Easily Smooth And Soften Skin In A Photo With Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll learn an easy way to soften and smooth someone’s skin in a photo without blurring out important image details, such as the person’s eyes and mouth. The technique we’ll be looking at is actually a slight variation on a method normally used for advanced image sharpening, which serves as a great example of why it’s much more important to understand what you’re doing rather than simply memorizing a bunch of steps or "recipes". The more you understand what you’re doing in Photoshop and why, the more your mind will open to new ideas and new possibilities.

Here’s the image I’ll be working with in this tutorial. Since this is a tutorial on skin softening and smoothing, I’ve cropped away most of the image so we can focus on the young woman’s face:


The original image.



The final result showing the woman’s skin now smoother and softer looking.

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the original image on the Background layer.

The Layers palette in Photoshop now showing a copy of the Background layer, named “Layer 1″, above the original.

Step 2: Change The Blend Mode Of "Layer 1" to "Overlay"

Change the blend mode of “Layer 1″ from “Normal” to “Overlay”.

The image now appears with increased contrast and color saturation after changing the blend mode of “Layer 1″ to “Overlay”.

Step 3: Apply The "High Pass" Filter To "Layer 1"

Go to Filter > Other > High Pass.



Increase the Radius value of the High Pass filter to around 6 pixels, or try 9-10 pixels for a high resolution image.



The image now appears overly sharpened in the document window.

Step 4: Invert “Layer 1″

Go to Image >; Adjustments >; Invert, or press “Ctrl+I” (Win) / “Command+I” (Mac) to invert the layer.



All the non-detail areas in the image now appear blurry while the important details have barely been affected.

Step 5: Lower The Opacity Of "Layer 1" To Fine-Tune The Amount Of Skin Softening

Lower the opacity of “Layer 1″ until the smoothing and softening appears more natural.



The skin softening now looks more natural after lowering the opacity of “Layer 1″.

Step 6: Add A Layer Mask To "Layer 1"

Click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.



The Layers palette in Photoshop showing the layer mask thumbnail.

Step 7: Select The Brush Tool

Selecting Photoshop’s Brush Tool from the Tools palette.

Step 8: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

The Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette.

Step 9: Paint Over The Details In The Face To Hide The Softening Effect

Paint with black over the face details to completely remove the softening effect from those areas if needed.



The layer mask thumbnail showing the areas that have been painted with black on the layer mask.



The woman’s eyes, mouth, bottom of her nose and eyebrows now no longer have any softening applied to them.

Step 10: Paint Away The Effect From The Rest Of The Image

The layer mask thumbnail once again, this time showing black around everything except the woman’s face, limiting the softening effect to only her skin.



The final result.