We are all looking fora PS Skin Retouching Tutorial, a best solution so farfor a photo portraitskin perfection.That's what I have been doing for the previous weeks and months. Luckily, I think I've just made it.
If you have read dozens of PS tutorial books or PS Recouching Tutorial videos on Youtube, or google webpages forPS tricks for skin retouching, you would be very familiar with some common, or the elementary methods ofskin retouching in PS. They're everywhere on the web, but not so satisfactory. They either make the skin lose detail, or make it look unreal. Big problem. Is there aPS Skin Retouching Tutorial that can make a perfect and natural skin?Yes. Here we go.
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First stop
Clone stamp tool (S key) and Spot healing brush tool (J key)
Hey! They can just do the step one, get rid of the blemishes and other flaws. Be careful using them! If you overuse them, or use them without enough flexibility, the fixed spot will look fake. Remember, the spot healing brush tool can be only used on small blemishes, you should always use [ and ] key on the keyboard to decrease and increase the size of the brush. The size should be just cover the blemish, a little bigger than the blemish.
Beginners' Level:
Applying Blur filter(Gaussian blur, surface blur)
Some experienced so-called PSer would teach you a good method by applying blur filters, whether gaussian or surface blur. I trusted them and tried. For some 30% of the time, it's gonna work well. Still , it's not what I have expected. What I want is not just a newbie's level, the retouching is supposed to let people feelMAGICAL, which is also the core spirit of PS, the soul. So just forget about the blur filters.
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Medium Level:
Faking the Skin (Rebuild/Forge the skin tones)
When I was lost in finding a better way ofPS Skin Retouching, really confused, looking everywhere on the internet, I came across a way ofFaking the Skin. Haven't heard before? It means making a completely skin texture without having to consider the original skin texture. How?
Of course, we apply this method only if the skin of the portrait looks terrible.
First, using applying the blur filter to get rid of the blemishes. When it's done, the bad stuff is gone but the fake and vague part is left. Yes, we lost details of the original skin texture.
Next, werebuild the skin.
1. Create a new layer
2. ApplyADD NOISE filter. Remember to checkGaussian andMonochromatic on. Gaussian means the way of blurring the noise. Monochromatic means just converting the noise into black and white mode.The amount should depend, 1% to 5%, just check which looks better.
3. Is that done? End of theskin retouching work? No! Theforged skin tones look fake because they look flat, not 3-dimensional. We've gotta fix them. Go to Filter menu, clickStylize and thenEmboss. The Emboss filter can make the noise, the forged skin tones look more realistic. The parameters you just decide on your own. Job Done! You graduated from the Medium Level ofPS Skin Retouching Tutorial.
About rebuilding the skin tones, I didn't talk much because that's not the point of this tutorial. You can google it on the web, where there're tons of free tutorials about that.
I saw many commercial fashion portraits applying this kinda technique, Jesus! Sometimes you might think the rebuilt part, I mean the forged skin tones, look like a thick cosmetic powder, other than a perfect and natural skin tones. That's why I gave it up. If you really wanna do amagical PS Retouching work, just follow me.
OK, now, let's move to the final level.
Advanced Level:
Applying Channels
Theory comes first:
We all know that pictures are made from three basic colors, RGB, Red Green and Blue. Photoshop makes it available for us to use besidesLayersPanel. If you click on theChannels, you'll see four layers named RGB, Red, Green and Blue.
They are all monochromatic. The three channels altogether make the RGB pictures with millions of different colors as you see. Theoretically, Red allows more light to come in, then comes Green, Blue has the least light.Let's see an original portrait.
