Did you know that Radiant Photo can process portraits in only two seconds? And beautifully? Without overprocessing?

What does Radiant Photo do?

When you open an image, Radiant Photo analyzes each of your images and selects the ideal optimization for each photo. It does so without presets, although it has those too. It determines the best color, detail, and light for each photo.

How does it do with portrait photos with its latest version (v1.4.1; stand-alone)? I used a headshot from gifted photographer Mike Martin.

Two seconds to look great

I used the software as a stand-alone, although I often use it as a plugin with Photoshop. It took two seconds to analyze the photo on a 2023 Mac Studio (Apple M2 Max, 64 GB) and produce an optimized image. The image was immediately pleasing.

Processed in two seconds using Radiant Photo Labs.
Processed in two seconds using Radiant Photo.

The first thing I noticed was that the skin tone looked warmer and, for lack of a better adjective, healthier. The eyes were more detailed and vibrant while still looking natural. The hair also looked more detailed.

I decided to look at the Face Selection to see what the software had done.

Eyes

I noticed that when I opened the “Eyes” section, not all the features were used. If Radiant Photo didn’t determine a need for anything, it left it alone. For instance, it left Auto Red-Eye, Eye Enlarge, and Catchlights unchecked.

As I began adjusting the sliders, I quickly determined that it had basically nailed the processing for all the parameters in about the time that it took me to adjust just one parameter!

The ability to actually analyze an individual photo and process it beautifully separates Radiant Photo from most other photo editing software programs. The instantaneous processing was pleasing with portraits. 

Messing around with a couple of eye parameters

Who doesn’t like to max out some of the parameters? It’s fun to see if the results are ghastly or overdone but within reason. How would it do with a couple of these parameters?

Eye Enlarge

For fun, cranking the Eye Enlarge function to 100% using Radiant Photo Labs. Although the eyes are too large, the software still manages to make the eyes look good.
For fun, cranking the Eye Enlarge function to 100% using Radiant Photo. Although the eyes are too large, the software still manages to make the eyes look reasonably decent and realistic.

At this point, I wanted to see what would happen. I maxed out the adjustment for Eye Enlarge. The results are above, and are obviously too large. I wanted to see what would happen. Even though the eyes are too large here, they still look surprisingly good.

Catchlights

For fun, cranking the Catchlights function to 100% using Radiant Photo Labs. There are already catchlights there, so this adds a secondary one. It wasn't needed, and that's why Radiant Photo didn't automatically put them there.
For fun, cranking the Catchlights function to 100% using Radiant Photo. There are already catchlights there, so this adds a secondary one. It wasn’t needed, and that’s why the software didn’t automatically put them there.

I also maxed out the adjustment for Catchlights. This would work well if there weren’t already catchlights. Here, it produces a second catchlight, which is not necessary. Of course, that’s why Radiant Photo didn’t use it at all!

Impressive results instantly

Right out of the gate, Radiant Photo seems very useful. I look forward to seeing how it progresses. I realize that AI is overused, with almost everyone using it to process. That said, Radiant Photo seems to leverage AI or machine learning in a useful manner that makes photo processing easy and instantaneous. And best of all, it doesn’t overdo the processing, blow out the highlights, or introduce unwanted grain, noise, or edits.

I’ve been briefly showing my night photography workshop participants how beautifully Radiant Photo works on night photos. Now that I have a new Mac Studio with M2 chips, I will have to show them that as impressively quick as Radiant Photo has been, it’s considerably faster now! I use Radiant Photo for most of my photos, including the ones that are at my museum exhibitions.

Check out more photos at the Mike Martin Photography website.

If using the stand-alone version of Radiant Photo, you can save the photo in a number of different ways, including automatic naming settings.
If using the stand-alone version of Radiant Photo, you can save the photo in a number of different ways, including automatic naming settings.
If using the stand-alone version of Radiant Photo, it will let you know when it has saved the photo.
If using the stand-alone version of Radiant Photo, it will let you know when it has saved the photo.