ArcSoft Portrait+ Review with Discount Code

Portrait+ by ArcSoft is a specialty photo editing program designed for quick and detailed editing of portraits, specifically facial editing.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and as a plug-in for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  It is not designed to edit overall exposure, color, or other features of the full photograph.

The controls of Portrait+ are very similar to other programs on the market and intuitive enough even a novice editor shouldn't have any problem diving right in.  Simple sliders and buttons on the right of the screen for each effect and its intensity or options make finding features easy.

The effects created by things like makeup, skin smoothing, and even smile widening are all very well done but they must be applied with a light hand as any of the effects turned up to full intensity turned out looking fake.  This is true of every portrait retouching program I have ever used.

The automatic facial features and skin detection features are unfortunately awful.  They both require a lot of touch up before beginning edits.  However, the touch up are accomplished with easy to use tools.

Batch editing is offered by Portrait+ but I can't say I trust it considering the auto-selection errors for facial features and skin areas.  If the only adjustments you are adding are a minor clean up preset  you could probably use it to good effect however.

There is an easy save as preset feature that makes batch processing less necessary though.  A quick save as preset and you can quickly apply the same edits to multiple photos after adjusting only the auto skin and facial features selections.

The stand alone versions are admittedly pricey.  However, the plug in version is on the cheap side for a program with so many capabilities.  Still, if you use the cloud version of Photoshop (where you would lose functionality if you stopped your Photoshop subscription), or photo editor outside of the Photoshop family, I would still suggest you at least try the trial version of the stand alone to see if it fits your needs.

The plug in version is pretty much a no-brainer if you ever need to do blemish removal or skin smoothing of any sort.

Also, if you buy direct from ArcSoft they have GENEROUSLY offered a 45% discount to my readers.  That's right almost half off of Portrait+.

That puts the stand alone version at under $100 dollars and the plug in at the cost of a lunch at a family restaurant.

So bottom line that Portrait+ is definitely worth your time to check out.  It will most likely fit your needs for portrait retouching unless you are a "high fashion" photographer.

Thanks to ArcSoft for so generously offering a huge discount to my readers.

Use code Portrait45 at ArcSoft's site to receive your discount.