Hi there, this is Unmesh from PiXimperfect.
And today I'm going to share with you the best Photoshop action I have ever created
for super quick skin softening.
This action creates beautiful transitions without disturbing the skin texture in just
a few minutes.
All you have to do is just play the action, set the values and paint on the skin.
That's pretty much it.
Besides, you can even change the values of Softness and Texture even after applying the
action in real time, just with few sliders.
Also, I'm going to show you how this action was created so that you can understand the
concept as well.
So without any further ado, let's get started.
So, here we are back in the magical world of Photoshop.
And this is the simplest thing ever.
All you have to do is this, go to this link and download the action for free.
That's it.
As easy as that.
Now, keep in mind, this action was created with the latest version of Photoshop CC 2019.
So if you're using a very old version of Photoshop, like CS6 or something, and this action doesn't
work, do not worry.
I'm going to show you how this action was created in the first place, so that you can
apply the action even if you do not have an action because you can create your own.
So let's get back to Photoshop.
The first thing we have to do before applying any kind of skin softening is removing the
blemishes.
So let's first of all zoom in, and then simply create a new layer.
This is simple.
I've already taught you this, you already know this.
Create a new layer.
Click on the New Layer button.
And then with the help of the Healing Brush tool, I'm going to use the Regular Healing
Brush tool, the second one.
Now the spot, you can also use this spot.
Doesn't really matter.
And then you can just hold the Alt or Option, click to take a sample and then just paint
on the blemishes.
Just make sure that the Sample is Current & Below, and then you can also remove some
hair from here which are falling on the forehead and clean up some stuff.
Now, I've already done this for you.
This can be a little time consuming or maybe fast, depending upon the skin.
So in this skin, I don't have to do so much.
Maybe a couple blemishes here and there and it's pretty much done.
But I've already done this for you.
So I'm gonna open this, the second one, up.
I've already removed the blemishes.
So, here's the before, here's the after.
Nothing much.
Just simple stuff.
Now, after you've done that, select the topmost layer.
In this case, it is the Blemishes, and then we're going to play the Action.
Go to Window, and then Actions.
Now, if you want to know how to install an Action, you can go here, click on the grid
right here and click on Load Actions, locate the Action that is available for download
in this link, and then just load it.
So all you have to do is click on Load Actions, find the Action and just click on Load.
Select the Action and click on Load.
I've already opened it and it is right here.
And that is PiX Skin Softening.
So I'm going to open this and inside of that I have an Action called Skin Softening.
So just select that action and play it.
As easy as that.
That's going to open up Surface Blur.
Now here first of all, increase the threshold all the way to 255.
Everything is being blurred at this moment.
Nothing is being spared.
Now it's time for us to select the Blur.
Increase the Radius to the point where all of the skin tones even out.
So at this point, as you can see, there's still a little bit bump here and there.
Just increase it to the point where everything evens out.
Have a look, everything is smooth, soft and nice.
You can even go further, maybe 35-ish.
How about 39?
All of the skin tones are now evened out.
But we didn't want to blur the detailed areas like the nose and the eyes and the lips.
So, it's time for us to decrease the Threshold slowly and gradually.
And as you decrease the Threshold, the big details are going to be spared from blur.
So the blur will be removed from the big details.
So as you bring the Threshold closer to the left, more and more details will show up.
Have a look.
The eyes are starting to show up.
We don't want to bring it down so much that even the skin details are going to show up.
We don't want to do that.
So if you take it to 2, all the way to the left, every detail shows up.
So we need to just slowly and gradually bring it to the left so that the skin is still soft.
But the big details, we get them back.
Like the nose and the all important edges right here, we just need the edges back.
So for me, for this image, I'm going to go for, let's say, let's go for 18 or something.
18 seems fine because the skin is soft.
And the important sharp areas like the eyebrows or the eyes, have a look at the lips.
Everything else is sharp.
So just hit OK.
Now it's going to show up High Pass.
Now High Pass, decrease the radius all the way to the left, and gradually increase it
to the point where you want to introduce the texture.
So, the more the Radius, the more the texture is introduced.
You don't want to go too high so that every detail will be back.
So you want to increase it slowly and gradually.
For this image, I'm going to go 4.4..
4.4 seems fine, and hit OK.
It's going to do everything automatically and again, it's going to show up the Layer
Style dialog box.
Now, we want to remove the softening from the dark areas and the highlights of the image.
So you can control it with these two sliders in the middle.
