Tutorial edit 3D

Airbrush skin like a pro. In this Photoshop retouching tutorial, you’ll learn how to retouch skin like the professionals. Find out how to make skin look healthy without looking plastic or blurred.


Step 1

Open the photo into Photoshop. For this tutorial, try to use a high resolution image where you can see the skin texture.



Step 2

Create a duplicate layer and put it into a group. To do this, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+G to place the new layer into a group. Name the group "Airbrush" and the layer "Blur". To retouch the skin, there will be two layers in the Airbrush group. The first layer we’ve created (the Blur layer) will be used to blur the skin. After that, we’ll add another layer to restore the natural skin texture.



Step 3

Have the Blur layer selected. To blur this layer, use the Surface Blur filter. This filter blurs like the Gaussian Blur filter except it can retain edge detail. We’ll need to blur the layer so that the skin is smoothed and somewhat blurry without having the edges



Here’s what my image looks looks like after the Surface Blur filter. Your image should look similar with details such as the eye intact. If the eye becomes blurry, your settings are too strong. Undo and redo the Surface Blur filter with a lower setting.



Step 4

Create a new layer and move it above the Blur layer. Name this layer "Texture" and change the blend mode to Hard Light. This layer, as the name states, will be used to add a slight texture to the skin and also adjust the skin tonality.



The texture created in this layer will contribute to the final results very minimally - the difference can only be easily seen zoomed in on high resolution images and varies from image to image. Even though the result is very minimal, it ensures that no area of the skin looks too smooth or plastic.
Below is an example of this. On the left, the image looks like a solid color, also known as plastic skin. The image on the right has a slight noise pattern to make the skin look more realistic.



Step 5

Make sure that you have the "Texture" layer selected. With that layer selected, press Shift+F5 or choose Edit > Fill. In the Fill tool, set the settings according to the image below. This will fill your layer with a 50% gray color.



Step 6

Open the Add Noise filter from the Filter > Noise menu. Enter in the settings shown in the image below. This will add some noise to the image that will prevent skin from looking plastic. It may look a little too sharp, but in the next step, we’ll fix this with a Gaussian Blur filter.



Step 7

Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Blur the layer by 1 pixel.



Step 8

Now we’ll temporarily tint the color of this layer. First, select the Eye Dropper tool from the toolbar. Sample an area on the skin that appears to be the average skin color. You don’t have to be very precise because we will tune the color later in the tutorial. In the Color palette, click on the flyout menu below the close window button and select HSB sliders. We’ll need to see the HSB values for the next step.



Step 9

Open the Hue/Saturation tool by pressing Ctrl+U or choosing Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Check the Colorize option and adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness values to match the HSB values from the color we sampled in the previous step. For the brightness, set this to



Step 10

Select the Airbrush group in the Layers palette and add go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. This will create a layer mask filled with the color black that will hide the group. With this layer mask, we’ll paint the areas were we want the skin to appear. Otherwise, this skin airbrushing effect will appear on the entire image.



Step 11

First, press D on your keyboard to set the foreground and background colors to the default black and white. Select the Brush tool and apply the settings below.



Zoom in to 100% and paint over the skin. The parts that you paint will appear smoother with a different skin tone. Don’t worry if the skin tone doesn’t look correct. This is because we didn’t pick the correct color when we used the Hue/Saturation to tint the "Texture" layer. It’s too difficult to do that without a preview, so we’ll fix that later.
When painting, you’ll need to change the brush size and hardness frequently. It would be tedious to always access the brush option menu to do this so take this as an opportunity to use hot keys. Use the following hot keys to help you with modifying the brush size and hardness:
• Decrease brush size: [
• Increase brush size: ]
• Decrease brush softness by 25%: Shift + [
• Increase brush softness by 25%: Shift + ]



When you’re done, your layer mask should have the skin areas in white and the skin should look smooth.



