Smoothing plugin

[henrys]

Hi, I'm upgrading my system from an older mac running 32 bit CS4 to a newer intel system running CS5. I've been using kodak gem airbrush for smoothing areas for retouch, which works on the entire image, not just the face/skin. I would like a similar filter for 64 bit CS5. I have tried portraiture and it works great with the mask disabled, however, $200 for a simple smoothing filter is more than I want to spend.

I have used the degrunging actions (which also seems to do what I want) but I need something faster with a preview for production work. Does anyone have ideas? Thank you.

[oneredpanther]

There are no fast shortcuts to quality retouching.

[henrys]

Agreed but there are plugins that sure speed things up. No offense but your post doesn't help much. I simply asked if there is a modern 64bit plugin that functions like kodak gem airbrush without costing an arm and a leg. I'm not looking for freebies, just some direction.

[edgework]

No offense but oneredpanther's reply was dead solid perfect.

It's hard not to conclude that not only do you not want to spend the time to do it the right way, you don't want to spend the money for a plug-in that, in your words "works great." So what do you want?

This probably isn't the best place to look for advice on auto-fixes, one-stop shopping solutions and, yes, shortcuts.

[shift studio]

I haven't gotten around to trying yet, but have a look at this:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...in-smooth.html

[henrys]

Originally Posted by edgework

This probably isn't the best place to look for advice on auto-fixes, one-stop shopping solutions and, yes, shortcuts.

Not asking for an auto-fix plugin. Nowhere in my OP was I asking for that. I'm looking for a smoothing plugin that doesn't cost $200. I only need a faction of the functionality portraiture does and therefore I don't want to spend that much $.

Thanks Shift, I'll give that a shot.

[henrys]

Maybe I'm in the wrong forum. I use the plugin for photo restoration, not model retouching

[Flashtones]

There's an incredible amount of snob appeal to pouncing on anyone who mentions "smoothing". Not every shot is a detailed beauty shot destined for one's portfolio or the cover of a magazine. Second in grandiosity is disdaining all 3rd party plugins. It really gets humorous after a while.

Not that familiar with Gem, so can't say how they compare, but Topaz DeNoise may be worth a look. I like DeNoise a lot for adding a polish to metals, for instance.

[Flashtones]

Again, I'm not entirely sure what Gem does, but you might want to experiment with Adobe Camera Raw's negative clarity and noise reduction.

I like to make a dupe layer and use Russel Brown's: CS5 Script: Edit Layers in ACR, Episode # CS5_039:

http://www.russellbrown.com/scripts.html

then mask in as required.

Truth be told, I haven't really tried it for skin work. But being free, it's worth a try.

[RobertAsh]

You could try Portrait Professional, the product advertised in the banner above this post. It's less expensive than Portraiture. I tried it and bought Portraiture because Portraiture did a better job for me, but you could try Professional and see if it meets your needs and budget.

[plugsnpixels]

Take a look through the list of third-party plug-ins (and actions) here and here.

[henrys]

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it. I've been using Ronnys Dual Method action and its been working great so far. You're right, I'm not touching up models for magazine covers. I restore a LOT of photographs and yes I use filters to speed things up. 90% of it is manual work but there's that 10% of the work that would take 8x the time without filters.

Thanks again! I'll add these tools to my belt.

[plugsnpixels]

That's exactly right. There's nothing wrong with plug-ins and actions if they give good results and save time. If you have the time AND the chops, you go manual. But not many people have both.