So if you take it all the way to the left, the softening will be applied in the dark
areas and even in the highlights.
So if I take this slider to the left, have a look, the highlights and the nose will show
up.
I take it a little too much, you'll be able to see.
Now it's more natural.
Let's do it from the left hand side.
See, these areas become more pronounced and natural at the same time.
And hit OK.
It seems like everything is gone, but it's not.
It automatically selects the Brush for you.
It automatically selects white as the foreground color.
All you have to do is just start painting on the areas which you want to soften.
So let's start painting and it's as easy as that.
You don't have to worry about edges.
You don't have to worry about anything.
Just start painting.
See how easy that is on the areas that you want to soften.
Have a look.
It creates amazing results.
And just in a matter of less than a minute you can create great results.
Have a look.
Here's the before, here's the after.
It looks natural.
It looks nice.
It looks amazing.
Now, I was explaining it to you, but it takes much lesser time than that.
Let me just show you, let me delete it.
And let me just select the Action, let me play it for you.
And you can easily select the values here, hit OK.
And then usually it's around 4 or 5, hit OK.
And the values that I have selected for you right here, most of the time, it will do the
job.
But sometimes you might have to adjust it, hit OK, and it's done.
And then simply paint on the skin.
And that's pretty much it.
And this is a customizable action, which will work on images of any resolution, any size
or anything, and it does not disturb the edges.
Now, keep in mind, I had done a similar video about it two years ago.
But the problem with that Action or that method was that you had to stay away from edges.
But with this method, you are carefree.
You can paint wherever you want.
Just make sure you don't paint on the hair because it starts looking strange.
So easy.
You can also paint in here on her body.
But, on her body, it's looking too soft.
Maybe we need to apply it separately to her body.
So don't bother about that.
For different areas of the skin, there are different textures.
So you might have to apply it differently.
But this is the basic thing.
Now at the end, if you think it's too much, of course, you can decrease the Opacity.
So I'm going to go for an Opacity of something like 70, so that it also looks natural.
Here's the before.
Here's the after.
Very subtle.
That's exactly what we want.
Now, keep in mind, this is not going to give you results like high end retouching that
involves Dodging and Burning for four to five hours.
No.
But this action will be your best friend when you have a lot of images to edit.
For example, you just returned from a wedding shoot and you have 300 images or something
like that, a high number.
You cannot just sit and do high end skin retouching, dodging and burning on single image for hours
and do all of those hundred or 300 images.
You're going to get old by the time you finish it.
So this action will help you.
Also, let me show you how this action was created so that you understand the concept
as well because it is the most important thing.
Even if you use the Action, my goal is to make you so skilled that you can come up with
your own techniques and action.
This is the Action that I created myself.
I just was thinking about something and I created using the fundamental concepts of
Photoshop.
And I want the same for you.
So understanding the concept is important.
So, let's delete all of this.
And this is how it was done.
First of all we create a merged layer at the top or a Stamp Visible layer.
Press Ctrl + Alt +Shift + E / Command + Option + Shift + E on a Mac.
It creates a merged layer of everything that you see on the canvas right now at the top.
It's also called a Stamp Visible layer.
Now, the next thing you got to do is to make one more copy of this one.
Press Ctrl or Command + J. The first one is going to be for the texture so you can name
it Texture and desaturate it.
Press Ctrl + Shift + U / Command + Shift + U.
We don't want any color information here.
So, Ctrl + Shift + U.
Now you can turn this off, and this one is for smoothing.
So I can name it Softening, right.
Now let's convert it into a Smart Object.
Go to Filter - Convert for Smart Filters and hit OK.
Why is that?
Because you can change the values later.
Now one of the features of the Action is that you can change the values of Softening and
the Texture later.
I'm going to show you how to do that.
Don't worry.
But first, it's important that you understand the concept.
Now let's go to Filter - Blur, and then Surface Blur.
Now, the great part about Surface Blur is that you can select which details you want
to spare from blurring.
So let's zoom in.
All you have to make sure is that the skin is blurred and not the edges, like the edges
at the end of the face, or the edges of the lips or the nose.
Right.
So for that, we increase the Threshold and then increase the Radius to the point where
the skin tones just mix up well, even out properly and then decrease the Threshold slowly
and gradually so that we get the details of the edges back.
The important edges like the nose and the edge of the face, the lips, so on and so forth.
So for this, I guess 19 is fine, and then hit OK.
