Airbrush skin like a pro. In this Photoshop retouching tutorial, you'll learn how to retouch skin like the professionals. Find out how to make skin look healthy without looking plastic or blurred.
Sample PSD (Photoshop Document)
Airbrushing Skin Photoshop Tutorial
Step 1
Open the photo into Photoshop. For this tutorial, try to use a high resolution image where you can see the skin texture.
Step 2
Create a duplicate layer and put it into a group. To do this, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+G to place the new layer into a group. Name the group "Airbrush" and the layer "Blur". To retouch the skin, there will be two layers in the Airbrush group. The first layer we've created (the Blur layer) will be used to blur the skin. After that, we'll add another layer to restore the natural skin texture.
Step 3
Have the Blur layer selected. To blur this layer, use the Surface Blur filter. This filter blurs like the Gaussian Blur filter except it can retain edge detail. We'll need to blur the layer so that the skin is smoothed and somewhat blurry without having the edges
Here's what my image looks looks like after the Surface Blur filter. Your image should look similar with details such as the eye intact. If the eye becomes blurry, your settings are too strong. Undo and redo the Surface Blur filter with a lower setting.
Step 4
Create a new layer and move it above the Blur layer. Name this layer "Texture" and change the blend mode to Hard Light. This layer, as the name states, will be used to add a slight texture to the skin and also adjust the skin tonality.
The texture created in this layer will contribute to the final results very minimally - the difference can only be easily seen zoomed in on high resolution images and varies from image to image. Even though the result is very minimal, it ensures that no area of the skin looks too smooth or plastic.
Below is an example of this. On the left, the image looks like a solid color, also known as plastic skin. The image on the right has a slight noise pattern to make the skin look more realistic.
Step 5
Make sure that you have the "Texture" layer selected. With that layer selected, press Shift+F5 or choose Edit > Fill. In the Fill tool, set the settings according to the image below. This will fill your layer with a 50% gray color.
Step 6
Open the Add Noise filter from the Filter > Noise menu. Enter in the settings shown in the image below. This will add some noise to the image that will prevent skin from looking plastic. It may look a little too sharp, but in the next step, we'll fix this with a Gaussian Blur filter.
Step 7
Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Blur the layer by 1 pixel.
Step 8
Now we'll temporarily tint the color of this layer. First, select the Eye Dropper tool from the toolbar. Sample an area on the skin that appears to be the average skin color. You don't have to be very precise because we will tune the color later in the tutorial. In the Color palette, click on the flyout menu below the close window button and select HSB sliders. We'll need to see the HSB values for the next step.
Step 9
Open the Hue/Saturation tool by pressing Ctrl+U or choosing Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Check the Colorize option and adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness values to match the HSB values from the color we sampled in the previous step. For the brightness, set this to
Step 10
Select the Airbrush group in the Layers palette and add go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. This will create a layer mask filled with the color black that will hide the group. With this layer mask, we'll paint the areas were we want the skin to appear. Otherwise, this skin airbrushing effect will appear on the entire image.
Step 11
First, press D on your keyboard to set the foreground and background colors to the default black and white. Select the Brush tool and apply the settings below.
Zoom in to 100% and paint over the skin. The parts that you paint will appear smoother with a different skin tone. Don't worry if the skin tone doesn't look correct. This is because we didn't pick the correct color when we used the Hue/Saturation to tint the "Texture" layer. It's too difficult to do that without a preview, so we'll fix that later.
When painting, you'll need to change the brush size and hardness frequently. It would be tedious to always access the brush option menu to do this so take this as an opportunity to use hot keys. Use the following hot keys to help you with modifying the brush size and hardness:
- Decrease brush size: [
- Increase brush size: ]
- Decrease brush softness by 25%: Shift + [
- Increase brush softness by 25%: Shift + ]
When you're done, your layer mask should have the skin areas in white and the skin should look smooth.
