After completing your purchase, you’re just a few steps away from using Aperty. Follow the instructions below to download, install, and set up the software on your device. This guide will help you navigate the installation process smoothly, whether you’re using Windows or Mac.

1. Download the Software: After the purchase, you’ll receive email with the link to download the installer. Moreover, you can also download the app in your Skylum account, from the My software tab.

2. Run the Installer:

   • For Windows: Double-click the installer file (.exe) and follow the on-screen prompts to install the software.

   • For Mac: Open the installer file (.dmg), drag the Aperty icon into the Applications folder, and complete the installation.

3. Follow Setup Instructions: Double-click the Aperty installer. You’ll see an installation screen:

• Click the ‘Accept’ button to proceed with the installation.

• If you use Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom Classic and wish to use Aperty as a plugin, you’ll have the option to install the plugin on the next screen:

This step is not obligatory: if you don’t use these applications, simply click ‘Install’ to continue without installing the plugin.

• Once the installation is complete, click the ‘Launch’ button to open Aperty.

Launching the Software

• From Desktop: After installation, simply double-click the Aperty icon on your desktop (or in the Applications folder on Mac).

• From the Start Menu (Windows): You can also launch Aperty by clicking on the Start Menu, searching for "Aperty," and selecting the application from the list.

Welcome to the Knowledge Hub — your central resource for getting the most out of Aperty.

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You can activate Aperty simply by logging in to your Skylum account—no license key or activation code is needed.

When you launch Aperty, a prompt will appear, asking you to sign in to your Skylum account.

Please follow these instructions to activate Aperty:

1. Download and install Aperty

2. Launch the app. You will see a window that prompts you to log in to your Skylum Account.

3. Enter your email address to find out if you have an account. If you don't have it, it will be created.

When you remove images from the Project, the original files remain safe in their original location.

You can remove images in several ways:

• Right-click on a photo and choose Remove from Project.

• Go to Image > Remove from Project in the menu.

• Select the image you want to remove and press Cmd+Delete (macOS) or Ctrl+Delete (Windows).

To remove multiple images, select them first using the Shift+Cmd (macOS) or Shift+Ctrl (Windows) keys, then choose one of the options above to remove them.

To transfer an image from Adobe Lightroom Classic to Aperty for editing, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Lightroom Classic.

2. In the Library or Develop module, select the image you’d like to edit in Aperty.

3. Send your image to Aperty using one of the following methods

Review all tree options:

Use keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow.

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Here’s how to activate the Aperty Extension.

1. Choose System Settings (System Preferences prior to macOS 13.0).

2. Choose Extensions.

3. Choose Photos Editing.

The Face Slim feature in Aperty allows you to subtly adjust the shape of the face, providing a slimming effect to enhance facial proportions while maintaining a natural appearance.

• Face Slim: Adjusts the width of the face, making it appear slimmer. Increasing this slider gently narrows the cheeks and jawline, creating a more defined and contoured facial shape. Lowering the value leaves the face at its original width. This tool is designed to make subtle changes without distorting the natural look of the subject.

The Filmstrip tool in Aperty is a convenient feature that lets you navigate and manage multiple images in your editing workflow. It appears as a strip of thumbnails at the bottom of the workspace, allowing quick access to different photos without leaving the current view.

Filmstrip Features:

• Thumbnail View: Displays miniature versions of all images in your project, making it easy to locate and select specific photos.

• Image Navigation: Click on any thumbnail to instantly switch to that photo in the editor, speeding up the process when working on multiple portraits.

• Multi-Image Selection: Select multiple images at once by holding down a modifier key (often Shift or Command/Ctrl) and clicking on thumbnails. This is useful for batch edits or comparing similar shots side-by-side.

• Sorting and Filtering: Some versions of the Filmstrip allow you to sort or filter images based on criteria like capture time, edit time, or file name, which is especially helpful in larger projects.

This tool offers a suite of features designed to give you control over how individuals are edited within a photo. Whether you want to apply edits universally or tailor them to specific subsets, these options provide flexibility and ease of use:

• All: Selecting the "All" option allows you to make adjustments that will be uniformly applied to every person in the photograph. This is particularly useful for making broad changes that need a uniform appearance.

• Individual: This feature grants you the capability to pinpoint and individually edit a particular person recognized in the image. Icons representing each recognized individual will be displayed, allowing you to simply click on the icon of your choice to commence editing. This is ideal for personalizing edits and enhancements to suit the unique characteristics of a specific person.

• Male/Female: These options allow you to group and apply edits specifically to all men or women in the photo. This can be useful when applying gender-specific enhancements or adjustments.

• Teen/Child/Elderly: These categories enable focused editing on specific age groups. By selecting any of these options, you can ensure that only individuals belonging to the chosen cohort will have the modifications applied. This is particularly helpful when tailoring the photo to capture the different tones or characteristics associated with various age groups or when different skin adjustments should be done

Each of these options empowers you to customize the editing process, ensuring that individual needs and group characteristics are appropriately addressed.

The Structure tool in Aperty is Human-Aware. It is designed to intelligently recognize and enhance different parts of a human portrait while ensuring skin remains smooth and natural. This feature prevents over-sharpening or exaggerating skin texture, focusing enhancements where they matter most, like eyes, lips, and hair, while maintaining a flattering softness on the skin.

