# What Do You Do With Skin In PS?



## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

I've become more adept at blemishes and skin softening techniques in PS, but I haven't figured out how some on here, seem to be able to "even out" skin tones and give them almost a glow. Anyone care to share their favorite post processing techniques on skin?


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## Braineack (Oct 31, 2016)

frequency separation works well to smooth out blotchy skin while retaining details.


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

Braineack said:


> frequency separation works well to smooth out blotchy skin while retaining details.



Thanks I just looked into that. Need to explore this more in depth.


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## Trever1t (Oct 31, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> I've become more adept at blemishes and skin softening techniques in PS, but I haven't figured out how some on here, seem to be able to "even out" skin tones and give them almost a glow. Anyone care to share their favorite post processing techniques on skin?




Who on here do you want to edit like? Perhaps direct the question that way so he/she could answer to their style?
Personally I use a number of technique, starting with a good exposure, hopefully.


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

Trever1t said:


> Who on here do you want to edit like



Well actually, you're one of the best IMHO!   I'd love to look over your shoulder sometime as you edited. So many  seek to completely eliminate all the texture and minor blemishes to the point that it almost looks porcelain (to perfect), actually taking away from the unique character of the subject. 

I did some research at the suggestion of  @Braineack on Frequency Separation , which looks very promising but I haven't had time to fully understand or learn the technique Granted exposure and lighting can play an important point, but I think it was you that said "my frames are like handfuls of clay (potential), I am learning to envision the final image and edit accordingly" 

Here's a clip from an image I'm still working on. I used a skin softening technique which involved  using an inverted High Pass filter layer. This is something where I think the Frequency Separation might work better. Any other ideas you'd care to share????


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## Braineack (Oct 31, 2016)

here's my ugly mug:













in layman's terms, it separates the details onto a new layer away from the underlying colors.   So you can smooth out color without disturbing the details whatsoever.  If you want to spot edit out blemishes and imperfections, you can still using the healing brush on the detail layer like normal.


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

@Braineack  You didn't specify, but I'm assuming that you used FS. That's what I like about the technique, the ability to separate the texture and modify it without destroying all of it.


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## Braineack (Oct 31, 2016)

yeah that was FS.  Otherwise I just use the healing tool.  I don't like to manipulate pixels that much.


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## Trever1t (Oct 31, 2016)

ok, for a young child I'd probably use no skin softening at all. I might clean up skin issue if any but certainly you don't need to do anything other than that. If you were to look over my shoulder as I edited you'd probably be bored. 

I use spot healing to remove unwanted blemishes and a technique involving cloning on layers and a couple other things. The more I learn the more I learn to use it in moderation (keeping pore structure and all)


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

Trever1t said:


> a technique involving cloning on layers and a couple other things.



Are you using the same image to sample from, or are you going to another image?


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

Ok, still have more improvement to go but the first thumbnail is the original, the 2nd thumbnail is with FS, adjustments to detail layer and color layer. It's improved but still need to bring down the red. Any other suggestions????


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## The_Traveler (Oct 31, 2016)

The real place to go to learn retouching is Retouchpro.com.
Those guys are great and there are numerous excellent tutorials


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## Trever1t (Oct 31, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> Trever1t said:
> 
> 
> > a technique involving cloning on layers and a couple other things.
> ...



sampling from the same onto transparent layers.


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

Thank you to @Braineack and @Trever1t used a combination of things derived from your suggestions. Didn't want to to completely eliminate the red cheeks, but limit the blotches. Think I've got to a point that I'll quit on this edit.


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## OGsPhotography (Oct 31, 2016)

In Lr just grab the red channel and pull it down in the mids. Another really quick way to help with red face is to move the red slider in HSL to the right towards orange. 

Frequency seperation is pretty awesome. Just follow a tutorial while you do it. 

Another quick and easy way is to just use a soft brush and paint in the skin tone you like. Press ( i) to bring up the dropper and take a sample, then ( b) to switch quickly to brush. Its amazing what the brush can do.


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## smoke665 (Oct 31, 2016)

@OGsPhotography I have LR and use it, but the layers options in PS are better for detailed edits.  I've used a brush as well, except it doesn't maintain the skin texture like the FS technique does. Also on this photo the red blotches were limited to the cheeks. I found it easier to use a filter layer>color picker to select the color I didn't want>invert the color, then use a selection mask with feathered edge to limit the effect just to the cheek and opacity to control the intensity.  One thing I think has made it harder for me to learn PS is the fact that there are many different ways to achieve the same result.


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## OGsPhotography (Oct 31, 2016)

Oh oops, forgot you asked for Ps technique. Just open it in camera raw from Ps for the techniques I mentioned. No need to open Lr to do that. 

Lots of different means to an end in Ps for sure! Thats the fun of it. Patch tool is pretty awesome too for editing cheeks.


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## cauzimme (Nov 1, 2016)

I use frequency separation, it's the best method I know of, 
To attend a ''glow'' skin, you need to play with your curve tool. 
Work with lots of layers and lot of folders. 

Portraiture (used lightly does work very well) but you're never gonna attend the same awsome result of editing manually.


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## Braineack (Nov 1, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> Thank you to @Braineack and @Trever1t used a combination of things derived from your suggestions. Didn't want to to completely eliminate the red cheeks, but limit the blotches. Think I've got to a point that I'll quit on this edit.
> 
> View attachment 129629



do you add a blur layer?  why is baby now glowing?  too much radiation?


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## smoke665 (Nov 1, 2016)

Braineack said:


> why is baby now glowing? too much radiation?



Don't look behind the screen, nothing to see folks!!!! - LOL  Part of it may be from a softening layer, and part of it is laziness on my part from not getting a clean edge when on the gradient layer. I was so fixated on the cheek that I didn't see the other till it was already posted.


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