Natural vs. “perfect skin” Skin Smoothing Natural vs. “perfect skin”

The Natural Method First do the normal tonal corrections. I used curves and hue and saturation to increase contrast and bump up the blue in her eyes. I also used adjustment layers (see red circle) so I can change or easily delete the changes I’ve made. No corrections affect the original photo.

To Flatten Layers Without Flattening Sometimes people flatten layers when they get so many they can’t keep track of which one they’re on. The problem is then the layers can’t be edited. You can flatten all layers with permanent change by pressing control+alt+shift+e (press C+A+S then add E)

Make a Healing Layer Primarily you will use the Healing Tools on this layer. Sometimes the clone tool is necessary but Healing Tools are better at maintaining realistic skin texture.

Perform the Healing We already did this in another tutorial so you should understand how to use a combination of spot healing brush, healing brush and clone stamp (if needed). Don’t be over ambitious in these steps. Heal only the the apparent spots. You are not going to fix the ruddiness of her skin in this step.

Make a Discoloration Fix Layer Return to the top of your layer stack and make a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I want to fix The reds so I enter +50 for Saturation and +75 for lightness. Of course, this makes her look dead. So I press ctrl + I to invert the mask so it reveals the photo underneath.

Paint the mask with white This is the magic. Choose a brush tool with a soft edge that would be close to the circumference of a make-up brush you might use on your face. For this picture, I used 90 px. I press “D” to make sure I am painting with white. I used an opacity of 10 percent and a flow of 100 percent. The changes will be gradual but 10 percent gives you more control. Paint over the rosey areas of her face. With each stroke a tiny amount of the adjustment layer is reveal and the redness is reduced.

The Results The result is her skin tone is more even, but retains it’s natural character. All this technique does is give your model a “good skin day.” This isn’t glamour work.

Taking it a Step Further If you want to start getting into what the professional fashion retouch artists do, here’s a quick a simple start. Use ctrl+alt+shft+e to get a new combo layer (flattened) Now, go to “Quick Mask” Mode at the bottom of your tool box. Select a brush with a soft edge that’s about the same size as the one you used to paint the adjustment layer. Reset the opacity to 100 percent Press “D” to reset colors so the black box is on top. You will be painting a orange mask over all but Her eyes, brows mouth, hair and definition lines. Begin painting. If you accidently paint over something you don’t want to max, press “X” Paint over it to remove the mask, adjusting brush size if need be. The press “X” again to go back to applying mask. See next slide.

Taking it a Step Further II Now exit out of Quick Mask mode by pressing “Q” or clicking back to the standard mode button at the bottom of the toolbar. You orange mask will turn to selection lines.

Taking it a Step Further III All these steps must be executed in this order or you will get it wrong. First, go to Select > Inverse. You are now just selecting the non-masked areas. Next, go to Select >Modify>Feather and feather by 10-15 px Now go back to Select > Inverse to pick up original selection Now, Edit > Copy and then Paste. This will put a “face mask” into a new layer Next, Filter >Blur>Gaussian Blur between 5-10 px, depending on the amount of smoothing needed. I used 7.5 px.

Taking it a Step Further IV Now you can see her skin looks a little plastic—in other words—fake. Add some texture back into the smooth mask by going to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use settings similar to the ones you see below. The amount you add will have to fit your idea of what you’d like to see.

Taking it a Step Further V If it still looks a little unnatural too you (it will NEVER look completely natural. If you want natural, You should’ve stopped before “Taking it a Step Further”), you can adjust the opacity of the blurred mask to let some of her natural skin show through.

Result Your results will vary based on your subject’s original skin “issues” and your numbers. Because we are sometimes more used to seeing this effect done on “glamorous” people, we may not notice it as much on ourselves or our friends. Here’s an before and after of Angelina Jolie, for example.

Final Note This is only the beginning, the least invasive thing that the fashion industry does to convince us we are not good enough just the way we are. I will show you and direct you to try some more dramatic changes.