Skin softening in pp

maytay20 · Jun 11, 2008

I am looking for some good instructions for skin softening / processing in pp with cs3. Does anyone know of a site or maybe a good you tube video? What I have so far I don't like. :neutral::scratch:

Alpha · Jun 11, 2008

Healing and Paint brushes are your friends.

osirus · Jun 11, 2008

http://www.niksoftware.com/welcome/Wacom/lessons/cep2/dynamic.shtml

that photoshop plugin is great for skin

djacobox372 · Jun 11, 2008

Some simple steps:

1) Duplicate the bottom layer twice, so you have three layers of the same image
2) Hide the top two layers
3) Use the "dust and scratches" filter on the bottom layer, adjust the settings until the skin tones look soft enough for you
3) Show the 2nd layer and use the eraser to selectively soften the skin areas of the image.
4) Show the top, unaltered layer, and adjust the layer opacity to tone down the softness as desired.

Good luck!

Garbz · Jun 11, 2008

Suggesting a commercial product would be my last resort given that there are literally hundreds of tutorials on how to do this yourself with varying results available. Many use very simple tools such as (keep this down Alpha is looking) surface blur. Just kidding, I know you don't mind it when used correctly

You don't even need to leave this forum to find some good resources. http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88639 There's a start. Obviously this is overdone, and there's no need to follow the instructions to the tee, try it and adjust the process to suit your style.

JerryPH · Jun 12, 2008

I know that there are many ways to do it... but I wanted to try it out the NIK software dynamic skin softener.

Before:

After:

Normally your clients are not going to see the before and after pics, so the differences will not be as visually obvious, therefore, better, IMHO.

Now, I will be the first to admit, that I could have used different/better settings, but since I purchased it, I've not had much time to play with it. NIK software makes some awesome PS plug-ins and this one works nicely. It's also something that someone with no PS experience could do without much effort.

I'm happy with it, and between the plug-in and the healing brush, one could easily take 15 years off most faces... lol.

Jim H · Jun 12, 2008

Before purchasing a commercial product, I used a process similar to this one.

Alpha · Jun 12, 2008

No blur.
No noise removal.

There is no good reason on god's beautiful green earth that you woud want to apply the same effect to all areas of skin during a retouch.

End
of
Story

Garbz · Jun 13, 2008

Which is why you blur and do noise removal on a layer and then carefully blend it. Anyone who thinks that there's a magic bullet within photoshop to make people look like they belong on vogue is sadly mistaken. But blur and noise reduction are some very good methods if used properly and with restraint.

Unless you're going for the plastic dummy look.

Jedo_03 · Jun 13, 2008

Re your before & after pics using NIK...
But I see that it has also softened your eyes, your eyebrows, your hair, and the defining line of your chin...
I don't think it has taken 15 years off you - but if you hadn't told me you had applied a skin-softening technique, I'd have been telling you that the after picture was blurred/OOF...
Jedo

Alpha · Jun 13, 2008

Garbz said:
Which is why you blur and do noise removal on a layer and then carefully blend it. Anyone who thinks that there's a magic bullet within photoshop to make people look like they belong on vogue is sadly mistaken. But blur and noise reduction are some very good methods if used properly and with restraint.

Unless you're going for the plastic dummy look.

Your first problem is with the blur itself, which at least in RGB, will act destructively on color data when what you really need most of the time is better color separation in the skin tones. In most cases this will destroy any facial pores. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you do it to one of the A/B channels in Lab (which 99% of people here don't know how to do). But what if you need better color separation in the same channel that has the noise/imperfections (generally, B)?

Then what?

Garbz · Jun 14, 2008

Then don't use it. I did say that there is no magic bullet, and that there are a hundred different methods to do it. Surface blur just happens to be one, and an exceptionally newbie friendly and unfortunately often misapplied one.

Pores are only destroyed if you apply the surface blur to an opaque layer. By blend I didn't only mean applying only to selected areas, but also with selected transparencies. Subtlety is the key and I wouldn't recommend any of these detail destroying tools to be applied without tweaking.

JerryPH · Jun 15, 2008

Jedo_03 said:
Re your before & after pics using NIK...
...if you hadn't told me you had applied a skin-softening technique, I'd have been telling you that the after picture was blurred/OOF...

It doesn't look OOF, you can still see each individual stray hair, but as I mentioned, those settings are:

1 - too extreme
2 - improperly adjusted
3 - there is no PS technique that will take 15 years off my mug... lol

But with a little more experience with it, I can see it being a wonderful tool, I just need to get better with it.

There is so much to learn in post processing, like just recently, I took pictures in an auditorium for a school musical where the lighting was horrid (pitch black and a stage with extemely powerful, uneven and different coloured lights). Getting anyone's face to look even passable was a challenge. My first attempts were terrible, but after playing with one picture for over 30 minutes, I had decent results. I now have to do them all over, but thats not what we're really talking about.

There are many ways to do skin softening, and the NIK software is one of the easiest that if you take the time to learn, will give you nice results. Of course, I will also be looking at the other ways as well. I can always create a series of steps and turn it into a PS action to automate that process, if I wishes.