Looking for some help with smoothing out skin

[odinsbeard]

I used the blemish removal tool to remove excessive acne on my son's yearbook photo. I also removed some of the extra redness in his face using an HSL adjustment layer and mask. The picture is much better now but (probably due in part to my use of the blemish tool), his face is blotchy or mottled. I would like to smooth out his skin (make it more consistent) but I'm not sure what the best method would be. I've seen various articles online involving various techniques including Dodge and Burn, Frequency Separation, and others, but none of them have been sufficiently detailed to be helpful. I'm not super knowledgeable about Photo 2 but I have used it off and on for various tasks. Would someone be able to provide detailed instructions as to how I can accomplish this? Thanks.

 

[carl123]

1 hour ago, odinsbeard said:

his face is blotchy or mottled

Every image is different so it's hard to give specific advice without seeing the actual image but we can understand you not wanting to upload your son's photo to the forum

But if you can do an image search on google for something that closely resembles what you son's face now looks like, that may be enough for others to be able to assist you further.

[odinsbeard]

Hopefully the attached sample is useful. Compare the skin on his face to the relatively smoother, more consistent skin on his neck.

[Ldina]

@odinsbeard It always helps if you can upload a higher resolution image for people to experiment with.

That said...here are three methods, which can be used individually, or in combination, depending on the image and the desired result. A Live Clarity Filter (set to -100%) seemed the best of the three in this low Rez original. Noise reduction typically softens detail, and that is what you are trying to do here...reduce contrast and sudden changes in skin. Gaussian Blur can also work ( try different Layer blend modes too), but you will need to use a mask to avoid blurring teeth, nose, eyes and other details. Masks can be used with these and other approaches. 

[odinsbeard]

@Ldina Thanks so much--I really appreciate the tips. I'll give these a shot.

 

[Ldina]

23 minutes ago, odinsbeard said:

I'll give these a shot.

Let us know how you do. (if you upload any images, make them high enough resolution to work with). Generally speaking, to smooth skin, you want to reduce the luminance and color contrast, and make the transitions between light and dark areas a bit more gradual. Sometimes, color differences are the key, at others it is luminosity, etc. 

You can go from natural to "plastic" pretty fast if you overdo it. It's best to make any adjustments above your original base layer, then play with masks, layer opacity, blend modes, etc, to tone down the effect if required. If the skin looks too 'plastic' and unnatural after smoothing, you can always add a bit of noise or texture afterwards to make it look more natural. Noise can also help 'hide' some of these tonal and color differences.