Best software for Portraiture Photography?

[guzhogi]

I'm not that into portraits, but looks like Pixelmator is coming out with a new Pixelmator Photo app for iPads: https://www.pixelmator.com/photo/

I know, it's iPad only, but just thought I'd share.

 

[Freida]

yeah, i've noticed it. it looks limited though but will see when its released.
it would be awesome to have a nice ipad version that would allow some of us to eliminate the need to use big computers
I'm waiting for a new iMac though and then will see

 

[v3rlon]

Not liking Adobe's lease options is understandable. I don't like it either and it's a damn shame that's the way everything seems to be going these days.

Not finding the UI intuitive or easy to use is also fair enough. It's a very deep piece of software and some of the things it does is very complicated.

However that doesn't change the fact that hands down Photoshop is THE best software available for portrait / fashion work. There is nothing comparable.

It's also the industry standard for the sort of photography you want to do.

I disagree that nothing is even comparable.

Affinity is really good. You can even use Photoshop brushes, some Phoroshop plugins, and can generally follow Photoshop tutorials to get the same result. Is Adobe still ahead with their 20 year head start? Sure. Will it matter for most users? No. Of course, for those it DOES matter to, it will matter a lot. For the rest of us, Affinity works pretty well.

the Gimp is also really deep. I hated it, but it is powerful, and you just can't beat the price (free like free beer open source).
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Portraiture is by Imagenomic but it is a plug-in for photoshop and I don’t think there is a stand-alone option.

Didn't know that. Looking at the list, it looks like Portraiture will work with Affinity as a plugin in 8 bit mode, but not 16.

http://www.miguelboto.com/affinity/photo/plugins-support/mac/

 

[Reality4711]

How about Affinity?

With Affinity Photo the editing for portraiture is excellent. Have a look at Tube instructions for basic face editing - not a masterwork but good indicator of what is possible. High&Low frequency layers, Liquid, De noiseing etc. etc.

My ONLY problem with Affinity has been the rather slow implementation of Fuji Raf file handling efficiency but even that looks like it is being sorted with the 1.7 release.

I am sure that if (G*D forbid) I ever went back to work that Affinity would remain my Go To image editing software.

nb:- not an employee or whatever.

Oh and of course AP has a iPad version (full editing - not mini version)

 

[Freida]

With Affinity Photo the editing for portraiture is excellent. Have a look at Tube instructions for basic face editing - not a masterwork but good indicator of what is possible. High&Low frequency layers, Liquid, De noiseing etc. etc.

My ONLY problem with Affinity has been the rather slow implementation of Fuji Raf file handling efficiency but even that looks like it is being sorted with the 1.7 release.

I am sure that if (G*D forbid) I ever went back to work that Affinity would remain my Go To image editing software.

nb:- not an employee or whatever.

Oh and of course AP has a iPad version (full editing - not mini version)

Thank you, yeah I'm leaning towards trying that as it does seem like a powerful tool. Was thinking to even update my ON1 Raw but those suckers didn't really do a good black friday deal so I'm out.
I still have hopes for Pixelmator Pro but for now its missing few things so I might just take the leap of faith and learn Affinity and never look back. Will test it out over xmas break
Thank you for your feedback

 

[fathergll]

Not liking Adobe's lease options is understandable. I don't like it either and it's a damn shame that's the way everything seems to be going these days.

Not finding the UI intuitive or easy to use is also fair enough. It's a very deep piece of software and some of the things it does is very complicated.

However that doesn't change the fact that hands down Photoshop is THE best software available for portrait / fashion work. There is nothing comparable.

It's also the industry standard for the sort of photography you want to do.

Whats the standard workflow then? It seems like the majority are shooting into Capture One. Are the files then handed off to another dept/user who works on the final images in Photoshop?

 

[Reality4711]

Adobe (all) - Too Big, Too Expensive and requires a lot of computing power.
Capture One - as Adobe but with better final product. Getting more messy instead of simpler and powerful (Adobe like).
Pixelmator - Just does not FEEL right. The language and UI have never gelled with me. Looks a good bet if you are moving from Photo.
Affinity Photo. - Best of the bunch at the moment (especially iPP Version). Steepish learning curve but I have seen some first time work that is mind blowing so that is probably just me.

Apart from these the rest IMO have too many differences to really compare.

Browsing and storage is another can of worms :-(

My choice of Fast Raw Viewer itself is not without glitches because as its name implies it only works with Raw Files so I use 'Finder' for completed edits - not perfect.

So; workflow ( I do not work).

Import with 'Image Capture (free with Mac)
Browse with FRV. Hand off to Affinity Photo. Develop, edit and export to selected file.
When Files fall into disused mode - move to external SSD to get at if needed sometime.
Keep only active folders/files on internal storage and back up all storage mediums to Time Machine. No Cloud (does my head in) Occasionally CCC everything to off site HDD raid box.