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Glamour Retouching
06. Smoothening the skin by means of Gaussian blur
After I removed the imperfections on the skin and corrected the exposure, I'm ready for the final step in softening the skin.
This is a fairly long, a little complicated and time-consuming method, but it gives me good results. On the next page I will give a easier approach which gives the same results, maybe even better :)
Well let's start :)
1. Add a new layer with a funky color. This in only to see where you've painted and where not.
2. Duplicate the background layer and add a layer mask
3. Paint in the mask, with a hard brush, those area's black which you don't want to soften. At this point you don't need to be very precise. Just make sure you don't leave any background or hair visible. Covering a little skin at the edges doesn't matter.
4. Delete the funky color layer
5. Apply the layer mask to the image
6. Apply a gaussian blur to the "background copy" layer. The radius depends on the image. You want to overdo it a little, so don't be afraid to drag on those handles :)
! instead of using a gaussian blur you could / should try using the surface blur instead. In this way you can retain more detail but it makes the process even more complex)
7. Now duplicate the layer you just blurred
8. Change the blending mode of the top layer to darken and that of the bottom layer to lighten
9. Change the opacity of both layers until you find the image looks at its best.
10. Merge the layers
11. Mask the edges again where you feel it's needed.
If you didn't take away a tiny edge of the skin in point 3., the skin will spoil you're edges depending on the radius you used in the gaussian blur.
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