• Amount: Adjusts the overall sharpness and clarity of the portrait, but with the human-aware technology, it avoids applying too much detail to the skin. Increasing the Amount will bring out fine details in areas like the eyes, hair, and other facial features while keeping the skin soft and natural. Decreasing the Amount will further smooth the skin and soften textures across the portrait.

  • High Amount: Enhances key facial features like the eyes and hair without harshly sharpening the skin, preserving its smoothness.

  • Low Amount: Softens overall texture, especially on the skin, reducing the prominence of fine lines and pores for a more polished, flattering look.

• Boost: Selectively enhances areas with more texture or contrast, such as the eyes, eyebrows, and hair, without affecting smooth regions like the skin. Boost intensifies the sharpening in these detailed areas, making them more prominent while avoiding unwanted emphasis on skin texture.

  • High Boost: Adds extra sharpness to detailed regions like eyes and hair, making them stand out without affecting softer areas like cheeks or forehead.

  • Low Boost: Subtly enhances facial features for a natural and balanced look without introducing any harshness to the skin.

The Reshape category offers tools for subtly adjusting facial and body features, allowing for artistic enhancements without losing the subject's authenticity. Whether slimming the face, reshaping the nose, adjusting the lips, or modifying other features, these tools let you fine-tune proportions to create a balanced, flattering look while keeping the portrait natural and realistic.

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Aperty is designed to integrate seamlessly into your existing workflow using a project-based system. This approach allows you to manage edits in a highly organized and efficient way. Once images are linked to a project, you can add additional images to continue editing them within the same project. This flexible system supports unlimited libraries and projects, making it easy to group edits by individual shoots or themes.

To get started, organize your shoots into folders on your computer as you normally would, then add those folders to Aperty. This ensures that each project is self-contained, allowing you to focus exclusively on the images for that specific shoot. This keeps you organized and helps you stay on task without the distraction of unrelated images cluttering your workspace.

The project-based system is especially beneficial for photographers managing multiple clients or sessions. You can easily switch between projects, making it simple to work on different shoots at once without losing track of progress. With Aperty’s ability to handle unlimited libraries, there’s no limit to how many projects you can organize, allowing you to scale your work without compromising efficiency or focus.

Benefits of the Project-Based Approach

• Streamlined Workflow: Integrates seamlessly with your existing file structure so you can manage images as you already do.

• Focused Editing: This isolates each project, keeping distractions at bay and ensuring you only work on the images that matter for a particular shoot.

• Scalability: Unlimited project libraries let you manage large volumes of work without losing organization.

• Flexible Switching

With Aperty’s project-based approach, you can stay organized, focused, and efficient. It allows you to manage multiple shoots seamlessly while maintaining your creative workflow. It’s a flexible system that grows with your needs, ensuring every project stays on track from start to finish.

Creating a Project

To create a new Project:

• On the first launch of Aperty, you can create a new Project to work by clicking on the 'Create Project' button.

• If you have already created a Project and want to start with a new one, first you have to go back to the 'All Projects' menu by clicking here:

• Once you're in, you will see the 'Create Project' button to start with a new Project:

Aperty automatically saves your edits as you work, so you don’t have to worry about losing progress. All changes are saved within the program as part of a non-destructive editing process.

When you edit an image in Aperty, a record of all the tools you apply, the adjustments you make in those tools, and everything else you do to the image is saved in the Project. When you export a final image, Aperty applies those adjustments to your photo and generates a finished file ready to send to clients.

While Aperty functions as a full-featured, stand-alone application, you can still use it as a plug-in within other popular photo editing software. During the initial installation of Aperty, you’ll have the option to install plug-ins for any compatible software detected on your system. These plug-ins can also be installed at a later time.

You’ll have the option to install Aperty as a plug-in when you first run the installer, but you can also add it as a plug-in at any time afterward. Installing plug-ins is optional, so you may skip this step if you prefer.

Aperty can be used as a plug-in with the following applications:

To install Aperty as a plug-in:

1. Quit any host applications you plan to install the plug-in for.

The Color tool in Aperty allows you to fine-tune the overall color intensity of your portrait and correct any unwanted color tones. It offers precise adjustments through the Vibrance, Saturation, and Remove Color Cast sliders and a detailed HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) section that lets you control individual color ranges.

• Vibrance: Increases the intensity of less saturated colors while protecting skin tones and already vivid colors from becoming oversaturated. This is particularly useful for enhancing colors in a portrait without making the skin look unnatural.

• Saturation: Adjusts the overall intensity of all colors in the portrait. Increasing Saturation makes the colors more vivid while decreasing it mutes the entire image. Use this slider carefully in portrait editing to avoid making skin tones too intense or unnatural.

The Essential category includes the core tools necessary for basic portrait adjustments. These tools help you control fundamental aspects like exposure, contrast, brightness, and color balance, ensuring your portrait is well-composed and visually balanced. Whether making quick edits or laying the groundwork for more detailed work, these essential tools provide the perfect starting point for achieving a polished portrait.

