Portrait Professional

After being impressed with the free trial of Portrait Professional I splashed out and bought the full package. It’s reduced at the moment and with discount vouchers freely available on the web £20 seemed like a steal for such an impressive piece of software.
It’s really quick and simple to use and you can be up and running with an edited portrait on your screen in about 5 minutes.

However, for me, the default settings are a bit over the top. I’ve found myself turning off all the face manipulation settings and skin controls just leaving the eyes and teeth correction and sharpening controls. These need tweaking but it’s worth the effort for a more realistic look.

I suppose purists will argue that all these features are available in Photoshop but I just haven’t got the time or inclination to get involved with post processing to that extent using Photoshop. For me Portrait Professional does a great job for a very reasonable price.

ColorMunki

It’s been a quiet few weeks photography wise although I have been busy setting up my printer after I decided to get serious with some home printing. To that end I was able to borrow a ColorMunki from the disbanded camera club in work. Its a £300 screen calibration tool and all the reviews I’ve read seem very positive.

After two hours I had my monitor re-calibrated and suddenly the reason for my prints looking different from my screen displays became apparent. What I had assumed was a printer problem wasn’t at all. I wish I’d sorted this out a long time ago as all my previous shots need tweaking with the new settings. I’d give the Colormunki a big thumbs up and it’s been a valuable lesson after ignoring all the articles and advice I’ve ignored re calibration.

The 5D was returned on Saturday from Colchester Camera Centre. Excellent service once again considering they only received the camera on Tuesday. It's return coincided with a visit by Reuben so the new Lastolite Hilite and Beauty Dish were put to use immediately. First impressions are 'what a superb piece of kit'. I'm really impressed with some of the shots considering I was only using two lights.

Studio Lighting Course

With the home studio taking shape I’ve decided to get some expert advice on lighting and signed up for a studio lighting course with Damien Lovegrove at the end of the month. He’s quite a name in the wedding photography world and fortunately for me lives about 5 miles from my home. It’s not cheap but heh ho, I can’t wait.

Still missing the 5D

The 5D is still at the Colchester Camera Repair Centre (if you ever need a Canon authorised repair service they’re excellent). I’m hoping it will be back early next week. In the meantime I’ve been preparing a couple of rooms at home which I intend to use as a home studio. I also have plenty of new studio gadgets to try out once the cameras back. Lin bought me a Lasolite Hi Lite background for Xmas and I’ve a few reflector with some honeycombe diffusers to try out. I’ll be looking out for stooges in the very near future.