Review: Reallusion Facefilter Studio 2 image-editing software

If you’re in the mood to mess with someone’s face, here’s software that makes it a cinch

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Price: £29.99

Manufacturer: Reallusion

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Verdict

Pros: Easy to use; low price-point; handles large files (up to 12 megapixels); works on group shots; photo-sticker export
Cons: Skin manipulation rapidly induces ‘plastic face’ syndrome; artifacts afflict more extreme expressions; no Tiff expor
Overall: For quick and easy fun facial distortion, Facefilter offers a lot. It’s doubtful, however, that professional photo retouchers will use it

Karl Foster, Personal Computer World 02 Apr 2007

Photoshop artists spend many hours removing skin flaws from fashionable faces, encouraging the belief that the beautiful people don’t suffer from wrinkles, warts or weeping sores.

Rather than challenge this, Reallusion seeks to make perfecting portraits even easier and cheaper with Facefilter Studio 2.

Not only does the software promise to make the wholesale removal of skin blemishes a simple affair, it’s also claimed to be able to change the expression of the subject.

So if the model was having a bad-mood day on the shoot, it should be easy enough to transform a scowl to a smile.

On first loading the software, you’re presented with the option of correcting skin tones. Automatic correction is somewhat vicious and tends to bleach out reasonably acceptable tones, but manual tools are available by which to achieve subtle correction. Red-eye removal, as well as the means to change iris colour, also feature and are effective.

Facefilter Studio 2 invites you to dabble with skin texture and expression, presenting anchor points that can be aligned with a face template so that the software knows the location of the subject’s key features.

Once the anchors are in place, a mask is created, ensuring that skin enhancements don’t affect detail areas, such as the eyes and lips. The tools for smoothing complexion, whitening, darkening and tweaking colour, quickly lead you into ‘plastic face’ territory, where pore detail is lost along with any semblance of reality. Great care is needed when aiming to smooth the subject’s skin realistically.

The software’s facial morphing technology is more of a hoot than of practical use. You can transform deadpan into scowl, sneer into smile and perform many other cheats, but the more extreme the manipulation, the more comedic it looks and the more artifacts appear. It is a fun feature, however, and there’s the means to output contact sheets featuring variations of expression ready for printing onto stickers, for example.

Facefilter Studio 2 will not distract the pro from Photoshop’s portrait retouching power, but it does offer an inexpensive means of rapid mugshot manipulation for casual users.

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