noob needs help with frequency separation

[fall]

hi there. i'm trying out portrait retouching with affinity, total noob here. i've been watching video tutorials on youtube. i might be doing something wrong here, or something i dont understand, when i use freq separstion it adds noise and oversharpens my photo on the high freq layer, how much depends on the radius i choose. with all layers visible the effect isnt there, it shows up when the low freq layer is unchecked.

heres what im doing, duplicate background layer> apply freq separation on duplicate layer> apply gausian blur on low freq> apply invert mask> paint face> etc etc. the problem shows up after the inverted mask, it not just hides the gaussian blur but the low freq layer as well, i can get the skin smooth by painting the face but the rest of the photo looks oversharpened and noisy.

what am i doing wrong?

[smadell]

How are you applying the Gaussian blur - from the Filters menu or as a Live Filter Layer? How are you inverting the mask on the Gaussian Blur? If you are using the Filters menu blur, this is destructive and will blur the entire Low Freq layer. A subsequent Mask layer, inverted, will hide the entire layer. This is how it’s supposed to work. The only reasonable way to do what you’re after is with a Live Filter layer applied as a child layer to the Low Frequency layer. Apply the blur as a live filter, then Invert the blur layer (which is just another way of saying invert the mask on the blur layer). You can then paint on the Gaussian Blur live filter layer with white, and this will reveal the blur.

[fall]

10 hours ago, smadell said:

How are you applying the Gaussian blur - from the Filters menu or as a Live Filter Layer? How are you inverting the mask on the Gaussian Blur? If you are using the Filters menu blur, this is destructive and will blur the entire Low Freq layer. A subsequent Mask layer, inverted, will hide the entire layer. This is how it’s supposed to work. The only reasonable way to do what you’re after is with a Live Filter layer applied as a child layer to the Low Frequency layer. Apply the blur as a live filter, then Invert the blur layer (which is just another way of saying invert the mask on the blur layer). You can then paint on the Gaussian Blur live filter layer with white, and this will reveal the blur.

thank you! i was applying it through the filters menu, i just tried live filter and it worked.