Using Ai to retouch my photos.
This one will be a bit different, It’s been a while since I've talked about the retouching part of my work. I have to be honest, it is not what I like most about photography. I love the preparation phase, being in the field creating my images, and the final color grading process. The retouching part, I do not like it so much. With Ai being everywhere right now, I thought it would be interesting to see what it can do for us. Can it help us speed up the process? How good are the results? Let's talk about EVOTO Ai the Ai powered photo editor software.
So how do I usually do things? Keep in mind that everything I am going to share with you here is through my perspective, and how I might use this software in my workflow. So typically, I would open my photo in Capture One and prepare my file for Photoshop if needed. Basic adjustments, and corrections, and if my model shows a bit of skin, I will use the skin tone tool in Capture One to unify the skin hues, saturation, and lightness. Once this is done, I create a TIFF file and open it in Photoshop.
I almost always use the skin tool in Capture One.
This is where some of you might send the file to a retoucher. I always do my retouching myself. Now potentially with EVOTO Ai, I have a third option. In Photoshop if I want realistic results without touching the original texture of my model’s skin, I would use the dodging and burning technique. It takes some practice, it’s long, so if you are not into beauty retouching or not working for the beauty industry, just forget about this.
Then there is the frequency separation method. Faster, and easier, but still can take some time depending on what you are working on, but this method really is enough especially if your work ends up online and in small prints.
So my question was, does this software allow me to skip all of this? No need to choose either method anymore. Can I do my retouching faster than before? Let’s open the software and find out!
Once you have created a session, you import your images, and this is what you have.
The overall experience is pleasant, you easily understand and navigate through the menus.
On the top left are some presets, if you are lazy, you can directly use them, with one click you might find something that works for you.
I feel they are a bit too much for me, so decided to go on the right and play with the different sliders.
Everything is well organized and intuitive. I would use almost the same exact order to retouch my images in Photoshop with multiple different layers. With a simple slider, you modify specific parts of the image, specific parts of the body, and common problems you might encounter during your retouching process.
With simple sliders, you will see your image change in real-time.
Remove, blemishes, freckles, and acne. Remove face moles, body blemishes, and birthmarks in seconds. You can even reduce the wrinkles from the forehead, neck, and eyes, reduce the smile line, and double chin. And one of my favorite sliders is the Dark Circle reducer for your tired models.
The next part is a bit more tricky. This is where you can lose the realism of your image. Now keep in mind that for the purpose of this test, I might slightly go overboard so that you can actually see the changes.
On the right Panel, you can see you have different sliders that target different parts of the face.
I have never used the rosy complexion slider so far, on the other hand, the Unify Body complexion is really useful. It helps balance everything out on the body. I wish there was another slider to correct any excessive redness.
Another cool tool is the skin color slider. I chose what seems to be the closest to my model’s skin and then dial it down to where it looks right.
You can also add virtual makeup to your model's face. I know some do this, if this is your thing, EVOTO Ai can help you do it faster. Some presets already available are more convincing than others. Of course, you can dial down the effect if you want something subtle.
Once you have done all this, you get to the part that is not really for me. I never change the shape of a body or a face, but I am a bit curious so I played with it a little bit.
It’s really crazy how you can reduce the size of the head. The width, the height, and the overall shape. It seems to detect pretty easily the different parts of the face. The same thing applies to the Body, I know some influencers that should buy this!
Here are some before and after side by side (No color grade):
The dark eye slider was really effective here (No color grade)!
Smooth skin, and more balanced and even tones in a few clicks (No color grade).
From there You have 2 options, you can color grade directly in the software and finish your image there. Or you can send it to Photoshop and do your color work, or modify anything else you need.
You can use EVOTO Ai from start to finish!
I’ve been using this for only a week, so keep that in mind, I will have to do a follow-up to this video in a few weeks, and we’ll see if my feelings about all these change. So far I am impressed, I really am. You can make things look natural, and really dial what feels right for you with just a few sliders. Beware, you can easily push things too far, so you will have to make a few attempts before getting used to the system... don't worry, you will get comfortable with the software fast!
Down below are the final edited images.
Would I use this in my work? My answer could have been Yes, a few years ago, especially during COVID. I was doing a lot of portrait work during that time, that needed retouching. And because of the amount of images I had to work on, this software would have been great.
One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that you can batch-process your images, sync the changes and apply your changes from one image to another. You can even make your own presets. So many options, helping you save precious time and accelerate your post-processing work.
I did retouch all my images from my latest lingerie session with the software, and the majority of the images from the sessions made in this apartment were retouched with the software too, so look out for that.
The only way to know if this software is for you is to actually test it. So follow the links down below, and get 30 credits to test it for yourself!
My only complaint so far is that I don’t really understand the reasoning behind their pricing. You pay 83.88$ for 1.2k credits… 1 credit = 1 photo when you export it. This is 0.0699$ per photo which, when you think about it is not much... Which is great!
But the thing is, in a year, because of the type of work that I currently do, I will not use 1.2K credits. It would probably take me 2 years to use them. I don’t like being tied to a software. With all these plans, and subscriptions that we already pay, I would have preferred something that gave me more freedom, the possibility to only buy 300 or 600 credits at once. Basically, this might only be relevant for photographers that retouch a high volume of images.
I cannot speak for high-end retouchers out there, but should they be worried? Would you use such software for your work? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below! I will be playing some more with this. Let's hope I can make a follow-up video in a few weeks.