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This tool offers a suite of features designed to give you control over how individuals are edited within a photo. Whether you want to apply edits universally or tailor them to specific subsets, these options provide flexibility and ease of use:

• All: Selecting the "All" option allows you to make adjustments that will be uniformly applied to every person in the photograph. This is particularly useful for making broad changes that need a uniform appearance.

• Individual: This feature grants you the capability to pinpoint and individually edit a particular person recognized in the image. Icons representing each recognized individual will be displayed, allowing you to simply click on the icon of your choice to commence editing. This is ideal for personalizing edits and enhancements to suit the unique characteristics of a specific person.

The Noise Reduction tool in Aperty helps reduce unwanted grain or noise in your portrait, especially in images taken at high ISO or low-light conditions. This tool ensures that details remain smooth while minimizing distracting noise without sacrificing image quality.

• Luminosity: Reduces noise in the brightness (luminance) channel of the image, which often appears as grain or roughness in the image, especially in areas of solid color like skin. Increasing this value smooths out the noise in the lighter and darker areas, resulting in a cleaner, more polished portrait. Be cautious not to overuse it, as too much luminosity reduction can make the image look overly soft and lose fine details.

• Color: Reduces noise in the color channels, which appears as random color speckles or blotches across the image, often visible in skin tones or smooth areas. Increasing this slider smooths out these color artifacts, keeping the overall color tones more even and natural without affecting the sharpness of the portrait.

The Develop Raw tool in Aperty is essential for processing raw images. It offers precise control over various adjustments to enhance the look of your portrait. It includes sections for camera profile selection, white balance correction, and light adjustments, all of which aim to provide the best base for further editing.

Camera Profile Section This section lets you choose how colors and tones are rendered based on your camera's profile.

• Camera Profile Dropdown: This dropdown selects the color profile to interpret the raw image. By default, Aperty is selected, which provides a balanced interpretation of colors and tones. You can switch to other profiles depending on your camera or desired look to better match your vision for the portrait.

White Balance Section White balance is crucial for ensuring that skin tones and colors in the portrait appear natural and true to life.

This section helps to smooth out fine lines while preserving the natural texture of the skin, ensuring a balanced and realistic look.

• Wrinkles Removal: Reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles across the face. Higher values provide a stronger smoothing effect, while lower values maintain more natural skin texture.

• Forehead: Targets wrinkles on the forehead area, softening deep lines for a more youthful appearance.

• Eyes: Minimizes wrinkles and fine lines around the eyes, such as crow’s feet, for a refreshed look.

Once your portrait edits are complete and you’re ready to finalize them, Aperty provides several export options:

• Export Formats: Aperty supports exporting in different file types, depending on your needs:

  • JPEG: Best for sharing online or emailing, thanks to its smaller file size.

The Mouth tool in Aperty allows you to enhance the appearance of the subject's smile by improving the brightness and color of the teeth while refining the look of the lips. It provides simple but effective options to ensure teeth and lips look natural, bright, and clean without over-editing.

• Teeth Whitening: Adjusts the overall whiteness of the teeth by removing yellow or discolored tones. Increasing this slider brightens the teeth, making them appear whiter and cleaner. Be careful not to overdo it, as teeth that are too white may look unnatural.

• Teeth Brightening: Enhances the overall brightness of the teeth by increasing their exposure and lightness. This effect gives the teeth a healthy glow, complementing the whitening adjustment. Increasing this slider makes the teeth stand out more, especially in low-light portraits or if the teeth appear dull.

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The Skin tool in Aperty provides powerful yet subtle adjustments to enhance facial features and skin tone, ensuring a natural and flawless look. It includes options for blemish removal, skin smoothing, color correction, and brightness adjustments, specifically designed to improve portraits while keeping the skin's natural texture intact.

Blemish Removal Section This section helps to eliminate imperfections while preserving the subject's natural features.

• Blemish Removal: Targets and removes minor skin imperfections, such as acne, spots, or scars. This slider minimizes distractions on the skin while maintaining a realistic look. Higher values remove more imperfections, but overuse may appear unnatural.

• Freckles: Adjusts the visibility of freckles. Increasing this slider enhances freckles, making them more prominent, while lowering it reduces their appearance for a smoother complexion.

Portrait retouching should be quick, efficient, and accessible, allowing photographers of all levels to achieve stunning results with ease. That's why we've developed Aperty, a cutting-edge photo editing tool created by photographers for photographers.

Tailored specifically for professional portrait photographers, Aperty recognizes the historically complex and time-consuming nature of portrait retouching and offers a streamlined solution that combines ease of use with advanced technology. It enables photographers to achieve high-quality results efficiently, significantly reducing the time spent on post-processing.

Developed in collaboration with renowned portrait photographer Julie Trotti, Aperty simplifies retouching while maintaining consistent, high-quality outcomes in skin editing and other professional challenges.

System Requirements

Aperty is compatible with a wide range of file types, supporting most cameras and popular graphic formats. To see a full list of supported cameras, visit Supported Cameras

The Skylum team continually works to add support for newly released cameras. As this process may take some time, the quickest way to start editing your photos is by converting them to DNG files. Many cameras offer in-camera DNG conversion, or you can download to easily convert your images.

