How to Create Soft, Glowing Skin With Adobe Photoshop

In this Adobe Photoshop Tutorial you will learn how to make soft, glowing skin. Sometimes what an image really needs is to appear soft and glowing. It is a subtle change, but can have profound impact on the right image, be it a 3d render or a photograph. Utilizing Adobe Photoshop, this is actually an fairly easy look to accomplish. Follow these simple steps to find out how easy this technique is to learn and use. This Adobe Photoshop tutorial will show you how.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Photoshop

1. Choose a photograph or image to apply the effect to. Launch Adobe Photoshop and open the selected image (File - Open or CTRL+O). Also, when applying effects to an image, it is best to view the image at its full size. To do this, you can either pull down the View menu to Actual Pixels or hit Alt+Ctrl+0 on your keyboard.

2. 
    
   By right clicking the original layer, make this selection

   Duplicate the layer. Utilizing the very useful Layers palette (F7 if it is not already open in your workspace), duplicate the layer. To do this, Right-Click the layer with your original image on it and choose "Duplicate Layer". Alternatively, use the drop down Layer menu and choose "Duplicate Layer".

3. 
    
   Gaussian Blur settings window

   Select the new layer (should be the one on top) by single left clicking it. Now there will be two layers in the Layers palette. Use the drop down menu at the top and select Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur. The Gaussian Blur window pops up. Click the Preview square and use the slider to blur the image. There is no set right amount to blur it. Generally speaking, it should be blurred a fair amount, but not so much that the features are not recognizable. The more it is blurred, the more glowing or washed out the image will be. Playing with this at several settings often gives the best results. When the image is sufficiently blurred, click OK.

4. 
    
   Set the layer mode to Screen

   Make sure the duplicated layer is selected (should be the one on top). Set the layer mode to Screen. This will blend the duplicated layer with the layer(s) beneath it, creating the soft, glowing effect. The opacity of this layer can be adjusted, if it seems that there is too much softness or glowing.

5. 
    
   Final image with soft, glowing skin

   Use the newly created image, go to the Layer pull down menu and choose "Flatten Image", near the bottom of the list. It is always a good idea to save the image as a new file. This way the original image is untouched and can be used again for another purpose. To do this, got the File - Save As or (Shift+Ctrl+S). Give the new photo a name, choose the file type (usually .jpg for use on the internet or .tif for use in printing), choose a location to save it to and hit Save. Now the image is ready to use with its new effects for many types of projects.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are unfamiliar with the tools and filters, play with them. You cannot hurt an image, as long as you don't save over it.
• Always use the "Save As" option. This way the original image is untouched by any changes made.
• Try some of the other blur effects available in Adobe Photoshop for more unique styles.

Resources

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
• Class on Demand: Photoshop 2008: Designer's Guide to Photoshop