Now we have the softening done, but we want the texture back.
And how can we have them back?
Simply turn on the Texture.
First of all let's go to Filter - Convert for Smart Filters and hit OK so that we can
change the values of High Pass later.
You can apply High Pass here.
So go to Filter - Other, and then High Pass.
Now, this is all fine but you cannot see the texture is looking gray.
So why not before applying High Pass, I change the Blend Mode from Normal to Overlay.
And Overlay is a Blend Mode which deletes everything or hides everything which is 50%
gray, and makes everything brighter than 50% gray, brighter and everything darker than
50% gray, darker.
So the edges of the texture will be pronounced and everything else will be gray.
And that's what High Pass does.
So go to Filter and Other and High Pass.
Now, inside of High Pass, you can just select the Radius.
It determines the amount of Texture.
4.3 or 4.5 is fine.
HIt OK.
Now as you can see the skin is softened, but all of the other areas are softened as well,
like the hair and the lips, so on and so forth.
We don't want that.
We want to limit the softening.
So we need to select both of these layers.
So, select the Texture 1, hold the Ctrl or Command, select the other one, which is Softening.
Now, both of them are now selected.
Press Ctrl or Command + G.
Now we also want to remove the softening from the dark areas and the highlights as well.
So double click on the right hand side of the layer.
This opens up the Layer Style dialog box.
Now take off the softening from the dark areas.
And once you do that, you see the dimension, but we don't want to be too extreme yet.
Hold the Alt or Option, click on the slider to break them apart.
Now as you can see, the transition is smoother.
Let's bring it a little more to the left.
Let's do the same with the right hand side slider to get more highlights.
All right, it looks fine.
And hit OK.
We did that to reduce the softening from extreme shadows and extreme highlights.
Sometimes what happens is the highlights look very smudged or the shadows just doesn't look
right when the softening is applied on it.
And that's all there is.
Now we need to create a Negative Mask.
Hold the Alt or Option, click on the Mask button.
Now, it's applied nowhere.
Select the Brush, foreground color white.
What is the concept of Mask?
White are the areas where it shows up, black are the areas where it hides.
So we need to paint white on the areas where we need the softening.
And with that, we are done.
Easy.
You see how easy that was?
Now let me show you how you can change the values of the texture or the softening even
after applying the action.
So, let's say, let's delete it again.
And let me show you the action one more time.
Go to Window - Actions, and then let's apply this Action - Skin Softening.
Just play it.
The value is fine.
The High Pass value is fine as well.
Now it's applied.
These values are okay.
So I'm going to adjust it just a little bit.
See, even less than a minute, and it's applied.
All you gotta do is to paint on the skin.
That's it.
Maybe I'll just not paint on the nose and some areas like that, but you get the idea.
Alright, so we've softened it.
It's looking pretty good.
Now, let's say we want more texture.
So just open this group, and double click on the High Pass.
And now you can just play with the texture.
You want more texture, you increase it.
You want less texture, decrease it.
So I'm going to go for 4.9, and hit OK.
If you want to play with softening, just double click on the Surface Blur, and you can play
with the Radius and the Threshold.
So, the Threshold was set, right?
You don't have to change it so much.
But Radius is something you might have to play with.
So if you want more softening, you will increase the Radius.
If you want less of a softening, you will decrease the Radius.
See, less softening.
I want to increase it a bit.
So I'm going to keep it, let's say, 38, and hit OK.
And there you go.
So that's how to use the Action and that's the whole concept of the Action.
Just Surface Blur for blurring it all out, and then High Pass for adding the texture.
But all you got to do is to download the action, play the Action, set the values of Surface
Blur, in which we have to set the values of Radius and Threshold.
Threshold determines where the blur is being applied and the Radius determines the amount
of blur.
After that High Pass will show up.
Inside of High Pass, Radius will determine the amount of texture.
Once you set that up, the Layer Style dialog box will show up where you will limit or reduce
the amount of softening in dark areas, or shadows and highlights.
And then just paint on the skin and you're good to go.
It was that easy.
I hope this action helps you and if it does, make sure to give us a like and also don't
forget to subscribe and not just subscribe, ring the bell so that you, my friend, don't
miss any other future tip, trick or tutorial.
I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice and amazing people for supporting
PiXimperfect on Patreon and helping us keep PiXimperfect free for everybody forever.
Thank you so much for all the support.
Thank you for watching.
I'll see you guys in my next one.
Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.