Recently I have been given the opportunity to review, The Portrait Perfection Collection of Photoshop actions. The nice people over at Sleeklens were generous enough to send me a copy to review.
At first glance the collection looks quite impressive. The collection comes with 56 customized Photoshop actions specifically designed for portrait photography.
I was really impressed with the way their website advertises the product, going so far as to include interactive examples of before and after images.
Upon installation the collection works like any other Photoshop action. You simply choose wich action you would like to preform and than click the play button for near instantaneous results.
I was really impressed with how organized the collection it. I had no trouble finding what I was looking for through the rather extensive list of actions.
I especially appreciate the attention to detail shown in each action. For example, when prompted to complete an action myself, a dialog box will appear giving specific instructions on how to complete the action. I can't tell you how many photoshop actions I've used in the past that give very vague instructions, if any at all.
After playing around with the collection for some time I was able to get some good results. I was genuinely surprised at how little time it took compared to editing the image from scratch. Although I couldn't seem to get a result I was happy with from just using the actions alone. I did end up doing some manual adjustments myself later on.
Below I am including a before and after of portrait I took of my girlfriend Hannah. I only used one or two of the actions available, but I hope this example can give you an idea of what you can achieve.
Overall I am quite happy with this collection. I feel like it best suited to be used by someone who edits a very large amount of photos at once. If you are a portrait photographer looking to speed up your workflow, this collection will definitely do just that. However, from time to time manual adjustments will be necessary.
Honestly it was a joy to use the collection, however I personally do not edit enough portraits to require such a product. Although who knows, maybe using such a workflow will motivate me to step up my portrait game.
The only issue I had with this collection would be pricing. Now as stated above, I am not a huge portrait photographer. Therefore I don't really have a need for a product like this. The collection starts off at $120 USD, but is currently marked down to $39 USD, wich is quite a steal in my opinion. So If you shoot a lot of portraits $39 is a great price, but if your like me and shoot shoot a portrait once in a blue moon it might be a little expensive for something that can just be done manually.
Regardless of my opinion on price this is still a fantastic product and I highly urge you to check it out. I would like to say thank you to the people over at Sleeklens for giving me the opportunity to review this collection.
Until next time,
Have a great day.