Aperty fully supports DNG files, whether created in-camera or using the DNG Converter from other raw formats.

The Eyes tool in Aperty allows you to enhance, correct, or change the color and overall appearance of the eyes in your portrait, ensuring they become a focal point. It includes options for changing the iris color, increasing visibility and brightness, and correcting redness or dullness, resulting in striking and vibrant eyes.

Iris Section

This section provides the ability to alter the iris color or enhance the natural color for more emphasis.

• Drop-down Choices: Select the desired iris color for the eyes. The default option, Original Iris, retains the natural eye color, but you can switch to a variety of colors for creative or corrective purposes:

  • Blue: Changes the iris to a vivid blue shade.

  • Brown: Alters the iris to a rich brown color.

  • Green: Adjust the iris to a bright green hue.

  • Grey: Gives the iris a cool, neutral grey tone.
• Iris Flare: Enhances the natural light reflection in the iris, creating a subtle glowing effect. This slider adds a catchlight effect, making the eyes look more lively and reflective.

• Eye Enhancement: Increases or decreases the prominence of the iris, making the eyes appear more defined and vivid. Raising this slider brightens and sharpens the iris, drawing attention to the eyes.

Redness Removal Section

This section helps reduce redness in and around the eyes, making them appear brighter and more vibrant.

• Redness Removal: Reduces redness in the whites of the eyes and surrounding areas, creating a healthier, more rested appearance. Increasing this slider eliminates red tones, which can result from tiredness or irritation.

• Eye Whitening: Lightens the sclera (whites of the eyes), making the eyes look clearer and brighter. This effect is particularly useful for enhancing tired eyes and giving them a fresher look.

• Eye Enhancement: Amplifies the overall appearance of the eyes by increasing sharpness and brightness. It can subtly enhance the lashes, iris, and whites, giving the eyes a polished and striking appearance.

The LUTs (Look-Up Tables) tool in Aperty allows you to apply preset color grading effects to your portrait, transforming the mood and tone of the image with just a few clicks. LUTs adjust color balance, contrast, and saturation, providing a quick way to achieve various artistic styles or cinematic looks.

• Choose LUT Dropdown Menu: Select a LUT from the provided options or upload your own.

  • Add Custom LUT File...: Upload your own LUT to apply custom color grading to the portrait.

  • Get More LUTs...: Access additional downloadable LUTs to expand your options.

  • Predefined LUT options include:

    • Beijing: A cool, soft-toned look.

    • Grace: A balanced, natural style.

    • Long Beach: Warmer, sunlit tones.
• Amount: Controls the intensity of the selected LUT. Increasing the slider applies the LUT more heavily while lowering it makes the effect more subtle.

• Contrast: Adjusts the contrast within the LUT, increasing or softening the difference between light and dark areas to fit the overall mood.

• Saturation: Controls the color intensity applied by the LUT. Raising the saturation makes colors more vivid while lowering it mutes them for a more understated effect.

The Detail tool in Aperty helps enhance or soften details in your portrait, focusing on various levels of detail and texture.

Here’s how each slider functions:

• Small Details: Targets fine features such as pores, hair strands, and small skin textures. Increasing this brings out sharper, finer details while lowering it smooths subtle imperfections.

• Medium Details: Enhances or reduces mid-sized features like facial contours, wrinkles, or larger skin textures. Boosting this slider sharpens the overall structure of the face while decreasing it softens these areas.

• Large Details: Focuses on the broader features of the face, such as jawlines, cheekbones, and general facial shapes. Adjusting this can emphasize the form or smooth larger structures.

• Details Protection: Helps maintain smoothness in areas where detail enhancement is too strong. Increasing this protects sensitive areas (like soft skin tones) from becoming overly sharp or harsh.

• Preserve Textures: This slider ensures that natural textures are maintained while adjusting details. It prevents over-smoothing or unnatural plastic-like skin effects, keeping skin realistic and textured.

The Creative Tools category opens possibilities for transforming your portrait into something more artistic or stylized. This set of tools allows you to apply effects like film grain, vignettes, LUTs (Look-Up Tables), and high key lighting, offering the creative flexibility to produce visually compelling and unique portraits that stand out.

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This section is designed to create an even, smooth skin surface without losing too much natural detail.

• Skin Smoothing: Smooths the overall skin texture by reducing the appearance of fine lines, pores, and other unevenness. A higher value creates a smoother effect but can make the skin appear overly processed if pushed too far. A lower setting keeps more texture intact for a natural look.

• Details: Controls how much fine detail, like pores or small facial lines, is preserved during skin smoothing. Increasing Details retains more texture while lowering it softens the skin for a polished appearance.

Face Skin Color Correction Section

This section helps balance skin tones and correct color imperfections for an even and natural complexion.

• Face Skin Color Correction: Adjusts uneven skin tones, helping to eliminate unwanted color casts or patchiness in the face. This slider ensures that the skin tone appears consistent across the portrait, making it look smoother and more even.

• Dark Circle Removal: Targets and reduces dark circles under the eyes, lightening these areas for a fresher, more rested appearance. Increasing this value makes dark areas under the eyes less prominent without affecting other facial features.

