A few years ago, I first heard about the retouching software Retouch4Me when one of our readers asked me to review it for the Fstoppers Youtube Channel. I immediately fell in love with the software and added it to my workflow. This year, they have added some features we have all been waiting for, so let's look at what is new with this powerful skin retouching software.
Today there are a ton of software options when it comes to automated skin retouching for photographers. Some of them are gimmicky and produce extremely cheesy effects, while others are professional tools that reproduce the effects of experienced image retouchers. Retouch4Me falls into the latter category with results that are subtle but still effective.
If you aren't familiar with Retouch4me, their business model is wildly different than any other retouching software in that they sell each effect or retouching tool separately. The idea is you can purchase only the ones you want and not pay for a full software suite that might be bloated with photo effects you don't need. That being said, each retouch module is pretty expensive, with most of them costing $124–$150 at the time of this article. For my needs, I find four of their tools essential (Heal, Dodge and Burn, Portrait Volumes, Skin Tone), which makes my workflow cost about $500. The nice thing is these licenses are perpetual, so it's a single investment I made years ago and have run thousands of images through my own specific "recipe," but it can be a large investment for perfect skin.
Check out this one-click before and after from a recent shoot I had in my studio.
Fstoppers Deal and Free Software
Before I explain Retouch4Me's new cloud token-based retouching model below, I do want to mention early in this article that Fstoppers Readers can get 20% off on all Lifetime Licenses and Plugins by going to our Retouch4Me link and using the code Fstoppers20 during checkout. This makes purchasing each of these retouching tools a little easier, and you can even try demo versions of all their software by clicking the link above as well.
Retouch4Me also has a few free plugins you can use without any commitment, like their Frequence Separation and Color Match tools, so check those out if you want to test the waters without buying anything first.
The New Photoshop Panel
The most exciting new feature available for all of Retouch4Me's photo editing plugins is the Photoshop Panel. If you are like most photographers, we like to do all our nitty-gritty retouching and composite work inside of Adobe Photoshop. It's been the industry standard for decades now, and it still gives photographers and retouchers the most flexibility when it comes to manipulating pixels and producing the perfect final image.
In the past, if you wanted to apply the automated Dodge and Burn plugin and then run the Skin Tone plugin and finish your image off with the Portrait Volumes plugin, you would either have to run each of those individually or create a Photoshop Action to batch them all consecutively. Now, with the new Photoshop Panel integration, Retouch4Me allows photographers to quickly turn on and off the retouching tools they want to apply to a particular image and simply hit a single "Retouch" button to apply them all.
The panel also lets you save and load different presets you might build for different types of images. You might want one that includes teeth whitening for your headshot work and have a different preset that includes Clean Backdrop for your studio sessions that use warped paper or a dirty cyclorama wall. The Photoshop Panel seems like a very benign addition and not something anyone would get that excited about, but in my opinion, this update has made my own use of Retouch4Me much more pleasurable and versatile.
Finally, we can now batch process an entire group of photos through any particular workflow. This means if you export your favorite images from a headshot session or even export an entire wedding with thousands of images, you can use the Batch Retouching button to run every single image through Retouch4Me's presets. This is a huge upgrade and makes applying these tools easier than ever.
Private Versus Cloud Retouching
Another new feature you can unlock is cloud-based retouching. In the past, all of Retouch4Me's plugins were installed locally and were executed directly on your laptop or main editing station. This prevented you from having to have an internet connection and also meant all your edits could be privately stored on your local machine without any files being uploaded to the cloud. This is incredibly important to photographers who are working on campaigns that are under embargo or protected with NDAs, but it's also useful for those who shoot sensitive subject matter and don't want any risk of their images making it to the public domain. Retouch4Me still allows all of their plugins to run "on-device," and you can batch as many images as you want through the retouching tools you have bought and installed on your local machine.