Step 12
Now we're going to fix back the color and tone of the skin as we mentioned earlier in the tutorial. Select the "Texture" layer and press Ctrl+U to access the Hue/Saturation tool. Alter the settings to get a natural looking skin tone.
- The Hue setting is usually correct. I increased it by 10 to add more yellow to it to make the appearance of the red areas less visible.
- The Saturation setting usually needs to be reduced greatly. Adjust this until the skin tone looks natural but not too pale.
- The Lightness setting requires slight modification. A slight change in the lightness will create big difference in how the skin blends in with the image. As you adjust the setting, you will see how sensitive this setting is. Even though it requires high precision, it is easy to tell when it is the correct setting. If it is off, it will look really off. If it is at the correct setting, it will look a lot more natural.
Step 13
Finally, we're going to restore the skin details. Choose Image > Apply Image. Use the settings below.
The reason why we're applying data from the Red channel is because it contains the least skin imperfections. The image below shows the difference in the channels. The red channel hides many of the skin imperfections that are visible in the green and blue channel.
Final Results
Here's the final results after applying this airbrushing technique. In the image below, you can see how smooth the skin looks. Because the image below has been downsized to fit into this tutorial, it may look slightly plastic. However, when zoomed in, the texture is clearly visible.
This is a crop of an area zoomed in 100%. The tiny skin bumps are still visible. Even near the bottom right of the image, it still looks natural because of the "Texture" layer that we added. Without that layer, that area would appear as a solid color with no noise.
And as usual, here are the before and after images.
Update: Here's a video on retouching skin in Photoshop. It's a completely different tutorial than this one but I highly recommend you watch it.
Skin Retouching Photoshop Actions
Update 2: I highly recommend you try these skin retouching actions - they're the best actions you can get. To use, simply play the action then paint over the skin. You can airbrush skin, mattify skin, restore blown-highlights, and more. Highly recommended. The Pro version includes additional actions.
Update 3: If you're looking for something basic, download these Frequency Separation Photoshop actions. They're made a similar frequency separation technique shown in this tutorial and can autoretouch your photo using Photoshop's face detection technology. The Pro version works with 16 and 32-bit photos and lets you apply both modern and traditional frequency separation. Don't know what modern/traditional frequency separation is? Read below.
What is Modern vs Traditional Frequency Separation?
One of the techniques that you learned in this tutorial is Modern Frequency Separation. This is done using Photoshop's Surface Blur filter which gives more natural results. With Traditional Frequency Separation, the Gaussian Blur filter is used instead of Surface Blur. This gives a softer and more diffused look. It's also less natural-looking so I recommend using it with caution especially on portraits with wrinkly skin.
See this image from Denny's Tips as an example:
woooooooooooooooooow amazing and it works for me thank you very much
Adobe Photoshop is a great tool for enhancement. But it's not enough, you also need a very keen eye to determine what looks great or not. Of course experience doing these is also a must.
but apply image doesn't create the skin texture as stated in the tutorial. it only brighten the skin.
Is there a mistake at Step 11? Should you just apply the mask to the Textures layer??
But it just leaves you hanging after step 10!!! I'm stuck!
click on page 2. lol 😉
Press the TWO (2) at the bottom left of the page 😉
Click on the page 2 link and be stuck no more!
There's a second page
Step 13 is very clever (apply an image with red channel) - I never saw that. The method of David Cuerdon (Kelby training) is more complicated, he uses Texture filter with a piece of clean skin...
Hi I have never used Airbrush on Photoshop im very very basic knowledge person but want to master CS4-6 know inside out how to use it, im photographer but no knowledge or experience of Photoshop in depth to do my job right too many pep who know it dnt want to tell me and i would b grateful if can come learn as one on one or even give me name link of place where they teach you in full and u become master in adobe after complete the course.
shahid baig
07854117338
e-mai: baig_shahid72@hotmail.com
Pls anyone close by me Birmingham love to come over and sit and learn.