Face Brighten Section

This section focuses on enhancing the brightness and shine of the face, ensuring a radiant, well-balanced appearance.

• Face Brighten: Lightens the face, bringing a natural glow to key areas such as the forehead, cheeks, and chin. This effect makes the face stand out, especially in underexposed images or poor lighting conditions.

• Shine Removal: Reduces unwanted shine caused by oily skin or harsh lighting, particularly in the T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin). Increasing this slider mutes shiny areas, giving the skin a more matte, balanced appearance.

The Nose tool in Aperty provides adjustments to refine the shape and positioning of the nose in your portrait. It allows you to modify the nose bridge, nose tip, and overall position for subtle enhancements while ensuring natural-looking results.

• Nose Bridge Shape: Adjusts the width and contour of the nose bridge. Increasing this slider makes the bridge narrower, creating a more defined and slimmer appearance. Lowering the slider broadens the bridge, softening the look of the nose. This is useful for adjusting facial balance without over-altering the natural structure.

• Nose Tip Shape: Changes the size and curvature of the nose tip. Raising the slider lifts the tip for a more pointed and refined look, while lowering it rounds or broadens the tip, giving it a softer appearance. This allows fine-tuning the nose's shape to match the subject's desired look.

• X: Adjusts the horizontal positioning of the nose. Moving the slider shifts the nose to the left or right, helping correct slight asymmetry in the portrait or aligning the nose better with the overall face.

• Y: Adjust the vertical position of the nose. Moving the slider upward raises the nose while lowering it, which drops the position slightly, helping with facial balance and overall alignment.

The Film Grain tool in Aperty adds a textured, grainy effect to your portrait, mimicking the look of traditional film photography. This tool is perfect for adding a vintage or artistic feel to your images while allowing you to control the intensity and appearance of the grain.

• Amount: Controls the overall visibility of the grain effect. Increasing the slider adds more pronounced grain while lowering it makes the effect more subtle. Use this to balance between a fine or strong grain overlay, depending on the desired look.

• Size: Adjusts the size of the grain particles. Higher values result in larger, more noticeable grain, creating a rough, gritty feel. Lower values produce finer, more delicate grain, perfect for subtle texture enhancement.

• Roundness: Modifies the shape of the grain particles. Increasing the roundness makes the grain appear smoother and more circular, while lowering the value makes the grain more irregular and sharp-edged, contributing to a rougher, more textured look.

The Body tool in Aperty allows you to make subtle adjustments to body shape, focusing on enhancing proportions for a natural look. It offers control over the body shape and specific areas like the abdomen to refine the subject's appearance.

• Shape: Adjusts the overall width and contour of the body. Increasing this slider narrows and slims the body, creating a more streamlined look, while decreasing it widens the body for a more relaxed and natural appearance. This can subtly enhance body proportions without distorting the overall image.

• Abdomen: Specifically targets the abdomen area, allowing you to adjust its size and shape. Increasing this slider flattens and tones the abdomen, giving a slimmer and more defined look. Decreasing the slider softens the appearance, creating a more natural or relaxed shape. This adjustment helps refine the midsection while keeping the overall body structure balanced.

The Curves Tool is a powerful feature in Aperty that allows you to fine-tune the tonal range of your portrait by adjusting brightness, contrast, and color balance. With precise control, you can brighten or darken specific areas, add contrast, or shift the colors to achieve the perfect look for your portrait.

• Color Selectors: Use the white (RGB), red, green, and blue selectors to adjust the overall tone or specific color channels. The white selector adjusts all colors, while the red, green, and blue selectors modify individual channels. For example, manipulating blue and yellow tones can cool down or warm up your image by adjusting the blue channel.

• Control Points: Add up to 10 control points along the curve to make targeted adjustments to specific tonal areas of the image. Drag a point upward to brighten or reduce shadows in that area, or drag it downward to darken the area and increase contrast.

To enhance your images in Luminar Neo using Aperty, follow these steps:

1. Open Luminar Neo and select the image you want to enhance.

2. Go to Images > Edit in Aperty, or right-click the image and choose Edit in Aperty from the quick action menu.

3. Aperty will automatically open the selected image.

The Portrait Bokeh tool in Aperty creates a beautiful background blur effect, simulating the depth of field seen in professional portrait photography. It enhances the subject by softening the background focusing on the person while keeping the portrait visually appealing.

• Amount: Controls the intensity of the background blur. Increasing this slider creates a stronger blur effect while lowering it preserves more background detail. Use this to control the separation between the subject and the background.

Background Section Offers advanced controls to fine-tune the appearance of the blurred background, ensuring it enhances the portrait without distracting from the subject.

The Shape and Eyebrows sections within the Eyes tool in Aperty offer detailed control over the appearance of the eyes and eyebrows. These adjustments allow you to modify the eye shape, eyebrow positioning, arch, and distance to refine the portrait while maintaining natural proportions.

Shape Section

• Shape: Alters the overall shape of the eyes. Increasing or decreasing this slider adjusts the size and contour of the eyes, making them appear more open or slightly elongated. Use this to subtly enhance the eyes' natural shape, ensuring they remain proportionate to the face.

