Showing posts with label 2026. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2026. Show all posts

Friday, April 24, 2026

Imagenomic Portraiture 5 Review (2026): Pro-Level Skin Retouching Without the Plastic Look

Software ReviewSkin SofteningPortrait Enhancements

Imagenomic Portraiture 5 Review (2026): Pro-Level Skin Retouching

Imagenomic Portraiture just got a major upgrade. Its intelligent auto‑masking speeds up the workflow by accurately identifying where skin softening should apply with minimal manual input. New features like Fill Light make it easy to brighten faces without complex masking, while Uniformity helps balance facial tones for a more polished look. Improved sharpness tools bring texture back naturally, and the upgraded shine‑reduction effectively eliminates harsh hotspots—making the overall retouching process faster, smoother, and more professional.

Imagenomic Portraiture 5 Review & Discount product photo
Imagenomic Portraiture 5 Review & Discount — click to check current price / availability

TL;DR ⚡

The new Imagenomic Portraiture is faster and smarter. Auto‑masking needs almost no manual input, Fill Light brightens faces easily, Uniformity balances skin tones, improved sharpness restores natural texture, and shine‑reduction removes harsh hotspots.

A smarter, faster Portraiture provides realistic skin softening that brightens faces, evens tones, restores texture, and removes shine with minimal effort.

Table of Contents

  1. Who it’s for and who should skip
  2. Pros and cons
  3. Video review and tutorial
  4. Before & After
  5. Closing thoughts

Who it’s for

  • Studio Portrait Photographers
  • Wedding Photographers
  • Commercial Photographers
  • Anyone who wants skin and hair to look magazine ready

Who should skip

  • Photojournalists who rely on authenticity

✅ Pros

  • ✅Can purchase as a subscription or one-time price
  • ✅Achieves smooth skin without blowing details — even on high contrast portraits.
  • ✅Softens while still providing features to preserve sharpness and texture
  • ✅Gives hair that shampoo commercial look
  • ✅Powerful AI masking makes fill lighting on the face trivial

⛔ Cons

  • ⛔Expensive one-time price
  • ⛔Still easy to make people look like they belong in the wax museum if you don't use as intended
  • ⛔Warmth, Tint, Brightness and Contrast Enhancements are better left for other photo-editing products

Video Review & TutorialπŸŽ₯

If the player doesn’t load here, watch on YouTube.

Before & After

After photo
Before | After Final Before and After taken with a Canon 5D Mark III using a 300mm f/2.8L IS II at f/5.6 for 1/1250sec @ ISO 800

After photo
Before | After New Fill Light feature - On (before) and Off (after)

After photo
Before | After Uniformity Feature - 0 (before) and 40 (after) - pay attention to the shadows by the mouth

After photo
Before | After New Reduce Shine feature - Before (0) and After (40)

After photo
Before | After Get smooth hair with the Hair Mask - Before (Mask hair - 100) vs After (Don't mask hair - 0)

After photo
Before | After Return face texture with Sharpness - Before (0) and After (Max - 40)

Closing Thoughts

Nearly 20 years ago, my mentor insisted that if I wanted the best results for skin softening, I should use Portraiture—and they were absolutely right. Over the years, I’ve spoken with many top‑tier pros working on high‑value projects, and Portraiture was one of their “secret sauce” tools. Meanwhile, countless tutorials claimed you could get the same results manually. What I learned is that Portraiture was always a step ahead—delivering next‑level quality faster and with far less effort. Getting perfect skin in seconds became a no‑brainer.

Fast‑forward to today: at first glance, it may look unchanged, but under the hood it’s faster, smarter, and loaded with improvements in object detection and workflow efficiency. It’s still a world‑class leader—and now it’s better than ever.

Although my review focused on using Portraiture in Photoshop, it performs just as seamlessly in Lightroom Classic.
If you’ve used Portraiture—or tried alternatives—I’d love to hear your experience. What tools are essential in your portrait retouching workflow? Drop your thoughts or questions below!

πŸ‘‰ Click here to learn more

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Quick Look at Nik Color Efex 8 + DxO Discount Offer

Camera ReviewRonMartBlog

Quick Look at Nik Color Efex 8 + Discount Offer

For more than 17 years, I’ve been a devoted fan of the Nik Collection, with Color Efex remaining my go‑to tool for editing the majority of my photos. It’s actually been since the Google-era Nik days—before the DxO acquisition—that I last did a full review. So now, I’m kicking off a deep dive into version 8.

This series will include both short and long reviews covering the different tools in the collection. To start, here’s an introduction and a quick look at how I use Color Efex, along with some of my favorite filters.

Nik Color Efex 8
Nik Color Efex 8 with 7 filters applied

Table of Contents

  1. Before & After
  2. Video review
  3. Filters Used and Why
  4. Discount Offer
  5. Closing thoughts

Before & After

After photo

Before | After Heavy processing for effect only using only Nik Color Efex 8.0 by DxO

Video Review πŸŽ₯

If the player doesn’t load here, watch on YouTube.

Filters Used and Why

  • Tonal Contrast: Adds a bit more depth
  • Brilliance/Warmth: Saturatates the image for more color pop
  • Pro Contrast: Brightens face and details in shirt
  • Color Stylizer: Adds a bronze tone to the image overall but selectively toned down on the face with a U-Point control
  • Darken/Lighten Center: Darkens the entire image except the face to draw more attention to it
  • Image Borders: Adds a old-schoool deckled-edge effect that simulates peel‑apart instant photos
  • Reflector Efex: Simulates a silver reflector at the waist to demonstrate the usefulness of this filter

Discount Offer

If you did it right, this is what it should look like when your code is applied:

Closing Thoughts

I’ll admit I went a bit overboard with this photo, but I wanted to show how powerful Color Efex can be when you start stacking its filters. You don’t need complex masking or AI replacements—simply combining and experimenting with filters can dramatically transform an image. And once you land on a look you love, you can save it as a Preset for quick reuse.

In future videos, I’ll take a deeper dive into individual filters and highlight some of the creative ways you can use U‑Point controls.

Leave a comment to tell me what your favorite filters are and what you'd like to see me discuss in more depth in a future article.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

on1 Free ON1 Effects 2025 until Jan 12, 2026

on1 Effects Free

I just wanted to give you a heads up that On1 is making their Effects product free to everyone starting today! Click the image above to learn more.