One of the hardest parts of editing photos is correctly editing anything related to the human form, especially faces. Why is this a challenge? Because we as humans are very good at noticing when something about our own faces does not look right!
This is why, just 1-2 years ago, it was not a good idea to trust AI to do portrait retouching. We’ve all seen the silly memes of what AI thought was “correct” when prompted to create the human form! Today, however, things are very different. AI has taken over the world of photo editing, and in our opinion no genre has benefitted more than portrait retouching.
In this Reblum review, we’re going to show you what is (spoiler alert!) some of the easiest and most natural-looking retouching that we have ever created. We have been doing wedding and portrait photography for 15 years, including high-demand situations such as on-location photo turnaround & deliver for events, corporate headshots, and more…
Reblum Specifications & Requirements
- Windows 10/11 Requirements: A GeForce 970 graphics card or newer
- macOS X Requirements: Radeon 450 graphics card or newer
- Other App Compatibility (Plugins): Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Capture One
- AI Processing: On-device, no internet connection required
- (Photos not sent to cloud)
- Price: $11.95/month (when billed annually)
Reblum Review | How Does It Work?
Unlike most of the other photo editing software, Reblum has opted to truly be as simple as possible. The basic idea of this AI retouching tool is very straightforward: You’ll do most of your photo editing in either Lightroom Classic, Capture One, and/or Photoshop, and if you need to retouch a subject, you can quickly and seamlessly jump over to Reblum using the plugins. (And then jump right back to Lightroom etc!)
Two Retouching Styles To Suit Your Needs
Once you’re in Reblum, the interface is elegant and your workflow is obvious. First, select one of the main two options, either Natural or Fashion. Then, you’ll have two sub-options for fine-tuning: General and Texture.
The “General” slider mainly controls the lightening of skin to smooth out overall tones. This effectively retouches things like eye bags or faded acne scars. The “Texture” slider controls the masking of more detailed blemishes such as acne etc.
That’s all there is to it! From here, you can click “Save” and either be completely done with your workflow, or go back into Lightroom if you have a whole catalog of other images to export.
Before we move on, a few notes about the quality of the results: In short, Reblum does an excellent job, and we are truly impressed. At first we were skeptical, because we usually prefer to have a ton of additional options to fine-tune the retouching effects, or modify the masks/selections themselves. With Reblum, this wasn’t even necessary in virtually every test image we put through it!
Yes, once in a while we needed to perform a specific, detailed retouch on just one area, but even this task doesn’t seem to require the tedious task of going from Lightroom to Photoshop; the retouching tools in Lightroom perfectly complement what Reblum offers. All in all, here are the key takeaway points about the quality of the results: They are very high-quality, and we don’t feel like there’s anything missing in terms of control or image quality. (We’ll talk more about the “cons” of Pros & Cons later.)
Also, a side note: We review a lot of retouching software, and one common complaint that we have often had is that the effects are often very over-the-top, and almost always need to be dialed back quite a bit. However, to our surprise and delight, in Reblum even the “Fashion” setting is not over-the-top at all. In fact, its default effect is perfect for when you simply want a little bit of extra retouching. Of course, if it is ever too “noticeable”, the adjustment sliders give you plenty of control.
The best way we can describe it is, even the “Fashion” setting is still quite realistic, not an “obvious” filter effect; it simply makes subjects appear much more youthful.
Batch Processing In Reblum
In our professional workflows, this is almost something that we take for granted. However, it is very important and worth mentioning. We strongly recommend using the Reblum Batch Editing tool for any portrait sessions where you plan to apply retouching to multiple images.
Here’s how we recommend editing a portrait session: Do all of your color-correction and basic editing in Lightroom Classic or Capture One, like you normally would, and “flag” the few portraits that require retouching. Then select those few images, right-click one of them, and select “Edit In > Reblum”. That will seamlessly take all of your images into Reblum where you can edit each of them as needed, and then save them all in one “Save” action, and return to Lightroom/Capture One for a final export if there are additional images which didn’t require retouching.
Alternatively, since Reblum can perform batch processing in its standalone mode, you can simply import a whole set of images that you need to edit all at once, and then save them all at once. This might be perfect for photographers who are loading photos off of a mobile device, or multiple devices, and the images are in JPG form already…
Reblum Review | Advantages of Reblum VS Competitors
One of the biggest drawbacks of many AI tools today is that they may require an internet connection to access their AI engine. This likely means that your imagery will have to be uploaded to the cloud, which adds privacy concerns on top of the annoyance of simply being unable to edit if you don’t have wifi at the moment.
For this reason, one of the first advantages of Reblum compared to other AI-based portrait editing apps is that it runs entirely offline. You can work on your photos anywhere, any time, and you’ll never have to worry about those images getting potentially compromised on a cloud platform.
