Professional photo editing in Photoshop for beginners

In this tutorial, you will learn how to perform a complete facial editing in Photoshop. The process includes removing skin imperfections, adjusting the skin tone, and applying various effects to achieve a professional result. With the right techniques and tools, you can refresh your model's skin and enhance the face naturally. Let's start directly with the first step to go from this image to this result.

Key Findings

• Use frequency separation for skin editing
• Remove skin imperfections with the healing brush
• Perform color corrections to balance red tones
• Sharpen lips and eyes
• A gentle finish with color filter adjustments

Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a New Document

At the beginning, you created a new document in Photoshop. This will be the starting point for your facial editing.

Applying Frequency Separation

To minimize skin imperfections, we use the technique of frequency separation. You need to download and load an action for frequency separation. Once the action has been successfully imported, zoom in on the image so you can clearly see the face. Then click on the corresponding action and press the "Play" button. During this phase, choose the value for the Gaussian Blur to smooth the skin without losing important details.

Adjusting Skin Tone

Once the frequency separation is completed, switch to the underlying color layer. Use the eyedropper tool to select an average color value from the face. Choose a soft brush tool with low hardness and start brushing the selected color gently over the skin. Make sure to maintain the skin's texture by adjusting the color intensity.

Removing Skin Imperfections

In the next step, you can use the spot healing brush to remove skin imperfections. Make sure to merge all layers to have a clear workspace. Select the spot healing brush and brush over the pimples and other irregularities. Alternatively, you can also use the patch tool to edit specific areas selectively.

Diminishing Red Tones

Now it's time to work on the red tones in the skin, especially around the nose and eyes. Go to corrections and select Hue/Saturation. Reduce the saturation in this area to minimize the red tones without affecting the lips.

Simple Skin Powdering

If necessary, you can apply the technique of skin powdering to achieve smoother skin. Reload the corresponding action and adjust the high pass filter followed by a Gaussian Blur to ensure minimal visibility of pores. Use a brush with low hardness and lightly paint over skin imperfections.

Sharpening Eyes, Lips, and Eyebrows

To highlight the eyes, lips, and eyebrows, create a new empty layer and select the sharpening tool. Set the strength to about 14% and go over the eyes and lips several times to achieve a distinct sharpness.

Completion with Color Adjustments

For a final touch, apply a gradient curve to gently darken or lighten the image. Adjust the mid-tones to achieve the desired effect.

Applying a Color Filter

At the end, you can apply a color filter to enhance the overall mood of the image. Choose a suitable LUT filter and adjust the opacity to achieve the desired effect without it looking artificial.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have learned the key steps for facial retouching. From frequency separation to skin smoothing, removing imperfections, to sharpening lips and eyes. With these techniques, you will be able to achieve impressive results in your image editing projects.