AI portrait retouching has made professional results more accessible than ever, but not all are created equal. Aperty and Retouch4Me are two standout options, each with their own strengths. But which one is best when it comes to results?
Platform Support
Both software can be used on Windows and Mac systems as standard. There is no Linux or tablet support for either. Both tools work offline, but the Retouch4Me plugin must be installed and activated first.
Aperty offers standalone apps for Windows (Windows 10 and later) and Mac (MacOS 12 and later), along with plugins for both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. There's also an extension that lets you use Aperty with the Apple Photos app on your Mac.
Retouch4Me can be used by each individual plugin as a standalone tool; with the Arams hub, your purchased plugins will appear in one place for use (Arams is compatible with Windows 7 and above and MacOS 10.14 and above); or integrated into other software with the Photoshop plugin panel or the Retouch4Me extension in Lightroom and Capture One.
Interface and ease of use
Aperty has a simple and attractive interface with clear icons and helpful tooltip labels. It displays basic camera information above the image—ISO, focal length, aperture, and shutter speed—and all the tools you need are located in easy-to-navigate menus on the right side.
Retouch4Me's Arams hub acts as a central repository for your purchased product plugins. You don't have to use Arams as you can access each product individually or integrate it into other tools. Arams just saves you the trouble.
Arams offers a simple interface, but it's a bit more cluttered than Aperty. Arams has menus on both the left and right sides of the image, and a thumbnail for the larger image below, meaning less space to view your portrait. Aperty's tools are as simple as selecting a check mark and moving a slider.
Face Retouching
The main facial editing tools include skin smoothing, blemish removal, and skin tone evening. The Heal and Dodge & Burn tools are also commonly used for facial editing.
Aperty's Retouch category is for editing facial features in portraits. They work fine with both the effects slider and the detail slider.
The Skin Blemish option allows for the removal of blemishes or freckles and enhancement of details. The Face Skin option allows for skin smoothing as well as facial skin tone correction. There is also a dark circle removal function for the under eye area and finally in the skin details there are skin lightening and shine removal options. The results are subtle yet noticeable, ensuring no over-smoothing or unrealistic results.
Using Retouch4Me's Arams, you can select all the plugins you want to apply at once. For the editing test, I chose Heal, Mattifier, Dodge Burn, Skin Tone, and Skin Mask.
Retouch4Me applied some unnatural smoothing effects to where the light hit the model's face, causing her nose area to appear blurry instead of brighter due to the light.
Winning Option: Aperty
Eye
Aperty's Eyes section is located in the Retouch category. For this portrait, I used the Dark Circles Removal tool again before selecting some of the Eyes features.
Using the drop-down menu, Iris Color was set to brown – the same as the model's original eye color – for more texture and depth, then Iris Visibility and Flare were increased for a more natural result. These are fun and specific options.
The author used the Eye Whitening and Eye Enhancement sliders — most similar to Retouch4Me's eye tools — to brighten the eyes a bit.
Aperty also has features for eye makeup and reshaping. The author also uses them subtly by highlighting the eyebrows since the model's eyebrows are quite light compared to her skin tone. There is no difference when using the Eyeliner tool.
In the Reshape tab, move the eyebrows a little further apart but keep everything else the same. The result is very subtle but creates a nice emphasis on the eyes.
Retouch4Me has two eye enhancement tools - Eye Vessels and Eye Brilliance - both of which are part of the Eyes Bundle.
There is also a Portrait Volumes plugin that affects the eyes in portraits along with other elements like lip and nose shape, as well as the overall face shape. The two Eye tools are also applied to portraits so as not to affect the skin or face.
The original portrait doesn't show any visible blood vessels in the eyes, so it's hard to tell how the plugin has affected the eyes. However, the eyes have been transformed with brightness.
The whites look a little unrealistic, but the eyes pop. The slider is brought down a bit to improve it a little without going overboard. The result looks a little unnatural but could be brought down further.
Winning Option: Aperty
Color
Aperty has a variety of color tools, including white balance and color tone sliders. It also has a variety of color-affecting presets, including creative presets.
In the lighting controls, you can add a source light to jazz up your portraits. This simulates a lighting rig; you can choose the color/tint, intensity, and direction.
Retouch4Me doesn't offer the same color tools as Aperty. You can download the free and paid Color Match plugin, which allows you to match colors from your reference photo to your source photo. There's also a LUT generator and LUT preset plugin, all of which are purchased separately and so the author didn't have access to them for comparison.
Of course, you can use Retouch4Me as a plugin or extension for other photo editing software to use the color tools elsewhere instead of directly.
Winning Option: Aperty
Body Improvement
Aperty has its own body section in the Reshape tab. These AI tools have sliders for Body Shape and Abdomen. Many people dislike these tools because they think they can be harmful - partly because the Abdomen slider starts at 0 on one end and only increases, reducing the shape or size of the abdomen, suggesting the model should always look thinner.
The Shape slider has a 0 in the middle and can be larger or smaller. The results are a bit unrealistic and rely too much on the fashion industry's desire for models to look smaller. This is an issue that's present in other AI photo editing tools as well - warping images can lead to unrealistic expectations of bodies.
Retouch4Me has some subtle body area tools, none of which affect the model's body size.
The main tool you can apply to the body is the Fabric plugin - this tool is aimed at cleaning up fabric folds and shadows. It works subtly but effectively and doesn't take away from the beauty of the model's body.
Winning Option: Retouch4Me
Aperty vs Retouch4Me: Which Tool Gives the Best Results?
Aperty offers more tools, so the results are slightly better. Aperty's interface is easier to navigate and results are quicker to display than Retouch4Me. The subtlety of Rectouch4Me's tools can be too subtle. When editing aspects you want to change dramatically, it can be difficult to see the desired results.
However, some of Aperty's Reshape features are too gimmicky and many people won't use them for serious portrait editing. Overall, compared to Retouch4Me, you'll be happier with the results with Aperty.