It is also very important to keep privacy in mind, as professional portrait photographers, whether it is a high-end wedding or a corporate executive. We are not comfortable uploading images to “the cloud” unless it is absolutely necessary for things like delivery. With this in mind, we really like that Reblum offers the security and privacy of being a completely on-device form of AI.
What are some of the other key differences and advantages of Reblum compared to alternatives? Mainly, this: The process is incredibly simple, and the results speak for themselves. While other apps tend to err on the side of over-complicating the process of photo editing, Reblum keeps it incredibly simple: You get two main options, two subsets of adjustment sliders, and a couple different settings for overall image quality. That’s it!
It sounds counterintuitive, but simply making it not an option to “fiddle around” with 50+ different sliders is inherently going to save you time. We’ll talk more about this next in the Pros & Cons section, but for now let’s just call it a huge advantage.
There is also seamless workflow integration with Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Capture One. This allows the app to be used quickly by professionals, whereas other apps that are this easy to use may be stand-alone apps only.
If you are a professional portrait photographer, or an aspiring one, then you definitely need not just the standalone app, but also the plugin capability for a workflow “catalog system” type app, too!
Keep in mind, however, that Reblum only performs retouching; if you want to perform other tasks such as color correction, cropping, etc, …then you’ll need a dedicated app for color-correction.
Reblum Review | Pros & Cons
It is very straightforward to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Reblum. This is because on the one hand, the app really does work well, and does exactly what it claims. The results are beautiful, and the effort required is, well, effortless!
Additionally, the app doesn’t just deliver quality results, it also runs smoothly, (doesn’t crash or freeze) and delivers results rapidly. (Even with a middle-aged or “old” computer, (5+ years old) from the era when graphics cards had zero fine-tuning for AI-related tasks, …Reblum runs very smoothly.
Are there any drawbacks or disadvantages? The main thing for us, as working professionals, is that Reblum is purposefully striving for simplicity. This is great for eliminating the learning curve, and allowing users to quickly deliver high-end results! However, we are often looking for something more advanced that offers lots of control.
With this in mind, a minor drawback is that we do wish the Reblum interface had just a little bit more control. Even though the results themselves are fantastic, it would be nice to also do a few things such as save presets, or edit individual faces in a photo separately. (It is convenient that Reblum does remember the Style and fine-tuning settings of your last session, however.)
Other than that, the key feature we would like to see would be compatibility with raw files. Currently, of course, you can easily take your raw files into Reblum if you are starting in an app such as Lightroom or Capture One. However, if you ever find yourself opening Reblum directly, you’ll be limited to opening JPG, TIF, HEIC, and PNG files. If you have a Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji etc. camera, and capture in raw, then you’ll need to run those files through your regular color-correction workflow before entering Reblum.
Reblum Review | Pricing & Value
Considering everything we have covered so far, you might expect the price tag of professional results to be rather steep. In this case, however, Reblum is delivering a solid value with both a subscription and a lifetime license option. A monthly subscription is $11.95 per month if bought annually for $143. (If you want to pay month-to-month, it is $24.90 per month.)
A lifetime license is $249. It is important to note that if you purchase the lifetime license, you do get lifetime updates, too! Also, when considering either plan, you can start with a 7-day free trial, of course!
Reblum is planning to continually update their AI model; most notably are “in the pipeline” updates to enhance the retouching of mature (older) skin, as well as full-body portraits. Honestly? In terms of the ultimate value, we understand that the one-time purchase of almost $250 might seem a little steep for a beginner who is mainly just getting started in photography. They’re probably used to having free filters on their phone, and they might not be accepting paid portrait work yet.
However, Reblum is delivering truly professional results, and is a valuable investment. The moment you consider how much time can be saved, and the dramatically reduced learning curve, the app will quickly pay for itself, innumerable times over.
What do we recommend? As working professionals, we prefer to make an initial investment whenever possible, and minimize monthly overhead costs. So, the lifetime license is our preference. However, if you mainly do seasonal work, it might be more feasible to subscribe monthly for a while. Either way, you can get a 7-day free trial, and 20% off, using this link here.
Reblum Review | Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence, AI, Machine Learning, whatever we call it…it just keeps getting better and better when it comes to photo editing! If you had told us just ~2 years ago that AI-based retouching would be this good, this soon, we would have been disbelievers. Today, the results are excellent, and the work itself is best described as “effortless”, indeed.
As long as we stay mindful of how we are training the algorithms, and doing things that enable artists to achieve creative freedom in different ways, (while not stealing from other artists) …we are very excited to see what the future holds!
Indeed, in many ways, the future is already here. With its one-click simplicity, seamless workflow integration, plus the convenience and security of an offline AI engine, we highly recommend Reblum to any portrait photographer who is looking for all of those features.