Eyebrows Section This section allows you to fine-tune the positioning and shape of the eyebrows, which plays a crucial role in framing the face and balancing facial expressions.

The Vignette tool in Aperty allows you to darken or lighten the edges of your portrait, drawing attention to the subject in the center. It helps create a natural frame for the image, focusing the viewer's eyes on the main subject.

• Place Vignette Center Button: Click this button to manually set the center of the vignette. You can click anywhere on the image to reposition the vignette's focus, ensuring the subject is highlighted.

• Amount: Controls the intensity of the vignette effect. Increasing the slider darkens or lightens the edges more while lowering it reduces the effect, keeping the edges closer to their original tone.

Aperty organizes its powerful editing tools into four distinct categories—Essential, Retouch, Reshape, and Creative Effects—to provide a streamlined and efficient workflow for portrait photographers. Each category addresses specific aspects of portrait enhancement, from foundational adjustments to artistic transformations, allowing users to quickly access the tools they need based on their editing goals.

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The Make up tool in Aperty allows you to apply virtual makeup to enhance facial features. Through contouring, you can subtly or dramatically adjust the appearance of cheeks, nose, and overall facial structure. The tool gives you precise control over placement and intensity, ensuring natural and balanced results.

Blush Section

This section focuses on adding or enhancing blush to the cheeks and nose.

• Buttons: Cheeks / Cheeks & Nose:

  • Cheeks: Applies blush or makeup to the cheek area only.

  • Cheeks & Nose: Extends the blush to the cheeks and nose for a more cohesive, natural look.

• Amount: Controls the intensity of the applied blush or makeup. Increasing the slider adds more color while decreasing it provides a more subtle, barely-there effect. Keep the amount low for a natural flush or higher for a more dramatic look.

• Tone: Adjusts the hue of the blush. Depending on the desired look and skin tone, you can select warmer tones (peach, coral) or cooler tones (pink, mauve). This allows you to fine-tune the makeup to match the portrait’s style and the subject's complexion.

• Width: Adjusts the horizontal spread of the blush across the cheeks. Increasing the width makes the blush cover more of the cheek area while lowering it focuses the blush on a smaller, more defined region.

• Height: Controls the vertical spread of the blush. Raising this value moves the blush higher up the cheekbones while lowering it focuses the blush more towards the center of the cheeks.

• X: Moves the blush horizontally across the face. This allows you to adjust the position of the blush toward the outer or inner part of the cheeks, ensuring proper placement based on the subject's face shape.

• Y: Moves the blush vertically up or down on the face. This gives you control over whether the blush sits high on the cheekbones or lower toward the nose and jawline.

Contour Section

The Contour section enhances facial structure by adding shadows to key areas like the cheekbones, jawline, and nose. This gives the face a more defined and sculpted look. You have control over how strong or subtle the effect is, ensuring natural or dramatic results based on your preference.

• Amount: Controls the intensity of the contouring. Increasing this slider adds more shadow to sculpt the face, emphasizing angles and structure, while lowering it creates a softer, more subtle definition.

• Feather: Adjusts the softness of the contour edges. A higher feather value will create a smoother, more blended contour effect, which helps avoid harsh lines. Lower feather values make the contouring more pronounced and sharp.

Highlights Section

The Highlights section enhances the brightness in specific areas of the face, such as the cheekbones, forehead, and nose, to complement the contouring and create a balanced, glowing look.

• Amount: Controls the brightness of the highlight. Increasing this slider adds more light, making key areas of the face stand out and creating a more radiant, dimensional look. Lowering the value results in more subtle highlights.

• Feather: Adjusts how smoothly the highlight transitions into the rest of the skin. A higher feather creates a soft, natural glow, while a lower feather makes the highlights sharper and more defined.

Eyeliner Section

This section lets you enhance the eyes by adding eyeliner, helping to define and draw attention to the eyes with customizable options.

• Amount: Controls the thickness and intensity of the eyeliner. Higher values create a bolder, more dramatic eyeliner look, while lower values provide a subtler, natural enhancement.

• Hue: Adjusts the color of the eyeliner, allowing you to choose from classic black or experiment with colors to match the overall look or add creative flair to the portrait.

• Glow: Adds a subtle glow or shine to the eyeliner, giving it a glossy or more radiant appearance. Increasing this value creates a more eye-catching effect, while lowering it keeps the eyeliner matte.

Eyebrows Enhancement Section

This section enhances the appearance of the eyebrows, making them look fuller, sharper, or more defined.

• Eyebrows Enhancement: Increases the thickness and sharpness of the eyebrows, helping them stand out. Use this to adjust the shape and fullness, ensuring that the eyebrows frame the face flatteringly. A higher value gives more boldness to the brows, while a lower setting maintains a natural, subtle enhancement.

Lips Section

The Lips section allows you to adjust the color, saturation, and shading of the lips, adding vibrancy or subtlety based on the desired style.

• Saturation: Adjusts the intensity of the lip color. Higher saturation results in a more vibrant, bold lip, while lowering it creates a muted, softer tone.

• Tone: Controls the hue of the lips. You can warm the lips with red or coral tones or cool them down with pink or mauve hues to suit the portrait's overall mood.

