Portrait Pro 9

Hmmm...I tried this retouching software which is ok to use but its very easy to destroy a picture with it as well. So here it is one pic I retouch with this:

http://www.folio32.com/user/gallery/view/id_55772/name_gheynen/

So what did I do wrong or what do I need to change in the future? Cheers

What did you do wrong? Well, there are a number of things I would change. The first is to go back to the raw image and colour balance it correctly. It may also require some exposure adjustment. Then look to see if the raw image is sharp.

Then get rid of Portrait Professional which in my opinion, is just junk, and use something like Imagenomic Portraiture instead. This is an excellent product and well worth the USD 200 price tag for any photographer working a high volume workflow. But you have to remember that less is more in the case of any skin retouching.

Or you could do what I have done and that is learn "proper" retouching techniques and do it manually - but be prepared to spend anywhere between 1-4 hours per image if you do it manually!

Perfect that was just clear short and precise thanks Thorsten Mistake I made was to use the flash on camera and was too close I think.

Great I know what to do now For now I think I will concentrate on trying and take best as possible images with the camera and at a later stage learn more post editing techniques with Photoshop for instance.

Thanks for the advise Ross but is what I find quite hard is being able to have a constance of sharpness you see...

All good advise Guy, throw portrait away, the image looks over sharpened and digital artifacts are showing,

To get a sharp image focus on the eyes and then don't move except for slight recomposing, select a focusing point in camera that is near to the eyes so very little refocusing is needed.

Correct!!! get it right in camera 1st and photoshop only to enhance the image, not change it. 

Thanks Tim well onto the next one then

What do you get if the shot you take is a mess and then you run it through Photoshop?

A nice mess!  

ok that one is gone now will try a night shoot

Portrait Pro mmm as Thorsten said what a pile of s**te,any time that you cannot see the pores of the skin is too far in my opinion.Fine as a 7x5 print but 10x8 up you can see the jaggies where the software applies the softning and its not subtle at all,would much prefer if they let you have freehand selection tool at full magnification to get right in there,however you spend enough time on that you may aswell learn solid retouching techniques in PS.

Ben

hmmm got a free copy of PP 6.5 with a foto mag in germany last year, found it quite useful with easy adjustments for web and for print images.