One of the best skin smoothing technique.

ghache · Apr 22, 2011

Since i do alot more portrait photography, My skin smoothing technique using the a layer mask and some blur was working fine for regular portrait and pretty much anything i did so far. However, I have a bunch of upcoming assignement for beauty, Hair/makeup portrait that will required alot more retouching skills than i have right now.

So yesterday i got in touch my my favorite photographer (why not) who is a internationaly published fashion photographer, who was pretty easy going and told me right off the bat what technique he was using for skin processing (There is nothing like asking the right question to the right person). He didnt go in details but he just told me he was using a simple Layer frequency seperation technique that consist of separating the Low and High frequency (small details of the image) of an image and work on them separately so you dont mess up the face/makeup details. He Also gave me the model mayhem thread were he got the technique from ?!?!? LOL

After a search and clicks i found what i was looking for.

This is the video that was posted on the modelmayhem thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMyaeZmkZD8

If your using 16 bit files, when creating the High frequency layer, in Apply image, the settings are different from the Video.

In the same "Apply Image" tab under Image,
Use the following settings

Layer "Low"
Blending "Add"
Scale "2"
Offset "0"
and make sure the invert checkbox is checker.
Now you should have a Gray layer with only the pictures fine details showing.

I've tested the process and it works flawlessly and so far its the best skin processing technique i worked with.

I am about to create a simple action that will make this process a bit faster (Frequency creations, blur and renaming of the layers, creating a group and so on)

Using this technique, smoothing the highlights transition to shadows is alot more easy since your not touching any of the details but the light only.
Enjoy!

mc1979 · Apr 22, 2011

Just the word Layer confuses me! Right now I only have Gimp, and have been looking at tutorials, but it's so frustrating! I wish I had someone I could sit down with

Moe · Apr 22, 2011

Wow. Thanks a lot. I messed with this for only a couple minutes on an image that didn't really deserve it, but I can tell this is going to come in very handy. Nice find!

RaynaMcGinnis · Apr 23, 2011

Thanks for this post. This is going to be VERY useful for me! I've been shooting a lot of senior portrait sessions lately and have spent countless hours trying to fix skin. This is going to save me big time! Thanks!

ghache · Apr 24, 2011

RaynaMcGinnis said:
Thanks for this post. This is going to be VERY useful for me! I've been shooting a lot of senior portrait sessions lately and have spent countless hours trying to fix skin. This is going to save me big time! Thanks!

If your familiar with actions, you can create one to save a bit more time. (spliting the layers, adding the blur, changing the blending modes, renaming and all that crap).

AnthonyRyanPhoto · May 1, 2011

I have spent about a week with this. It really is great. I have noticed though that while it works for most photos, it almost eliminates shadows, so you have to pick the right photos for it. The ones I used that were basically headshots, came out great, when the subject is further away, the old surface blur type techniques seem to work better.

I really really do like this though. It was a great find. I made an image using 3 different techniques below. The first is raw converted to jpeg, the second with an old technique, and the third is this one. Notice how the skin texture remains in the last one.

Garbz · May 1, 2011

This is interesting way to do it. I've previously used Highpass to create the "High frequency" layer but this method produce a pleasingly different result.

dandaluzphotography · May 11, 2011

Thanks for posting this! I can't wait to try it!

Danny

Trever1t · May 11, 2011

Thank you for posting, I will give this a try too!

ghache · May 11, 2011

I've been using it ALL the time.

I discovered you can also create another layer for COLORS. so you get 3 layer. low and high frequency and colors....

ghache · May 11, 2011

this one shows you how to also create a COLOR layer. this is really handy

you can also create a high pass layer that does the same thing. there is multiple way to do it but the low/high frequency works quite well,
i've bee using this technique for almost a month now and i wont go back using anything else.

combined with some a light blur layer and portrait professional, you can get insanely nice result.

dandaluzphotography · May 12, 2011

Hello,

Sorry for the loooong post.

So I just tried this method the OP Posted and I didn't like the results. It might have been the picture I tried it on. It was a bit overexposed as the studio lighting was a bit uneven (still learning).

There's another method in a book by Lee Varis called "Skin". Really good book so far. Anyway, one method he describes:

1. Duplicating the background layer.
2. Using "Surface Blur" to blur the copy using 20 and 60 for the threshold.
3. Clicking Alt+new layer to create a black mask and then painting over the skin with a white brush.
4. Once the painting is done, you duplicate the blurry layer to have to blurry layers; one to lighten dark wrinkles and the other to darken lighter wrinkles to bring a natural look to the skin smoothing so the subject doesn't look like plastic.
5. You name the layers "blur darken" and "blur lighten".
6. You hide the blur darken layer and in the lighten layer you select image>adjustments>levels and slide the middle button to the left to darken lighter wrinkles (very slightly).
7. You show the blur darken layer and hide the blur lighten layer and open the same level adjustment for the darken layer. Instead of sliding to the left, you slide to right to lighten dark wrinkles.
8. Once you finish these adjustments, play around with the opacity of the two layers until it looks natural and not like plastic. I went down to 25 for the darken layer and 20 for the lighten layer and it looks pretty awesome. The wrinkles are there but lessened and not so deep and the skin looks naturally smooth.

I'm still going to play around with the method the OP posted. I'm sure I messed something up, but this way I just described is really good.

Danny

AmberNikol · May 13, 2011

mc1979 said:
Just the word Layer confuses me! Right now I only have Gimp, and have been looking at tutorials, but it's so frustrating! I wish I had someone I could sit down with

I agree...haha I'm still learning on Photoshop. I wish I had someone to sit down with as well. Would help me to see it done and with someone there.