ON1 Portrait AI 2023.1 for Mac: A Comprehensive Guide

ON1 Portrait AI 2023.1 is an intelligent software designed specifically for portrait photography post-processing. Through integrated artificial intelligence technology, it can automatically recognize facial features and perform detailed adjustments to skin, facial features, makeup, and more, greatly simplifying the professional-level portrait retouching workflow and enabling photographers and enthusiasts to quickly obtain high-quality portrait works.

I. Detailed Explanation of the Software’s Core Interface and Workspace

After launching ON1 Portrait AI, the main interface is mainly divided into the following core areas:

1. Top Menu Bar: Contains standard menu items such as “File,” “Edit,” “View,” “Window,” and “Help.” All advanced settings and software configurations are located here.
2. Left Panel – Navigator & Presets:
   • Navigator: Displays a real-time thumbnail of the entire image. The red frame indicates the current view range of the main workspace. Drag it to quickly pan the image.
   • Presets: Provides a large number of one-click portrait beautification presets, categorized by different styles (such as Natural, Fashion, Artistic), serving as a starting point for quick retouching.
3. Central Main Workspace: Displays the image currently being edited. Supports multiple tabs to open multiple portrait photos simultaneously. The view mode can be switched between “Fit,” “100%,” and “Fill.”
4. Right Panel – Edit Modules: This is the core control area of the software, using a vertical tab structure, from top to bottom as follows:
   • AI Auto: After the software analyzes the image for the first time, this is the master switch for all automatic adjustment results.
   • Skin: Controls skin smoothing, texture, radiance, HSL adjustments, etc.
   • Eyes: Enhances eye brightness, contrast, and saturation, removes red-eye, and adds eye sparkle.
   • Mouth: Teeth whitening and brightening.
   • Face Shape: Intelligent liquify, allowing fine adjustments to facial contours, chin, nose, etc.
   • Hair: Enhances hair shine and deepens or softens hair color.
   • Makeup: Virtually adds foundation, blush, eyeshadow, lip color, etc.
   • Light: Adds digital fill light and simulates lighting effects.
   • Background: Intelligently separates and blurs or replaces the background.
   • Adjustments: Provides basic image adjustment tools such as color grading, color, and detail (sharpening/noise reduction).
5. Bottom Toolbar:
   • Includes commonly used tools such as “Zoom Tool (Z)”, “Hand Tool (H)”, “Before/After Comparison View (Y)”, and “Show Retouch Brush Mask (O)”.
   • The far right displays the file information and zoom ratio of the current image.

II. Complete Workflow: From Opening to Exporting

1. Create/Open a Project

Method: After launching the software, select a single portrait photo in the startup window or via the menu bar File → Open.... You can also drag and drop an image directly from Finder into the software’s main workspace.

Shortcut: Cmd + O

2. Apply and Fine-Tune AI Optimization

After AI analysis is complete, the adjustment parameters for each module in the right panel have been generated.

1. Enable/Disable Global AI Optimization: At the top of the “AI Auto” module, check or uncheck “Enable AI Auto” to apply or reset all AI suggestions with one click.
2. Fine-Tune by Module:
   • Go to the “Skin” module and drag the “Smooth” and “Texture” sliders to balance skin smoothing and skin texture. Use the “Retouch Brush” for local painting to apply or erase effects.
   • Go to the “Eyes” module and increase “Brightness” and “Saturation” to make the eyes more expressive. The “Sharpen” slider can enhance iris details.
   • Other modules such as “Teeth” and “Face Reshape” all use a similar “slider adjustment + brush local control” mode.
3. Use the brush for local adjustments: In most modules, click the “Brush” icon to paint on the image and define the area you want to adjust.
   • Press O to show/hide the mask overlay (red area).
   • Press [ and ] to decrease or increase the brush size.

3. Add creative effects

In the “Adjust” module, you can make final global color grading adjustments:

• Color tone and color: Adjust exposure, contrast, highlights/shadows, white balance, color tone, and more.
• Detail: Apply “Sharpening” to make edges clearer, or use “Noise Reduction” to reduce image noise.
• Use presets: Click any preset in the presets panel on the left to quickly apply a specific style. After applying, all parameters can still be adjusted in the panel on the right.

4. Export the final image

Method: After completing all edits, click File → Export... in the top menu bar.

Shortcut: Cmd + Shift + E

1. In the export dialog, set the destination folder and file naming rules.
2. In “File Settings”, choose the format (such as JPEG, TIFF, PNG), quality, and color space.
3. In “Image Size”, you can adjust the output dimensions and resolution.
4. After configuring everything, click the “Export” button in the lower-right corner to complete the final output.

III. Advanced Tips for Common Features

• Non-destructive editing: All adjustments are non-destructive. You can return to any module at any time to modify parameters, or click the “Reset” icon in the upper right corner of a module to restore defaults.
• Selective AI application: If you don’t want AI to process the entire photo, you can turn off the “AI Auto” master switch after AI analysis, and then manually enable and adjust only the modules you need (e.g., use only the “Skin” and “Eyes” modules).
• Multi-face processing: When there are multiple faces in the frame, the software creates independent control points for each face. Click different facial control points, and the parameters in the right panel will automatically link to the selected face, allowing separate adjustments.
• Brush flow and feathering: When using the local adjustment brush, adjusting “Flow” in the brush settings controls the intensity of each stroke’s effect, while “Feathering” makes edge transitions more natural.
• Snapshot feature: Click the “Snapshot” icon in the bottom toolbar to save the current editing state, making it easy to compare with subsequent adjustment results.

IV. Common Problems and Solutions

1. Problem: AI fails to recognize faces or recognizes them incorrectly.

   Solution: Ensure faces are clear, front-facing, and not overly obscured. Try using the menu bar “Edit → Re-run AI Analysis.” If the background is complex, you can use the “Background Removal Brush” in the “Background” module to manually assist with separation.

2. Issue: Skin processing looks too “plastic” or unnatural.

   Solution: Go to the “Skin” module, lower the “Smoothness” slider value, and increase the “Texture” slider value to preserve skin details. Be sure to use the “Retouch Brush” to avoid areas such as eyebrows, eyelashes, and lip contours.

3. Issue: After editing, image details (such as hair) appear swirling or have ghosting.

   Solution: This is commonly caused by excessive use of “Face Sculpt” liquify or “Background” blur. Check the “Face Sculpt” module and fine-tune the “Edge Awareness” option. In the “Background” module, use the “Adjustment Edge Brush” to carefully correct the hair edges.

4. Issue: The software runs slowly or lags.

   Solution: Check the menu bar “ON1 Portrait AI → Preferences → Performance” and make sure “Use GPU acceleration” is enabled (if your Mac supports it). Try closing other large applications to free up memory. When processing extremely high-resolution original images, consider appropriately reducing the size in external software first.

V. Keyboard Shortcuts Summary (Mac Version)