You may notice that the image blurs while the High Pass preview
box sharpens... this is due to this layer being an opposite of the
layer beneath. Also, only be concerned how the blurring looks
on the skin as we will not be applying this to the hair etc.
As you paint in white on the layer mask you should see the
skin being smoothed while retaining all the lovely skin texture.
If you find the smoothing is too much you can either adjust the
settings of previous filters or you can lower the opacity of the
layer.
So if we sharpened to blur the
image, now we need to blur to
sharpen the image... talk about
mind bending! We now apply a
Gaussian Blur to restore the skin
texture.
Change the pixel
radius
of
the
Gaussian Blur to
reveal the underlying
skin texture while
hiding any blemishes.
A good starting point
for the pixel radius
is less than half of
the value used in the
High Pass Filter.
As you can see in the screenshot,
both the High Pass and Gaussian
Blur filters have been applied to
Layer 1. This allows us to double
click on either of these filters
and fine tune the values used if
needed. As things stand, this skin
smoothing has been applied to
the entire image. What we need
is to apply it to only the skin.
BEFORE
Above you can see the starting image...
This is simply a case of creating
a black layer mask for layer 1. To
do this, Alt (Opt) + Click on the
mask layer to fill the mask layer
with Black. As always with layer
masks, Black conceals, White
Reveals... so now all that skin
smoothing has vanished.
Now it is just a case of painting
the smoothing back into the
image. Choose the Brush
from either the Toolbar or by
pressing B, make sure that you
have selected White as your
foreground color. Choose a nice
soft brush and paint on the
selected layer mask.
AFTER
...and here the smoothed skin, edited image.
This technique works just as well for B&W images as it does
for color. Give it a try.
Model: Diana Orona
NM CliQ Magazine | November 2015
53