Post Processing Tips: God, please give me smooth skin.

(For reference only. What I am sharing here is not the ONLY way to edit your photos. Different photographer prefers different work flow)

Let’s face it, we have flaws. Let’s accept the fact that our skin is not perfect.

And let’s admit it, the photos you see on magazines, those models’ skin is NOT as smooth. Those photos are digitally enhanced and edited to make it more appealing to the public.

Again, there are always two school of thoughts.

1. “I don’t believe in post processing. What I get out of my camera is PERFECT! Screw post processing”
2. “Ohh… post processing is magical! I can’t live without Adobe Photoshop. It is embedded in my DNA”

Alright, this is an ongoing debate, just like the debate on “Which is better? Nikon or Canon?”.

For myself, I am a STRONG BELIEVER on getting it right on the camera. Once you have that, you have half the battle won. Post Processing is only the FINAL step to enhance the image, it is not a “MUST” step to CORRECT the image. In other words, off camera, the exposure, composition and concept must be correct. It means, post processing is for enhancement, NOT correction.

In this posting, I will share with you how to smoothen the skin. I don’t use any of my model BUT MYSELF!!! Ha ! Don’t be disappointed to see my ugly face but feel honoured bout that ! I always want my model to appear beautiful hence I’m not using their photos.

Software needed: Adobe Photoshop CS3

1. Open the image in Adobe Photoshop

2. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate a layer, then goto Fitler > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

3. Keep the “Radius” in the range of 10-25% depends on your subject’s skin condition. The higher the value, the “smoother” the skin will be. Click “OK after that.

4. Don’t panic if you’re entire image is blur now. You are in fact on the right track.

Now, at the Layers window on the right where you see all the layers, press “Alt” and click on the “Add Layer Mask” icon.

5. You’ll see the image resume back to its original state, which is fine.

Now, make sure that your foreground colour is WHITE.

Select the brush tool in the Tool menu, and use 15% is the opacity.

Then select an appropriate brush size and start using the brush to paint on your subject’s skin. MAKE SURE THAT IT IS EVENLY painted, else it will look patchy.

You may paint on the same area a few times depends on the skin condition. It is ok to slightly overdoing it at this stage (NOT TOO OVERLY, THOUGH).

6. When you are satisfied with the smooth skin, goto the layer window on the right and adjust the Opacity according to your preference.

I personally do not like human skin to be TOO SMOOTH and look like Porcelain. I prefer to have some texture on the skin. But some people love it to be porcelain smooth.

So, adjust the “Opacity” slider to achieve what you want.

7. When you are done, flatten the image.

I didn’t overdo in this tutorial coz I cannot look at myself if I have PERFECT smooth skin. But basically the fundamental steps have been illustrated above.

This is the before and after (click image to enlarge):

BEFORE	AFTER