Speedy skin retouching

Automate your workflow to save time. These four techniques are perfect for portraits...

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Four flawless alternative methods for smoothing out skin tones with Photoshop CC

Use actions

If you find yourself performing the same task over and over, open the Actions panel (Window>actions), make a new action and click Record. Go to File> Automate>batch to run it on an entire folder of images. You’ll find a set of useful retouching actions with the project start file. To load them, navigate to the Actions panel and choose Load Actions. Then open your portrait to try them out!

01 The SPEEDY WAY

Open the image in Photoshop CC’S Camera Raw

(or Lightroom), grab the Adjustment Brush and take Clarity to -50. Paint over the skin to gently soften the details. For a fresher look to the skin, grab the Targeted Adjustment Brush, right-click, choose Luminance, then drag it upwards over the skin to lift it.

02 The SIMPLE WAY

Duplicate the ‘Background’ layer, invert the tones with Ctrl+i, set Blending Mode to Overlay. Convert the layer to a Smart Object. Go to Filter>other>high Pass and set an amount that blurs the skin. Alt-click the Add Layer Mask icon, add a full mask, and paint white over skin to reveal the effect.

03 The CLEVER WAY

Duplicate and invert the ‘Background’ layer. Set the layer opacity to 50%, and change Blending Mode to Linear Light. Go to Filter>other>high Pass and set Radius to around 9px. Go to Filter>blur>gaussian Blur and set it to around 3px. Add a full black mask, then paint white over the skin to reveal the effect.

04 The PROFESSIONAL WAY

Make two duplicate layers, ‘Colour’ and ‘Texture’. Use Filter>surface Blur on the ‘Colour’ layer to blur the skin. Highlight ‘Texture’, go to Image>apply Image. Set Layer to Colour, Blending to Add, Scale to 2, and Offset to 0; tick Invert. Set Blending Mode to Linear Light. Apply Clone and Heal on the ‘Colour’ layer.