Imagenomic Portraiture 2
We liked the previous version of Imagenomic’s Portraiture a lot so we were surprised at how much they’ve improved an already great plug-in for retouching your portraits. For starters, the attractive new interface alone is worth the upgrade (free for Portraiture 1 users), making the program more intuitive thanks to a handy preset manager for one-click skin retouching. Other features we like in Portraiture 2 include its Automatic Skin Tones Mask generation and Advanced Skin Masking controls for selecting, feathering and refining specific areas. There are also new enhancement sliders, new history control, and a real-time mask preview. More than just a face-lift, Portraiture 2 adds extra control and improved ease-of-use.
Nik Silver Efex Pro
B&W photography is not dead, it’s just gone digital. That’s the thinking behind Nik Silver Efex Pro, a fantastic plug-in for converting your color images into B&W. Nik Silver Efex Pro does more than just convert your shots though, it offers approximately 30 different preset B&W effects including everything from basic under or over exposure by a stop, to a funky high contrast look, a classic looking ambrotype, or a unique Holga or pinhole camera look. If you’re not happy with a preset you can manually tweak the effect using a range of sliders and adjustments including Nik’s powerful U Point technology which lets you easily change specific parts of an image. For classic film lovers, there are also 18 specific film emulsion effects including everything from Kodak ISO 32 Panatomic X to Fuji Neopan Pro 1600 to Ilford Delta 3200 Pro. You may never miss shooting with B&W film again!
Alien Skin Bokeh
If you’ve captured a portrait or a still life and the lens you used didn’t produce the desired beautiful blur behind your subject—what the Japanese and photographers refer to as “bokeh”—there wasn’t a lot you could do about it until recently. The new Bokeh plug-in from Alien Skin Software is the latest program which can reproduce that attractive blur behind your subject with just a couple of clicks. Alien’s Skin’s Bokeh provides you with a variety of tools to get whatever blurred effect you want—everything from simulated tilt-shift to adjusted depth of field, vignettes, and 11 options for adjusting the aperture shape.
Vertus Fluid Mask 3
If you hate masking, then Vertus’ Fluid Mask 3 is the plug-in for you. Though there are a lot of programs on the market that try to simplify the image extraction process, Fluid Mask is, hands down, our favorite for how fast, intuitive and effective it is. In version 3, Vertus has improved the “Smart Blending” capability which more easily separates problem areas such as tree leaves or human hair from the background. Vertus also ramped up the processing speed in Fluid Mask 3 so your image extractions are converted more quickly.
PearlyWhites & Shine-Off from Image Trends, Inc.
Simplicity, thy name is Image Trends Inc! We use both PearlyWhites and Shine-Off on a regular basis for our portraits. First off there’s PearlyWhites, which quickly remedies a problem with digital cameras—they’re prone to giving white teeth a yellow cast. Simply run your image through the program and restore teeth to gleaming white. Shine-Off, which Image Trends calls “Digital Face Powder,” will quickly fix the shiny effects of harsh direct lighting. One or two clicks and voilà, skin is looking smooth and soft.
