"Barkster" wrote in message
I’m wanting to doctor some photos of girl and I see so many photos of girls that look like they have perfect skin as if they have been airbrushed. I’m sure they have been but I’ve not really figured a way to do it as to make their skin look perfect and smooth like a china doll. Are there any tutorials or any suggestions as to make the skin perfectly smooth and remove freckles etc..?
Try this.
1. Open the pic and use the key combination ALT + CTRL + tilde. "tilde" is right below the ESC key on a PC keyboard. This creates a selection based on just the brightness. only the brightest parts of the layer will be selected.
2. Use the key combination CTRL + C then CTRL + V. You should now have a new layer which contains a mainly transparent copy of the original layer. call it highlight layer.
3. Make sure the highlight layer is selected, then go into ADJUST > LEVELS and increase the brightness of the layer. The starting value is 255, try about 230 – 200, depending on the brightness of the original layer. The brighter the original layer, the lower you’ll need to go in order to see any kind of real difference.
4. When you’ve adjusted your levels, go into FILTERS > BLUR > GAUSSIAN BLUR and blur the highlight layer, the value you enter will depend on the size of your image, but try a starting point of 6. Your image should now be rather blurred, so using the ERASER choose a soft-edged brush and erase the highlight layer’s eyes and mouth to make them stand out more.
5. Then, set the highlight layer to around 40-60% opacity and you should have a soft focus effect