Perfectly Clear Complete 3.6 is my go-to tool for finishing proofs before I send them to clients for review. Two of my favorite tools are Beautify and Beautify+. Here’s a closer look at each one and what they offer.

Original to Beautify

This photo is the original straight out of the camera with no corrections in either Lightroom or in Perfectly Clear. Move the slider to the left to see the subtle beauty that Beautify adds to the original. Look at her eyes. The original is a good photograph. Beautify brightens her eyes, removes the dark circles under them and reduces the blemishes on her arms. It also adds a soft glow to her skin.

What Beautify does

Perfectly Clear has face recognition built in. It also is really talented at detecting the eyes. There is a tweak offered in the Face Selection pane that helps it get perfect alignment on the eyes. Simply drag the yellow dots over the iris of each eye to tell Beautify where they are if the detection wasn’t quite spot on. You’ll be surprised how accurate it is all by its self. Beautify checks the following make-pretty boxes automatically.

Perfectly Clear Complete's Beautify preset.Eyes

  • Auto Red-Eye fix
  • Eye Enhance*
  • Dark Circles*
  • Eye Enlarge*
  • Catchlights*

Face

  • Face Contouring*
  • Teeth Whitening
  • Lip Sharpening*

Skin

  • Perfectly Smooth*
  • Blemish removal*
  • Infrared Removal*

*an amount slider is available.

Each of these tools can be added if not applied automatically. Each tool that has a slider can be adjusted to taste.

Beautify to Beautify+

Here is a comparison of the standard settings of Beautify to Beautify+. Move the slider to the left to reveal the work that Beautify+ does. Remember that these are the default setting that Perfectly Clear’s analysis performs. Sliders to increase or reduce the effect of each tool is available.

Young skin or experienced skin

Perfectly Clear’s Beautify options offer terrific enhancements for all types of skin. Consider the photograph of the business person below. Move the slider to the left to see Beautify at work.

Beautify to Beautify+

Move left to see the difference Beautify+ has compared to Beautify. On more experienced skin, I believe that as much as a client loves the effect if left to the default s the results strain belief. Notice, though that Beautify+ adds some contouring by slightly slimming the face.

Beautify & Beautify+ for men

Original to Beautify

The proof that Perfectly Clear’s Beautify tools are not just cookie-cutter presets comes with the comparison of them used on men. The photo below is of a hypnotherapist in his early sixties. Again, the original is straight out of the camera with no retouching at all. Move the slider to the left to see Beautify coupled with Perfectly Clear’s image analysis recognizing that the subject is a man.

Beautify to Beautify+

There is very little difference other than some face slimming on his left in the Beautify+ version. The skin does not have the glow that the business person’s above has. Again, these examples are with the default settings chosen by Perfectly Clear. Experiment on your own to get exactly the beautification that’s right for your photo.

Last words

I use Perfectly Clear on all of my proofs to my clients. It keeps my processing time to a minimum and once the final selections are made, I use it as a one-of-a-kind finishing tool for the prints.

Perfectly Clear Complete is available now for a limited time in a bundle that includes professional retoucher Kristina Sherk’s presets.