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Skin Contouring

  • Images for contouring the face - Google, (to add image) 
  • YouTube - How to contour makeup,
  • Dodge & Burn is the usual technique to contour skin to emphasise shape by making the highlights a little lighter and the shadows a little darker.

Videos

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Introduction

  • Skin smoothing can make a portrait look more attractive and professional, however it should not be overdone to the extent where the skin looks plastic and devoid of detail. There are several ways to achieve this.

Frequency Separation

Actions

Clone Stamp

  • Pratik Naik uses the clone stamp tool to take the edge off skin pores in the T-zone using 100% opacity and 2% flow with a very soft brush but doing this with a sweeping motion rather than dabbing as this gives a softer edge. (Ref).

Sample and Paint

  • Good for smoothing out colours and tones making the image look more polished, then adding back texture if necessary. See Phlearn Photoshop 201, no 8 - 29.31-42.07. Precise Skin Retouching. Sample and paint on a new layer with 100% opacity and 10% flow. Sample often and paint just a small area with each colour. (Ref 5:12).
  • Skin texture can be added back above this with a high pass filter. To do this make the adjustment layer invisible. Apply image to get everything on a single layer with the texture. Make it a smart object and apply a high pass filter with a blend mode of overlay. Use the colour adjustment layer into a selection and make this into a layer mask to apply the texture where needed.

The Patch Tool

  • The Patch Tool can be used to smooth the edges of uneven skin colour.( Ref 6:27. Ref 3:34). However it is destructive and  has a hard edge and is not liked by all retouchers.

Dodge & Burn

Videos to File

Plugins

  • Portrait Pro.

Links From

 

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Introduction

  • Photoshop can be used to simulate the effect of skin painting or being tattooed. 

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Introduction

  • Frequency separation is a technique for separating the part of the image with a lot of detail such as skin texture (High frequency) from that without much detail but with such things as skin colour and tone information (Low frequency). This gives a Low Frequency Layer and a High Frequency Layer. When this is done properly the two frequency separations look identical with the original image when viewed together, however, they have the great advantage of being able to be edited separately, which makes many editing tasks much simpler. For example the skin colour can be smoothed out without affecting the skin texture.
  • It is good for correcting shiny skin as dodge and burn makes the highlights grey.
  • The technique of Frequency Separation is different for 8 bit and 16 bit images. 
  • Frequency Separation can be done manually but is best used as a Photoshop Action which produces the required layers automatically with the High Frequency Layer on top, then a blank Adjustment Layer, and a Low Frequency Layer below that.
  • Once the new layers are produced you can not edit the layers below as these layers are not transparent.

Using A Frequency Separation Action 

  • Choose the correct action for the bit depth of 8 or 16 bit. 
  • Adjust the radius setting of the Gaussian Blur until the skin texture can no longer bee seen and then just a little more but not too much. 

Editing the Low Frequency (Colour) Layer

  • The Low Frequency (Colour) layer is where you do your large scale retouching to smooth out uneven tones and colours.
  • Edit on a Blank Layer above the Low Frequency Layer, so the editing is non destructive. Have the selection mode set to Current and Below.
  • You can have the High Frequency detail layer turned on or off, whatever you find gives you the best visualisation of the final effect.
  • The Brush Tool can be used by Sampling from a nearly area and lightly painting over areas to be smoothed with an Opacity of 100% and a Flow of 1-5% for a Mouse or 10-20% for a Pen.
  • A Gaussian Blur can be used to soften hard transitions in a larger area but this cannot be used on a blank layer, and so should be used on a Stamped Layer which makes a single layer copy of all the Layers but having the High Frequency Layer turned off. This layer should be positioned just below the High Frequency Layer. Use a soft edged Lasso Tool to select the area to work on and then apply a Gaussian Blur to that and adjust the radius to give the best effect.

Editing the High Frequency (Detail) Layer

  • The High Frequency (Detail) layer is where you do your small scale retouching of uneven textures and blemishes.
  • Make sure that any editing you do only samples from this layer because if your sample comes from other layers as well the unusual blending mode of Linear Light will produce strange effects. This means that the editing is destructive.
  • The Healing Brush Tool  or Clone Stamp Tool can be used to remove blemishes. You may need to do some correction on the Low Frequency (Colour) Layer as well if the colour still shows to be uneven.

How Retouchers Use This Frequency Separation

  • Pratik Naik only uses this for final small corrections of skin tones, transitions, lighting and makeup, after using the healing brush, clone stamp, and dodge and burn. His action uses a fixed 3 pixel blur, which he finds works for most images. He feels that this technique is over used and produces artificial looking results.

Videos

Paid Resources

  • How to Master Frequency Separation Retouching in Photoshop by Phlearn (Phlearn Pro tutorial series only available by subscription) was used to update this page.
  • Advanced Texture Cleanup - Software to go beyond the limits of normal frequency separation and use it more universally. rather than just on skin. This process solves the halo issues which normally limit this process to just skin retouching. $129. 

Plugins

The Argument Against Using Frequency Separation

Related Articles

Introduction

  • Skin retouching is an important part of portrait editing. Many different techniques can be used to smooth out blemishes and enhance the skin.

Sections

Luminosity Painting

  • See Phlearn Retouching 201 Section 2, 29:43-39:42.
  • Use this to even out skin tones . It can even larger areas more smoothly than dodge and burn but can reduce some skin texture, which can be put back with noise. Even more powerful when combined with frequency separation.
  • Create a new layer and change the blend mode to luminosity. Edit in black and white by having a Black & White adjustment layer active. Paint at a 5-10% flow with black or white.

Videos

Selecting Skin

Creating Skin Texture

Articles