Very clear step-by-step instructions..! Keep-up the good work. :o)
I really like the airbrush but I get lost after 8-step
I am doing something wrong step 9
can anyone help me?
Excelente...en cuanto puedan enviar mas tutoriales ...Nomada (grafic designer) student
oh that was easy. thank you for sharing, really helpful tutorial. 🙂
ty for great tutorial. i was hoping more simple teaching but it's nice enough
help can't finish my project having difficulty in step 11. there no effect on my image when i'm painting. i think i've missed somthing. help please!!!!!
Step 11 didn't work. Re-painted my face over the original picture.
Amazing................
AMAZING.................
Excellent tutorial
Thanks
I love this tutorial.! Worked with some photos. I recently found out that the hide all option is not working and not revealing the original image at all. What can be the problem? Worked for me the past few times, I tried. But now it's not working. I'm using CS5 and CS6.!
wow, very nice.. keep it coming n thnx
step 8
j aime
First of all, great tutorial!
I'm having difficulty fully grasping when to change the hardness of the brush in step 11. I can tell the difference between degrees of hardness, but I just don't know a good idea of when to use what. Can anybody provide some input? Thanks!
AWSOME....
I have CS 5 and pressing D does nothing and the rest of the process does not work.
Great tut !! One question: which of the steps should i alter to make the skin a bit closer to the original?
Thanks!
Works perfect for me
Nice editing
عالیه واقعا متشکرم خیلی چیزها از سایت شما یاد گرÙتم
Nice
Thank you
Very good Tutorial
Good step-by-step tutorial, however I have a small problem. When I get to step 11 and try to use the brush, a message pops up and says, "Could not use the brush tool because the pixels in a group cannot be edited without merging the group" I can't figure out where i've gone wrong! please help!
I had the same problem as Lydia, it turns brown and horrible for me on step 13
por favor quiero este tutorial en español..se ve muy bueno...gracias.
saludo desde colombia
Voces teriam um video onde mostre passo a passo, me perdi no passo 5 em diante e nao consegui terminar nada.
Tenho o Photoshop 5
wow............
superb
excellent work ..
i love this work
Thanks
i got stuck on step 10 could not get the black layer in airbrush plz guide me through
I tried this method but the result is not good.
Great great great i was looking for it long back thanks
great!! do you have this tutorial in a video tutorial?
Same as Lydia, mine goes wrong at step 13...as I click 'apply image' the skin goes horrid and dark brown. I think I followed every other step in the tutorial without problems.
I figured it out - before doing step 13 you have to change the layer from Background to Airbrush
First of all thank you. Second of all I get the same problem as Lydia. The face goes brown...;-(
i look black.
Lyndia, Your having problems because your doing that step on the "texture" layer. I was having the same problem. You must do this step on the "Airbrush" layer. Notice the "target:" in the picture on step 13. Hopes this helps someone else!
can you help me joshua?
I tried your tutorial but start from step 11, I don't know how to continue. Please guide me with more details. Thank you ^_^
nice tutotial n thank to suggest openly
Good Work! Beautiful
For some reason it's going wrong for me at step 13.
As soon as I click 'apply image' the selected skin goes brown and horrible, and 'preserve transparency' isn't greyed out.
Are we still supposed to be on the texture layer? I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong, I've tried twice now.
Thanks
Lydia, the reason your image goes brown is because you still on texture layer...you suppose to select the group (Airbrush) mask. Then 'apply image'.
I did the same thin, but then figured out you have to go back to the airbrush group before you apply image 🙂 hope this helps!
Lydia, 'apply image' must be used for group 'Airbrush', not for Texture layer only. In this tut, there is a small inaccuracy.
Also try to change lightness value in step 9, it's important.
That is wonderful technique, I wanna try for my own one, I need to put model with my products to list on my web.
It very nice and perfect skin !
Great Tutorial!!!, thanks you
Astonishing!!! Congrats for you!!!