• Darkening: Adds depth and dimension to the lips by darkening the color. Higher values make the lips appear richer and more defined, while lower values keep the lips lighter and more natural.

The Retouch category focuses on enhancing and perfecting your subject's appearance with various tools designed for fine adjustments. From smoothing skin, removing blemishes, and whitening teeth to brightening eyes and refining facial details, these tools help you achieve a flawless yet natural-looking portrait, ideal for professional-quality results.

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Interface Overview

Top Toolbar

The Top Toolbar in Aperty provides quick access to core tools and settings, making it easy to manage projects, add images, edit, and access important image details. Each feature is essential for organizing, enhancing, and exporting your portraits.

Top Toolbar Features:

• Main Menu: Shows options for overall application settings, preferences, and help resources to customize your Aperty workspace and access support.

• Projects: Shows a menu to create, open, and manage projects, helping you stay organized, especially when working on multiple portrait sessions.

• Add Images: Shows an option to import new images into your current project, making it simple to add additional portraits to your workflow.

Bottom Toolbar

The Bottom Toolbar in Aperty provides essential tools for managing, previewing, and organizing images in your editing workflow. Each feature is designed to help you stay efficient, especially when working with multiple portraits.

Bottom Toolbar Features:

• Favorite or Mark for Reject: Shows options to mark images as "Favorite" for easy access to your best shots, or "Reject" for photos you don’t want to keep, simplifying your selection process.

• Copy Edits: Shows a tool to copy edits from one image and apply them to others, ensuring a consistent look across a series of portraits. This is especially useful when editing similar shots or batch processing.

• Filename Display: Shows each image’s filename, helpful for organizing and keeping track of specific photos in larger projects.

You may have already heard that Aperty is an innovative new photo editor set for release this fall, but you might be wondering how it differs from photo editor, Luminar Neo. Aperty is specifically designed with a focus on portrait photography, making it the perfect match for professional photographers too. It offers powerful batch editing capabilities, which are especially useful after a photoshoot with tons of photos to process. Our goal is to significantly reduce editing time by eliminating manual tasks and making it easy to apply corrections made to one photo across an entire batch.

Editing workflow and features

Aperty is tailored to the needs of professional portrait photographers and follows the natural progression of their editing process. The features include a variety of makeup tools, face contouring, tools for precise reshaping of face and body, as well as custom Portrait Presets that achieve high-quality results in just a few steps.

Automated batch retouching

You’ll be able to quickly copy and paste the adjustments, not limited to color correction but also including skin tone, makeup, and facial feature enhancements, from one photo to a whole session.

New technologies

Aperty is based on about 60% of completely new neural networks. Additionally, Aperty is equipped with a precise depth estimation map and a new 3D Face Mesh technology. Aperty introduces an advanced human segmentation for detecting people (as well as their gender, age) and facial features in photographs, which allows for more flexible and precise retouching.

The Black & White tool in Aperty allows you to convert your portrait into a monochrome image and offers precise control over how different colors are represented in grayscale. After converting to black and white, you can adjust how each color translates in brightness (luminance) or saturation to achieve the desired look for your portrait.

• Convert to B&W: This button automatically analyzes the image and converts it to black and white, removing all color information. The tonal values of the colors are now adjusted based on their luminance.

Luminance and Saturation Taps: These controls let you manipulate the brightness (luminance) or intensity (saturation) of different color ranges, even in a black-and-white image. Adjusting these sliders affects how light or dark each color translates in the final monochrome result:

• Red: Controls the brightness of areas originally containing red tones, such as lips or warm skin tones. Increasing the red luminance will make those areas lighter while decreasing it darkens them.

• Yellow: Adjusts the luminance of yellow tones, often affecting highlights in the skin. Raising this value brightens those areas while lowering it adds depth and contrast to the skin.

• Green: Primarily influences natural elements like foliage or clothing in the portrait. Increasing the luminance makes these elements appear lighter, while decreasing them adds more contrast and depth to green areas.

• Cyan: Adjusts the brightness of cyan tones, which can affect some clothing or background elements. A higher luminance lightens these areas, while a lower value darkens them.

• Blue: Impacts blue tones, often found in backgrounds or clothing. Increasing luminance brightens blues while decreasing it creates more dramatic contrast in these areas.

• Magenta: Controls magenta tones, typically affecting makeup or certain accessories. Brightening magenta lightens these elements while darkening creates a more dramatic effect.

The High Key tool in Aperty is designed to brighten your portrait, creating a light, airy effect by reducing contrast and deep shadows. It’s ideal for creating soft, elegant looks often used in fashion or beauty photography, where the focus is on brightness and minimal shadows.

• Amount: Controls the intensity of the high key effect. Increasing the slider brightens the image and reduces shadows while lowering it retains more of the original contrast and darker tones.

• Standard High Key: Applies a traditional high key effect with balanced brightness and reduced shadows, perfect for maintaining a soft and flattering portrait.

• Dynamic High Key: Adds a more dramatic high key effect with a stronger emphasis on brightness and reduced contrast, giving the image a highly stylized, bright look.

