Have you ever wondered why the models in magazines always have such perfect skin? Obviously, there’s a hell of a lot of money goes into lenses and post production to get that effect. However, if you’re on a budget, there’s another solution too. Softener is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that gives your photos that glossy, perfect skin look. According to the developers, ‘Softener’ is the effect that glamour photographers use to smooth skin imperfections. It’s perfect for close-up photos and portraits – any photo where you want to see the face, but not the imperfections.
Normally, you have to pay big bucks for this kind of effect and because Softener is digital, you won’t need to reshoot a photo to change the effect. You can also undo any changes to an image at anytime. There are also plenty of tweak settings until you’ve found that perfect skin you are looking for. Obviously, this is not as good as investing in a real lens or some serious post production equipment. Sometimes the plug-in just seems to simply make the skin pinker rather than soften the image as such but nevertheless, it’s an excellent cheap solution for those photographers on a budget.
