How to Airbrush Skin in Photoshop
Photoshop is a professional level image editing program created by Adobe. Airbrushing skin is performed to remove flaws and perfect a person's skin in a photo. This technique is used in modeling magazines, for example, to decrease the appearance of a model's age and improve the aesthetic qualities of her skin post-production. Sometimes airbrushing can appear fake and may be overly unrealistic if the right technique is not applied. A lesser-known application of airbrushing skin on reproduced damaged or old photos can remove imperfections accrued on the original physical copies.
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Instructions
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Open the photo to be edited in Photoshop. Click on "File" at the top of the program, then select the "Open" option and choose the photo from the dialog box.
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Select the "Background" layer in the "Layers" panel at the right of the screen.
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Duplicate the existing layer by clicking on "Layer" at the top of the program and then selecting "Duplicate."
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Select the "Background copy" from the "Layers" panel.
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Apply the blur effect by clicking on "Filter" at the top of the program, then clicking on the "Blur" menu and selecting "Gaussian Blur" from the drop-down box.
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Move the slider on the "Gaussian Blur" window until the photo is blurred enough for the skin to be clean, while still keeping the person's identifiable features.
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Click "OK" on the "Gaussian Blur" window to apply the filter.
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Select the "Background copy" layer then hold the "ALT" key and click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the "Layers" window.
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Select the brush tool by clicking on the "Brush" icon from the "Tools" window on the left-hand side of the program.
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Click on the foreground/background color reversal arrow on the right-hand side of the program to make the foreground color white.
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Brush carefully over the picture -- avoiding the jawline and edges of the face -- to bring out the airbrushed layer. Click on the picture to apply each brushstroke and hold the mouse click down to continue the process.
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Alter the opacity of the brush by changing the opacity slider at the top of the program window to adjust the effect of the airbrushing layer on the skin. If this is increased, then the effect will be more prominent. Ideally, the opacity should be set to around 10 percent to begin with and then increased slightly, if needed, until the desired effect is achieved.
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Tips & Warnings
Lowering the opacity of the brush can alter previous brushstrokes to help reverse the effects of a mistake.
References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images
