SLEEKLENS "PORTRAIT PERFECTION" | REVIEW
Sleeklens.com had contacted me to do a review on one of their workflow bundles. Sleeklens.com is a website made for photography workflows for the softwares Adobe Photoshop, and Lightroom. I received the Photoshop bundle, "Portrait Perfection". This was well selected in correlation to my expertise. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. This is going to be a different kind of review.
As a photographer who enjoys their own edits and workflows; I wanted to see if the website's workflows/actions would fit in with my personal routine. That, or add something more to my images. After going through the given actions, I noticed some of their options would "flatten" or "merge all layers" even previous worked on layers. Because of this, I will not be using any related affects. It would flatten my PSD making it impossible to go back to and edit again. This is called destructive editing.
I also saw interesting effects like brightening eyes, glossy lips, rosy cheeks, etc. Everything given would generally help improve RAW portraits.
How I used the software:
For the first two portraits of the red-haired model, Samantha St Jean; I only used minimal given actions near the end. It felt more like I was adding an instagram filter at the end then anything. Which I don’t mind because It will help join the images as a collection.
For the last two portraits of the model with glasses, Anna Pickles; I used only actions given from the “Portrait Perfection” bundle. I glossed her lips, added to her cheeks, vintage vignette, while still managing to keep the theme of the other two images.
Both turned out well. However, for professional editing, I would only ever use these actions in the same way I would add an instagram filter to an image. That way, it will not flatten my previous editing layers. I also know alternative ways to do the same effects, but without using the same amount of space. Using their actions is indeed faster which can be handy, but I would still prefer to do my own. That is not to say that these actions won't work for you.
If you are a weekend warrior photographer, just starting out, poor at Photoshop, or want to experiment with Photoshop; I would recommend getting the "Portrait Perfection" package! Sleeklens will provide you with tutorials to teach you how to produce their looks and how to improve your images.
Sleeklens Links to check out!
https://sleeklens.com/product/portrait-perfection-photoshop-actions/
https://sleeklens.com/product/professional-photo-editing-service/
https://sleeklens.com/product-category/photoshop-actions/
Models!
Samantha St Jean: Instagram @samiajean4u
Anna Pickles: Instagram @AnnaPicklesModel