Step 12

Now we’re going to fix back the color and tone of the skin as we mentioned earlier in the tutorial. Select the "Texture" layer and press Ctrl+U to access the Hue/Saturation tool. Alter the settings to get a natural looking skin tone.
• The Hue setting is usually correct. I increased it by 10 to add more yellow to it to make the appearance of the red areas less visible.
• The Saturation setting usually needs to be reduced greatly. Adjust this until the skin tone looks natural but not too pale.
• The Lightness setting requires slight modification. A slight change in the lightness will create big difference in how the skin blends in with the image. As you adjust the setting, you will see how sensitive this setting is. Even though it requires high precision, it is easy to tell when it is the correct setting. If it is off, it will look really off. If it is at the correct setting, it will look a lot more natural.



Step 13

Finally, we’re going to restore the skin details. Choose Image > Apply Image. Use the settings below.



The reason why we’re applying data from the Red channel is because it contains the least skin imperfections. The image below shows the difference in the channels. The red channel hides many of the skin imperfections that are visible in the green and blue channel.



Final Results

Here’s the final results after applying this airbrushing technique. In the image below, you can see how smooth the skin looks. Because the image below has been downsized to fit into this tutorial, it may look slightly plastic. However, when zoomed in, the texture is clearly visible.



This is a crop of an area zoomed in 100%. The tiny skin bumps are still visible. Even near the bottom right of the image, it still looks natural because of the "Texture" layer that we added. Without that layer, that area would appear as a solid color with no noise.



And as usual, here are the before and after images.

Make your photos interesting with this popular effect created from a combination of three photo effects. In this Photoshop tutorial, you'll learn how to create common photo effects that can be combined to simulate the trendy effect many photographers use on their photos.

Step 1: Open an image into Photoshop

Open a photo into Photoshop. This photo should not have any strong photo effect applied.



Step 2: Add a neutral color effect

First, we'll add a neutral color effect. To do this, we'll need to create a new layer with a grayscale version of the image as the layers content. Instead of duplicating the layer and desaturating it, we'll be using adjustment layers instead. Adjustment layers are non-destructive, editable anytime, and they keep the Photoshop file size small.

In the Layers palette, click on the new adjustment layer button and choose Black & White. The Black and White option is only available in Photoshop CS3. If you are using Photoshop CS2 or older, choose Hue/Saturation instead.



In the Black and White tool, adjust the settings to get the desired black and white effect you like. If you're using Photoshop CS2 or older and chose the Hue/Saturation tool instead, you can create a black and white image with the exact same options and results as the Black and White tool. Simply choose the color that you would like to edit and adjust the lightness. For example, if you want the reds to be brighter, choose "Reds" from the edit drop down menu and increase the lightness.



Change the blending mode of the new adjustment layer to Overlay. If you don't like the results, double-click on the layer icon to edit the settings again.



Step 3: Add a grain texture

Now we're going to add a little artistic grain to the image. This is optional; you may skip this part if you don't want to add any grain to your image. First, create a new layer and name this layer "Grain".



With the Grain layer selected, press Ctrl+F5 or choose Edit > Fill. In the Fill options, set the contents to 50% Gray and click OK. This will fill the layer with a 50% gray. We're using 50% gray as the base color because it appears transparent when used with certain blending modes.



Now we'll add some noise. Choose Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use the settings below.



The noise looks too sharp so we'll add a slight blur. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use the settings below.



Change the blending mode of the Grain layer to Soft Light.



Step 3: Create an organic vignette

Finally, we'll add the last layer. This layer will contain a organic vignette that will increase focus to the subject. Begin by creating a new layer. Name this new layer Vignette.



Select the lasso tool from the toolbar and create a round selection around the subject.



Choose Select > Modify > Feather. This will soften the edge of the selection. Input a radius setting to use. A larger radius will create softer edge. Depending on the dimension of your image, this setting will vary. I used a 250 pixels setting, which is the highest, for a 4992 x 3319 pixels image. If you enter in a radius that is too small or large, press Ctrl+Z to undo and try the Feather Selection tool again. This step may take several tries.



Create an inverse of the selection by pressing Shift+Ctrl+I or choosing Select > Invert. Now fill the selection with black and press Ctrl+D to deselect the selection.



To finish this tutorial, reduce the opacity of the Vignette layer.



Final Results