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Posted on 27/01/07 7:12:33 PM |
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dave.cox
Marquee Master Posts: 518 Reply  |
Skin Softening Technique
Hi folks, Here is the tutorial I promised on softening a face. I found this in The Photoshop CS2 Book by Scott Shelby, though I have modified it some. These instructions are for the PC. I apologize for not providing the key strokes for the Mac, but I am not familiar with that machine. I assume most of you can figure out the differences. This is the original image that I am going to work with. If you want to remove any wrinkles or other signs of aging, you will usually want to perform this first. 
First thing that I do is to make two additional copies of the image in new layers. You can easily do this by pressing Control J two times. 
Click on the eyeball for the top layer to disable the image, and select the middle image. Here it is the one labeled Layer 1. With the middle image selected, change the Layer Blend mode to darken. Next Add a 40 pixel Gaussian Blur to this layer (Filter menu, Blur, Gaussian Blur). 
Now select the Top layer, labeled Layer 1 copy. Click the eye icon, so you can see this layer again. On this layer, set the mode to lighten, and add a 60 pixel Gaussian Blur. 
After you have applied the blur, go back to layer 1, and lower its opacity to about 40%. (You may want to experiment with this number, depending on how much you want to lighten your original, but this is a overall good level to start from.) 
Now we need to merge the two layers that we have blurred. An easy way to do this is to select the two layers and select merge. Click the first layer to select it, Shift click the second layer to also select that layer. With both layers selected, right click and a menu will pop up. Select merge layers, and the layers selected will be merged. This layer will be used like a foundation layer of make up to soften the facial features. 
With the top layer selected, click on the layer mask icon to add a layer mask. 
Click on the Layer Mask Icon to create a layer mask. Select the layer for editing, and draw a marquee around the face, to select as much as possible except the face. Press delete to clear the selected area. De-select by pressing Control D. Set your foreground layer to black, and select the layer 1 copy layer mask for editing. Select a medium soft edged brush, and paint over the areas that need full detail. You will want to paint the eyes, lips, eyelashes, ears, clothing, etc. Lower the overall opacity of this layer to about 40%, and adjust up or down until it looks right. 
Now you may want to add other details such as color the lips, cheekbones, etc. Although I didn’t show it here, I also darkened the hair by selecting it, and adjusting the Hue/Saturation in an adjustment layer. 
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