For this PhotoTools preset, I decided to do another one based on enhancing a portrait. In the last post, I mentioned that knowing when to stop is important and for this one it is no different.
I’m calling this preset the Warm Portrait and is comprised of three different effects. It starts out with the Jack Davis - Wow Portrait - Normal effect set to 34%. This effect happens to be Jack’s favorite portrait enhancer and does a great job of warming up the skin tones without over doing it and it adds a bit of contrast to the darker, shadow portions of the image.
Next up in our effect stack is the Kubota Hollywood Glow set to 10%. Just enough to add a nice touch but not too much for this photo. This effect adds a bit of glow for a bit of the Hollywood glamor look and is great on portraits like this one that was shot outdoors.
I completed this effect with the Davis-Edge Vignette Dark (set to medium) to burn the edges in a little (actually a medium) bit to draw the viewer’s eye in. The cumulative effect is subtle - you might not even notice it if you didn’t see the original - yet effective. And like I said before, there is definitely a time and place for effects that look like effects and then there are times like this when you just want your photos to look better without looking like you did anything to them and I think that this effect accomplishes that.
Original photo, before PhotoTools.
Photo after being processed with PhotoTools Professional Edition.
Photo Copyright Mike Wong
