Retouching Portraits: Quick Softening the Skin

Quick Skin Softening

                                      Before                                                AFter

Step One:

Step Two:

Photoshop Menu:
Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
Set the Radius to 20 pixels to really blur the entire image. Click OK.

Step Three:

Lower the Opacity of the blurry layer to 50% for now.

Step Four:

Press-and-hold the Option key (Mac) or
Alt key (PC)
and
click on the Add Layer Mask icon.
Press D to set your Foreground color to white and
get the Brush tool (B),
in the Options Bar choose a medium-sized, soft-edged brush
You’ll have to shrink the size of your brush when you get to small places…

Step Five:

Press-and-hold the Option key (Mac) or
Alt key (PC)
Click directly on the layer mask thumbnail attached to your top layer.
Paint on, areas that appear in black that haven’t been softened.

Step Six:

Brush and paint in white, right on the mask, over any spots you missed leave detail areas you didn’t want to soften.
Option/Alt click on the layer mask thumbnail brings back the regular color image.

Step Seven:

Lower the Opacity of your layer to at least 35%
> toggle the top layer on/off by clicking on the little Eye icon.
The lower the opacity you can get away with, the more of the original skin texture you’ll get back.

Step Eight:

Command-click (Mac)
Control-click (PC) directly on the layer mask thumbnail from your blurred layer, it will load the mask as a selection.
Click on the Create a New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a new blank layer
Photoshop menu: Edit > Fill
pop-up menu: Choose 50% Gray,
click OK,
Don’t deselect.

Step Nine:

Photoshop Menu: Noise > Add Noise.
Amount 2.5% to 3%
Choose Gaussian for your Distribution
Turn on the checkbox for Monochromatic
then click OK.
Press Command-D (Mac)
Control D (PC) to Deselect
Change the layer’s blend mode from Normal to Soft Light (for more subtle texture)
Overlay (for the full texture effect).
To see a before/after onscreen when you have more than two layers
Option/Alt-click on the Background layer’s Eye icon. This will turn off all layers above the Background layer, (Thanks to Scott Kelby)