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Anthropics' logo. Click here to visit the Anthropics website! Anthropics releases Portrait Pro 10
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(Saturday, February 12, 2011 - 01:23 EST)

Anthropics Technology Ltd. has unveiled a new iteration of its flagship portrait retouching software, Portrait Professional, with a host of improvements throughout the program.

Available in three editions -- Standard, Studio, and Studio 64 -- Portrait Professional v10 is said to have new face enhancement algorithms that should better handle a variety of face types, and should especially improve results with male faces. A new Child Mode button also allows Portrait Pro v10 to restrict its enhancements to those that work well with childrens' faces. Unlike in the previous version, these algorithms will continue to see refinement in future minor point releases of the program, rather than being set in stone from the first release.

The latest version has a new user interface designed to improve workflow, and includes more sliders allowing users to refine (or completely take control of) the program's effects, providing finer-grained adjustment over the look of processed images. Should the standard effects not prove sufficient, an "Exaggerate" slider allows the user to achieve the dramatic look they're seeking. The presets that ship with Portrait Pro v10 have all been reworked to provide a better result. In addition, for users who want to take advantage of Portrait Pro's skin retouching capabilities without the subtle facial structure adjustments the program makes, there's a new Enhance Skin Only mode.

Adjusting the facial mask in Portrait Pro 10. Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture!


Adjusting the facial mask in Portrait Pro 10.
Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd.

Since it was introduced in the previous version, Anthropics' has refined its ClearSkin technology, now dubbed ClearSkin 2, for which the company is continuing to seek patent coverage. Like the previous version of the tech, ClearSkin 2 is used to recreate skin texture in image areas where blown highlights and/or skin blemishes need correction. ClearSkin 2 has improved algorithms, and a variety of new textures for differing types and ages of skin. Also improved are the skin defect, skin selection, and hair selection brushes, all of which now endeavor to identify the edges of skin and hair, reducing the need for the user to carefully outline skin and hair areas.

Anthropics Portrait Pro 10 is available immediately for both Windows and Mac OS platforms. The Windows version will work with 2000, XP, Vista or 7 and requires at least a 1GHz CPU plus 512MB of RAM for XP, or 1GB for Vista. On the Mac, you'll need OS X 10.4 or later, a 1GHz Intel CPU or better, and 512MB+ of RAM.

The Standard edition of Portrait Pro v10 is ordinarily priced at around US$90 / £65 / €70, although for a limited time it can be purchased at the launch price of US$40 / £30 / €35. Portrait Pro v10 standard edition operates as a standalone program, and can work with JPEG or TIFF images.

Some of the face sculpting controls in Portrait Pro v10. In the images at left, the only change made was to apply the Young Woman Natural preset. Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture!


Some of the face sculpting controls in Portrait Pro v10. In the images at left, the only change made was to apply the "Young Woman Natural" preset.
Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd.

Portrait Pro Studio can operate either standalone, or as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 or 3, and Adobe Photoshop 6, 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 or CS5 (CS3, CS4, or CS5 only on Mac). The Studio version also accepts Raw files including Adobe's DNG format, and can read and write 48-bit TIFFs. In addition, the Studio version adds batch processing support, is color space aware, and can handle embedded profiles in JPEG and TIFF files. The Studio edition of Portrait Pro v10 is ordinarily priced at around US$130 / £110 / €130, while launch pricing is around US$60 / £50 / €80.

Finally, Portrait Pro Studio 64 is optimized for 64-bit Windows systems, and removes any maximum image size limits. In other respects, Portrait Pro Studio 64 is identical to the Studio edition for 32-bit systems. The 64-bit support comes at quite a cost, with a price tag of US$220 / £160 / €200, and launch pricing is US$120 / £80 / €140.

More information can be found on the Portrait Professional website.

Anthropics Portrait Professional 10 - Comparison Images
Images courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd.
Before After
Original image before retouching with Portrait Pro 10. Image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture! Original image before retouching with Portrait Pro 10. Image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture!
Original image before retouching with Portrait Pro 10. Image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture! Original image before retouching with Portrait Pro 10. Image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture!
 

Original Source Press Release:

New Portrait Professional v10 now launched

The world’s first intelligent portrait enhancing software just gets better …

Portrait Professional is the world’s first commercially available software that is trained in human beauty. This makes it both faster, and much easier to use than ordinary photo editing software for faces.

How is this possible? The software has analyzed thousands of photos to learn what makes people look attractive or unattractive. With this knowledge, it knows how to improve any aspect of the face. For example, if the face has a double chin, Portrait Professional ‘jaw slider’ will recognize that, and automatically reduce it.

The results are fully customizable via a simple slider interface, so that users can get exactly what they want. There are over 200 sliders, giving the user total control of all aspect of the face and hair.

Uniquely, Portrait Professional 10 keeps learning. The software is constantly receiving more training, so it is continually getting better at enhancing faces. And as V10 buyers will get free and frequent upgrades, their software will just get better over time.

The software incorporates a unique intelligent edge finding touch up brush. Instead of just selecting everything under the brush, the brush actively looks for defects within its radius, and only removes the defect, leaving good skin untouched. This both gives better results, and makes the brush very fast and easy to use, as accuracy is not required.

