Overview
Retouching skin by hand is slow and retouching it badly is instant. Portraiture sits between the two. It builds a skin mask from tone rather than a drawn selection, then smooths within that mask at three separate detail scales, so fine grain goes and pore and lash structure stays. The result reads as a good print rather than a plastic one, which is the entire measurement of a tool like this.
The mask is the important part. Skin tone is sampled with an eyedropper and the range is widened or narrowed with hue, saturation and luminance controls, with a preview that shows the mask on its own so what is being affected is never a guess. Eyes, lips, hair and clothing fall outside it automatically once the range is set correctly.
Beyond smoothing there is a set of corrective controls: sharpness, softness, warmth, tint, brightness and contrast applied within the mask only. That means a face can be lifted and warmed independently of the background without a second layer, which is faster than the manual equivalent and easier to dial back later.
Presets carry the whole configuration, and this is where the time saving really lands. A look built on one frame of a shoot applies across the rest, and the batch mode runs the same preset over a folder unattended. For an event or portrait photographer delivering hundreds of frames, that is the difference between a night of work and a coffee break.
What it does well
Detail preserving smoothing
Three separate detail scales are treated independently, so grain and blotching go while pores, lashes and lip texture survive.
Tone based skin mask
Sampled with an eyedropper and refined by hue, saturation and luminance, with a mask-only preview so nothing is guessed.
Corrective controls in mask
Sharpness, softness, warmth, tint, brightness and contrast applied only inside the skin mask, no second layer required.
Presets
A full configuration saved as a preset and applied across a shoot, so a look stays consistent frame to frame.
Batch processing
Run a preset across a whole folder unattended, with output settings and naming controlled from the plug-in.
Changes in this build
- Mask generation retrained, considerably better across darker skin tones.
- Processing moved to the GPU where one is available, several times faster on large files.
- New preset set aimed at natural results for editorial and event work.
- Batch mode gained folder recursion and an output naming template.
- Host support extended to the current cycle of the major photo editors.
What is in the package
- Portraiture plug-in installer for the supported hosts, 64-bit
- Preset library for portrait, editorial and event work
- Batch processing module
- Sample images demonstrating mask setup
- Usage notes on tone sampling
System requirements
| Processor | Intel or AMD 64-bit, quad core recommended |
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB for large files |
| Graphics | GPU with 2 GB VRAM for the accelerated path, optional |
| Storage | 300 MB free |
| Display | 1920 x 1080, calibrated panel recommended |
| System | Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit, with a supported host installed |
Installation
- Install and launch each host editor once so the plug-in folders exist.
- Close every host application.
- Run the installer and tick the hosts to register against.
- Apply the included licence step before opening a host.
- Open an image, run the plug-in, and check the mask preview before adjusting anything.
Before you start
Always check the mask-only preview first, a bad tone sample is the cause of nearly every poor result.
Work on a duplicate layer in the pixel editor so the strength can be dialled back afterwards.
Register against every host at install time, adding one later means running setup again.
Questions about this title
Which hosts are supported?
The installer detects the photo editors and cataloguing applications on the machine and lists them.
Does it work in a catalogue application?
Yes, it registers as an external editor and returns the result into the same catalogue.
Can it run over a folder?
Yes, batch mode applies a preset across a folder unattended.
Does it need a GPU?
No, but the accelerated path is much faster on high resolution files.
About this listing
This entry was checked on a clean install of Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) before it was published, and it is rechecked whenever the package is rebuilt. The figures on this page come from the site index rather than from the publisher, so the download count is what people here have actually pulled.
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