Firstly, you need to open the facial images you are going to use, and I must stress that this technique only works best for facial images.
You need to duplicate your layer and then put this into a group, and the shortcuts for these are Ctrl +J (Duplicate) and Ctrl + G (Group). Now it’s up to you what you call your group name, but in this example the group was called “Airbrush” and also give your duplicated layer a new name.
Next you need to “Select your Duplicated Layer” and “Select your Surface Blur Filter”. The reason we are using this filter is because it retains the edge details. See images below
We are trying to get your facial image to look something like you see in the image below, but if it’s not, you need to redo your Surface Blur Filter and alter your settings.
If you are happy with your settings just “Press OK”. Next you need to create a new layer, but you must move it above the last layer you just created. Now you need to select this layer and change the blend mode on it to “Hard Light”. You are going to use this layer to add a slight texture to the skin.
Next you need to make sure you have the new layer selected. Once it’s selected you need to Select > Edit > Fill. In this example the following settings were used. See image below.
Next we need to add the noise filter, and to do this you need to Select > Filter > Noise Menu. Again in this example the following settings were used. See image below.
After you have done that you need to Select > Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Again in this example the following settings were used. See image below.
If you have done this you now need to temporarily tint the colour of this layer. The simplest way to do this is to Select > Eye Dropper Tool, and this can be found in your “Tool Box”. You now need to sample an area of the skin in your photo. Once you have done this you need to click on the flyout dialog box and select the HSB sliders, which are on the right hand side.
Now you need to open your “Hue/Saturation Tool” and to do this you need to Select Image > Adjustments >Hue/Saturation. Make sure you have a check in the “Colourize Option”. Then you can adjust the “Hue, Saturation and Lightness”, but you need to alter them the same as you did before, so make a note of them when you are using them to sample the skin. See image below
Once you have done this you need to select the group you created before, and you’ll find this in the Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. What happens now is that this layer will create a layer mask, which is filled with the black colour and it will hide the group.
Next you need to “Press D” on your keyboard and this will set the background to your default colours, which are black and white. Then select the “Brush Tool” and apply the settings below.
When you are doing this it’s best if you zoom in to around 100% and then paint over the skin in your facial image. You will find that some of the skin tone on your facial image doesn’t look right, but don’t worry about this, as the reason it doesn’t look right is because you didn’t choose the correct colour when you applied the “Hue/Saturation” to tint in one of your layers.
You will have to change your brush size and the best way to go about doing this is with the shortcuts. Decrease brush size: [ , Increase brush size: ], Decrease brush softness by 25%: Shift + [ and Increase brush softness by 25%: Shift + ]. See image below.
Once you have finished and you’re happy you’ll notice that your layer mask will have the skin areas in the white and the skin from your image should be smooth.
In your next step you are going to fix back the colour and the tone of the skin. To do this you need to select that layer and then select “Hue/Saturation”. Now we need to apply the natural skin tone. Hue needs to be set around 10, Saturation needs to be set around – 56 and lightness needs to be set around -8, but you will have to alter the settings to fit your image. What you are looking for here is a more natural skin tone.
Your last step is to restore the skin details. To do this you need to Select > Image > Apply Image. In this example the following settings were used. See image below.
As you can see in the before and after images this airbrush technique gives you an amazing smooth skin tone finish!
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