• Blacks: Adjusts the intensity of the black tones in the image. Increasing this slider darkens the shadows slightly, restoring some contrast while lowering it, which makes the blacks even lighter, further reducing contrast.

Advanced Settings Section

• Glow: Adds a soft, radiant glow to the brighter areas of the image, enhancing the high key effect. Higher values create a more ethereal, glowing look, while lower values maintain a more subtle effect.

• Contrast: Controls the overall contrast of the image. Increasing contrast brings back some depth by enhancing the difference between light and dark areas, while lowering it further softens the image for an even brighter and flatter look.

• Saturation: Adjusts the intensity of the colors in the image. Higher saturation makes the colors more vivid, contrasting with the bright, soft tones of the high key effect, while lower saturation desaturates the image for a more monochromatic, pastel look.

When you add a single image or a folder of images, the files remain stored in their original location on your hard drive.

1. To open an image or folder for editing, you have four options:

   • Click the Add Images button at the top of the Project panel.

• Choose File > Add Images to Project.

• Press Cmd+O (macOS) or Ctrl+O (Windows).

• Drag an image onto the Luminar Neo application icon.

1. A Finder (macOS) or File Explorer (Windows) window will open. Navigate to the images you’d like to edit.

2. Select the image(s) or folder of images you want to work with. To select multiple images, use the modifier keys Shift and Cmd/Ctrl.

3. Click Open. Your selected images will appear in the Filmstrip, with the first selected image displayed in the main window, ready for editing.

The Light Control tool in Aperty allows you to simulate professional lighting setups within your portrait editing process. You can customize multiple light sources, control their brightness, and apply textured patterns to add depth and artistic effects. This tool offers complete control over the lighting environment, enhancing the mood and visual impact of your portrait.

Scene Settings Section

Controls the overall lighting environment, adjusting brightness, smoothness, and contrast to set the foundation for the portrait's lighting.

• Brightness: Controls the overall intensity of the light in the scene. Increasing the slider brightens the entire portrait while lowering it reduces the amount of light, creating a more moody or dramatic effect.

To enhance your images in Photoshop with Aperty, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Photoshop.

2. Load the image you’d like to enhance.

3. Navigate to Filter > Skylum Software > Aperty (a dialog box will appear, confirming Aperty is running).

If you want to change the device you are using for editing with Aperty, you need to reset your activation counter or use additional seats if you have such.

• Log in with your Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple account, or with your email and password . Open the account on the device you want to use Aperty on.

The Mouth tool in Aperty offers fine-tuning options for adjusting the shape and position of the lips. This allows you to subtly enhance the lips' appearance to create a balanced and natural look in your portrait.

• Lips Position: Adjusts the vertical placement of the lips on the face. Moving the slider upward raises the lips while moving it downward lowers them. This is useful for correcting the overall facial balance and aligning the lips with other facial features, such as the nose and chin.

• Upper Lip Shape: Modifies the shape and size of the upper lip. Increasing this slider enhances the fullness of the upper lip, making it appear more defined or plump. Lowering it reduces the prominence of the upper lip, giving it a thinner appearance. Adjust this to achieve a balanced lip shape that fits the subject’s facial proportions.

1. Log in with your Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple account, or with your email and password .

2. Choose “My software” from the list

3. Press “Manage Subscription”:

4. Press “Cancel Subscription”:

5. Confirm your action and choose the reason

General

Photo Selection & Navigation

Editing Tools

Brush Adjustments

Adjustments and Masking

General

Syncing Adjustments in Aperty allows you to apply the same edits or adjustments to multiple portrait images at once, saving time and effort when working with large sets of photos. This feature is particularly useful for making consistent adjustments such as exposure corrections, color grading, or skin retouching across several images, especially when editing photos from the same session. Here’s a detailed explanation of how it works:

• Apply Edits: Make your desired adjustments on one portrait image. For example:

  • Adjust brightness to correct exposure.

The Sharpen tool in Aperty is designed to enhance the clarity and definition of your portrait by adjusting how sharp the facial features and textures appear.

Each slider gives you precise control over different aspects of the sharpening process.

• Sharpen: This slider increases the sharpness by intensifying the contrast around the edges, such as the eyes, lips, and jawline. Raising this value makes these features stand out more, creating a crisp, well-defined look. Lowering the slider softens the image, reducing definition, which can be useful if you aim for a smoother, more delicate portrait. Overuse of sharpening, however, may cause the image to look harsh or unnatural, so finding a balanced setting is important.

• Radius: Controls how wide or narrow the sharpening effect spreads around the edges. A smaller radius focuses on finer details, such as eyelashes, strands of hair, or subtle facial lines, providing a sharp and detailed appearance in those areas. A larger radius affects broader regions, like the overall contours of the face, jawline, or cheekbones. The radius helps you control whether the sharpening enhances just small details or the overall structure of the face, giving you flexibility based on the portrait's needs.

• Preserve Textures: This slider ensures that the sharpening effect enhances edges without disrupting the skin's natural texture. It prevents the skin from becoming overly smoothed or too harsh, which can often happen with excessive sharpening. By increasing this value, you retain the realistic texture of the skin, such as pores and soft gradients, ensuring that the portrait looks polished yet natural.