smooth skin in PS

[abuena]

can someone give me some insight on how i can obtain the smooth skin look in PS?

i want my pics to look as clean as this. http://img5.modelmayhem.com/061118/19/455fb60de5d3c.jpg

 

[~Stella~]

1) Start with a really hot model whose profession is based around keeping herself looking fantastic.

Seriously though, it depends on what problems you are dealing with - wrinkles, acne, rashes (esp in babies), general uneven color, shadows, freckles, etc. I think the technique depends on what you are starting out with - not everyone is going to look like that link no matter what you do to it.

Who are you shooting? Models, kids? More info.

 

[Big Mike]

I changed the photo to a link. Members are not allowed to directly post photos that are not their own.

Smooth looking skin can be done in many ways. Firstly, a model with great skin would be ideal. Secondly, a good make-up job will really go a long way.

Skin processing is pretty common practice in fashion/commercial photography...and there are many, many ways to do it. They trick to making it look really good...is to smooth it out and remove any unwanted features...but to keep the texture of the skin. The problem with most processing is that it takes away the skin texture and makes it look like plastic.

A quick and simple method that I use is this...duplicate the layer, then use the healing brush and the clone tool to remove any blemishes/wrinkles etc. Then duplicate the layer again and run a Gaussian blur filter. Set the radius high enough to make it blurry enough to look totally smooth...it's OK to give too much, we will dial it back later.

Now, I will add a layer mask to the blurry layer (a black, cover all mask). This covers the blur. Now make the layer mask active and use the brush tool to 'paint' the blur back on to the skin where it's needed (white or grey as your paint color). Use a zero hardness brush at a low opacity and take your time.

This way, you can blur the skin without blurring the details like eyes, hair, lips etc.

When you are done that, you can adjust the opacity of the blur layer to fine tune it. Slide it all the way down, and all the way up...remember that it you probably want some of the texture to show through.

I forgot to mention that if you Google 'Photoshop+skin' you will get millions of useful hits.

 

[abuena]

sorry about the photo posting thing...next time i'll make sure to just supply the link.

i've only gone to the extent of using the cloning tool and then using just a blur to smoothen out the skin...looks crappy to me.

i'll try your technique, thanks!

 

[Johnboy2978]

I've also found that after cloning or healing small spots like blemishes as BigMike suggested, duplicating the layer and running it through neat image also helps to give an appearance of rejuvinated skin as well as taking out some noise at the same time.

 

[doobs]

For small spotting and/or blemishes, acne, etc, I use the Healing Brush (band-aid icon). It's worked perfectly fine for me, this far.

edit -- I should read more...

 

[Big Mike]

I should also mention that the patch tool (button under the healing brush) is very useful.

 

[Garbz]

When cloning consider using different blend modes. Try a gaussian blur and use masks to keep the blur only on the skin, try using the surface blur plugin.

There are many ways to do this in photoshop.