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How to: get a perfect skin in Photoshop

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

  • Updated:

When taking close-ups, it’s very difficult to obtain a perfectly smooth skin like the one you see on magazines. It’s not that you’re a bad photographer: in fact, every single photo that is published in a magazine goes under some Photoshop retouching first. So let’s see what needs to be fixed in your close-ups to make them look perfect!

1. Spots and blemishes
The easiest way to remove them is using the Cloning Stamp. Click on the tool’s icon, hold the Alt key and click on a skin area near the spot you want to remove. Let the Alt key go and now click on the spot. It’ll be magically covered by the skin area you just picked up. I suggest using a brush size similar to the size of the spot you want to remove, and also lowering the opacity value to around 60% to obtain more realistic results.

Perfect skin in Photoshop

2. Light reflections
Close-ups sometimes show undesirable light reflections, especially on the subject’s forehead and nose. Removing them is as easy as removing spots: grab the Cloning Stamp and work the same as for point 1, making sure that this time the mode is set to “Darken”

Perfect skin in Photoshop

3. Smooth skin
After removing spots and reflections, it’s time for a smoothing treatment. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the background layer and with this new layer active, go to Filter > Noise > Median. Then reduce the layer’s opacity to 50%. This will blur the image a bit and make the skin look smoother.

Perfect skin in Photoshop

4. Final touch
The Median filter has done a great job on the skin, but has also blurred some areas (eyes, mouth, hair) that we want to be sharp. Add a layer mask to the background layer copy and with a black brush, start painting all over the areas you want to sharpen again.

Perfect skin in Photoshop

Your photo is now ready to go on any magazine!

Perfect skin in Photoshop

Elena Santos

Elena Santos

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