The software also contains a unique automatic 'skin regeneration' capability. Conventional skin touch up software simply filters the skin. This works OK for small defects, but fails with bigger problems. This is because when a large defect is removed what remains is featureless skin with no texture. Our solution is to automatically 'graft in' real skin texture where the defects used to be, and this is precisely what our (patent applied for) 'Clearskin 2®' software does. And depending on the age and skin type of the subject, the user can even choose different skin textures to fine tune the result.

Portrait Pro v10's skin controls sliders. In the images at left, the Young Woman Glamorous preset has been applied with face sculpting disabled. Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd. Click for a bigger picture!


Portrait Pro v10's skin controls sliders. In the images at left, the "Young Woman Glamorous" preset has been applied with face sculpting disabled.
Screenshot by Imaging Resource, demonstration image courtesy Kelley Martin Clough, provided by Anthropics Technology Ltd.

This combination of massively increased training in human appearance, edge finding ‘intelligent’ defect removal brushes, and the new Clearskin2 technology makes Portrait Professional 10:

  • Far easier to use than traditional touch-up software for faces and hair.

  • Much faster than traditional touch-up software.

What exactly can Portrait Professional do?

With Portrait Professional 10, untrained, non-specialist users can quickly and easily:

  • Automatically eliminate skin blemishes such as spots or pimples leaving completely natural looking skin, however big the blemish.

  • Remove grease, sweat or unsightly white highlights from the skin.

  • Reduce or remove wrinkles and lines, again leaving exceptionally natural looking skin.

  • Subtly re-shape different aspects of the face to make it slimmer or more attractive.

  • Adjust the lighting on the face to make it more flattering or remove shadows.

  • Brighten or change eye color, and enhance whiteness of the eyes.

  • Whiten teeth, recolor and re-shape the lips.

  • Thicken, color and smooth hair.

The different versions of the software

Portrait Professional
This is the stand alone version that offers all of the sophisticated face, skin and hair touch-up facilities but does not include the Photoshop® plug-in, ‘batch mode’ productivity features or the RAW file support that professional and semi-professional photographers require.

Portrait Professional Studio
Aimed at keen amateur and professional photographers, Portrait Professional Studio can be configured as stand alone or as a Lightroom® or Photoshop® plug-in to speed workflow. It also works directly with RAW files.

Portrait Professional Studio 64
The premier edition of the software, Portrait Professional Studio 64 is optimized for maximum performance on computers running 64-bit operating systems. Capable of handling the largest file sizes, this edition is for those who require the maximum quality in their work.

New in Portrait Professional 10

  • Greatly improved face beautification
    Portrait Professional 10 has benefited from a massive amount of new training in face enhancement, and is now far better at improving different face types, and much better at male faces. This training initiative is continuing, so each new minor release of V10 (free to buyers of V10) will show further improvement.

  • Greatly improved ClearSkin® 2 skin defect removal & re-generation technology
    Portrait Professional 10 incorporates the latest generation of our ClearSkin® skin enhancing technology. This enables real skin texture to be regenerated and now incorporates a better algorithm and different textures for different types and ages of skin. This enables to make it easy for any skin look great, while keeping it looking natural – no more plastic-looking airbrushed skin!

  • More and better slider controls
    Portrait Professional 10 gives the user more control over the results with more and better sliders. There are new sliders to control all aspects of the nose, better eye controls, face shape controls and an ‘Exaggerate’ slider to achieve more dramatic results when required.

  • Improved brushes
    The software’s ‘intelligent’ skin defect ‘detection and removal’ brush has been significantly improved as have the skin and hair selection brushes, which automatically find the edges of the skin and hair. This means that accuracy is not required and brushing is very fast and easy.

  • New Child Mode
    Child Mode makes it easy to make appropriate changes to children. Portrait Professional 10 has been trained to understand the enhancements that work with children, and will apply them automatically.

  • Enhance Skin Only Mode
    In response to many user requests, Portrait Professional 10 now has an Enhance Skin Only Mode, when the user does not want to make any changes to the shape of the face being improved.

  • Better Saved Slider presets
    Portrait Professional 10 incorporates a completely revamped set of preset beautification effects, designed to make it even easier to quickly make anyone look great in a photo.

  • New User Interface
    Portrait Professional 10 has a new interface, designed to make workflow as streamlined as possible.

System requirements:

PC

  • Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 2000

  • 1Ghz CPU or better

  • Min 512MB RAM XP, 1GB RAM Vista

Mac

  • OSX 10.4 or later

  • Intel CPU 1Ghz or better

  • 512MB RAM or more

Note: While Portrait Professional 10 is compatible with all modern Intel Macs, it not compatible with older ‘PowerPC’ Macs

PRICING:

Portrait Professional: normal price $89.95, Special launch price is $39.95
Portrait Professional Studio: normal price $129.95, Special launch price is $59.95
Portrait Professional Studio 64: normal price $219.95, Special launch price is $119.95

Portrait Professional: normal price £64.95, Special launch price is £29.95
Portrait Professional Studio: normal price £109.95, Special launch price is £49.95
Portrait Professional Studio 64: normal price £159.95, Special launch price is £79.95

Portrait Professional: normal price €69.95, Special launch price is €34.95
Portrait Professional Studio: normal price €129.95, Special launch price is €79.95
Portrait Professional Studio 64: normal price €199.95, Special launch price is €139.95

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