What is new from Retouch4Me is cloud-based retouching, which allows you to run any and all of their plugins directly from the cloud without having to purchase any of the tools directly. Now users can purchase credits and run their images through any of the 10 individual retouching tools. This is great if you only have a few clothing shoots a year and want to test out the Fabric plugin, which diminishes shadows and wrinkles on clothing, or if you have a client with really bloodshot eyes, you can use the Eye Vessels retouching tool just for a few selects for that client. Cloud Retouch prevents you from having to buy every single plugin separately, and it also lets you test them out on an image-by-image basis.
It's also notable that each credit is good for any mix of retouching processes, so if you want to use 3 plugins or all 10, the credit system is the same per edit.
The New Face Make App
Perhaps the biggest update released from Retouch4Me is their new Face Make App. This plugin allows you to do some really wild AI-based edits to your subject's face. The Face Make App has a bunch of editing options that range from subtly adjusting the features of your model's face all the way to the more absurd tweaks some of the other AI editing programs do. The Lifting options allow you to tighten your model's bone structure, while the options under Reshape allow you to completely morph your model's face into a completely unrecognizable person. The results can be so unique and different that my mind immediately questions whether or not a model release is needed when the results are clearly not identifiable to the original person anymore.
Another fun and useful mode within the Face Make App is the Makeup module. Here you can add mascara effects to the eyes, apply dark or light lipstick to the lips, or even add freckles and blush across the entire skin. I've used AI makeup filters before, and most of them look super cheesy and unrealistic. I'm happy to say the makeup applications in Face Make are much more subtle and natural looking, and I can see myself using this tool to polish up a photo session where a makeup artist wasn't used at all or the makeup has worn down over the course of the session. Now, if Retouch4Me could add a hair styling or volumizing module, that would make the Face Make App complete in my opinion.
Arams vs Photoshop
The final big update from Retouch4Me is the release of Arams, a standalone software suite that allows you to apply all of their retouching modules for free without the use of Photoshop. With Arams, you can turn on and off each of the Retouch4Me plugins just like you can with the Photoshop Panel, and it also gives you access to both local on-device editing as well as cloud-based processing. Arams has some other features as well, tagging photos with missed focus or flaws, assigning ratings, generating unique tags and keywords with AI, and organizing images based on theme, people, or other sorting criteria.
Cost Breakdown
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Retouch4Me doesn't sell a full-blown standalone program, and therefore, you either need to purchase each plugin separately or you can simply purchase Cloud Retouch credits that allow you to run any of their plugins on an image-by-image basis.
If you buy the plugins outright, a large number of them like Volume Portraits, Skin Mask, Fabric, Heal, and Face Make cost $124 ($93 for Fstoppers readers). Some of the plugins like my favorite Dodge and Burn and Clean Backdrop run a little more at $159 ($111 for Fstoppers readers). Again, this can get pretty expensive if you plan to use more than a few of these tools on all of your images, but each plugin comes with a perpetual license that includes free updates. Each purchase also includes 3 unique keys for 3 separate devices to be used by one photographer, so that's also handy if you edit on your laptop and desktop. You can also get 20 free Retouching Credits to test out any of the plugins you want as well.
The second option is to buy individual Cloud Retouch credits or a Cloud Retouch Subscription and simply pay for each individual image you plan to retouch. I've taken a screen capture of Retouch4Me's current Cloud Retouch rates above, and you can see that each retouched image costs around $0.15 to $0.09 if you buy individual credits. If you plan to retouch large amounts of images, it probably makes more sense to sign up for a Cloud Retouch subscription, which can knock each image down to $0.06.
Depending on how many plugins you plan to use and how many images you plan to batch through this software, it might make sense to purchase the plugins outright or use the online credit system for just a handful of final selects. I personally like to batch entire projects through my preset, so I've opted to buy the plugins outright and not worry about ever running out of credits or investing more money into my workflow. However, the Cloud Retouch option is nice for playing around with each of the retouch tools and figuring out exactly which ones you can't live without and which ones you might only use a few times a year.
If you are looking for a simple but powerful solution for retouching skin with the single click of a button, Retouch4Me is one of the best options available. If you have any questions about how I use these modules in my own workflow or want to share your own experiences with this software, feel free to leave a comment below.
