair tools are almost invariably already part of most photo editors. I did find the Skin Tones Mask capability very impressive. By using a selection tool I was able to restrict the application of the filter to a narrower range of tones making the effect all that more effective.

Cons: The absence of an integrated blemish and spot repair tool is a minor gripe, but the high price is a bit of a concern.

Pros: Fast and easy to use. Highly configurable. Skin Tones Mask feature is very well implemented. The Portraiture v1.0.1 plug-in is the ideal tool for photo studios that deal with portraiture, glamour and fashion imagery. Portraiture is available by itself or as part of the Imagenomic Professional Plug-in Suite. Highly Recommended.