portrait shot - smoothing skin

nagoshua · Mar 19, 2007

I have only just got into photography so this is the first time ive got round to taking some portait shots. I have tried smothing the skin by using a gaussian blur then erasing to reveal details below but it hasnt smoothed the skin enough, all my other attempts at smoothing it out have ended up looking really fake and pretty much crap. Any advice on this and also, what do you think of the photo!

PNA · Mar 19, 2007

My suggestion, if you're using PS, is to try the spot healing tool and the clone tool.

Good luck.

Big Mike · Mar 19, 2007

Smoothing skin can be simple or very complicated. Do a Google search for 'Photoshop+skin' and you will have enough to keep you busy for a few weeks.

a5i736 · Mar 19, 2007

healing bandage tool!

mr e · Mar 20, 2007

Here's what I came up with and how I got it

Opened it up in Photoshop and created a new layer

On top layer: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, Radius 5.4
On top layer: Added a layer mask, then masked off everything that should retain it's detail (clothes, bracelet, hair, eyes, lips, nose piercing, background)
On top layer: Reduced opacity to 50%

On bottom layer: Sharpened the underlying layer just a little bit

It wasn't quite that easy, but there wasn't much more to what I did, just was careful with masking the right things off

theusher · Mar 20, 2007

Nice edit, Mr E. I'm going to try using that method.

grafiks · Mar 20, 2007

Mr E,

That was a nice job you did. I really like it.

My approach was quick and dirty. The whole image softens, but it can be done with very little time. You need to search the Internet for Auto FX Dreamsuite Software. There is a free download - I just can't remember where it is. You can run this software on it and use sliders to get the desired affect. After I did that, I simply sharpened it a little.