Mizzle
Oh, now I know...!
- Joined
- 3 May 2008
- Messages
- 347
This was originally posted by me at SE-NSE earlier today, but thought I'd share it with you here as well Took me forever to come up with this, and apply my finishing touches to the technique, but I was really happy with the result, and have been using my technique for quite some time now Hopefully you'll make good use of my secret
Here's the original photo, resized to 800 x 500 pixels.
1. First up, we'll get rid of any skin spots, marks, etc. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one of the easiest for newcomers is the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
Now, simply set a suitable brush size, and start removing spots, marks, etc. by clicking on the area. In most cases you can simply click, but if you've got a photo with many details around the area (such as hair near the area), you'll have to be a bit careful, or the hair will get in your selection, and will mess up the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
You will probably end up with some noticeable pixelated areas, but don't worry about that, this is quite normal.
2. Next up is smoothing the skin. Duplicate the layer by right clicking on the Background layer, and select Duplicate Layer... or hold and move the Background layer down to the Create new layer-button - this will also duplicate the layer.
While on your new duplicated layer, go to Filter -> Blur and then Gaussian Blur.... Here you must select an appropriate level of blurring (not too much, you'll still have to be able to see the motive). For this photo, the radius was set to 2,5 pixels. Once you're satisfied, press OK.
Now go to Filter -> Noise -> Median..., and select an appropriate radius. A radius of 4 pixels seemed appropriate for this photo.
Now, your photo should look like this, and you should have two layers:
Here's the original photo, resized to 800 x 500 pixels.
1. First up, we'll get rid of any skin spots, marks, etc. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one of the easiest for newcomers is the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
Now, simply set a suitable brush size, and start removing spots, marks, etc. by clicking on the area. In most cases you can simply click, but if you've got a photo with many details around the area (such as hair near the area), you'll have to be a bit careful, or the hair will get in your selection, and will mess up the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
You will probably end up with some noticeable pixelated areas, but don't worry about that, this is quite normal.
2. Next up is smoothing the skin. Duplicate the layer by right clicking on the Background layer, and select Duplicate Layer... or hold and move the Background layer down to the Create new layer-button - this will also duplicate the layer.
While on your new duplicated layer, go to Filter -> Blur and then Gaussian Blur.... Here you must select an appropriate level of blurring (not too much, you'll still have to be able to see the motive). For this photo, the radius was set to 2,5 pixels. Once you're satisfied, press OK.
Now go to Filter -> Noise -> Median..., and select an appropriate radius. A radius of 4 pixels seemed appropriate for this photo.
Now, your photo should look like this, and you should have two layers: