Soften Skin in Photoshop in Less than 1 Minute

You use Photoshop to edit photos. Sometimes you edit landscapes, sometimes party photos, and sometimes your selfies. Whenever you edit selfies, the first thing you do is softening of the skin. Nobody likes rough skin (even on men). You spend around 5-10 mins to use the brush tool, gaussian blur, surface blur etc. to soften the skin, right? What if I tell you that I can give you a hidden feature in Photoshop that will cut down the time to only 1 minute? Yes, you can soften the skin in Photoshop within 1 minute.

Before we begin, I want to show you the before and after photo. Did you see the difference?

Before

Fig. 1

After

Fig. 2

Let’s begin the tutorial.

Step 1 – Duplicate the Layer

You and I need to use the layer mask in later steps so we need to duplicate the layer. Press Cmd+J/Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. You can also go to Layer>Duplicate Layer to duplicate a layer. Your layer panel should look like Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Step 2 – Soften Skin in Photoshop using Camera Raw

This is the step that will soften skin in Photoshop. Photoshop has an inbuilt feature that softens the skin but the name isn’t present with the same name. This is why you didn’t know that you could’ve saved an insane amount of time by using Camera Raw filter.

Go to Filter>Camera Raw filter or press Cmd+Shift+A/Ctrl+Shift+A.

Go to the “Details” tab which is marked with blue color in Fig. 4. Increase the Luminance to a high value. This will soften the skin. The problem is that it softens entire photo. You don’t want eyes and nose to soften, right? This is where Sharpening comes to rescue us. Increase the amount in Sharpening field and this will sharpen the edges.

Press OK

Step 3 – Use Layer Mask for Finetuning

Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide All. This will bring back the original photo again.

Sidebar – If you’re not familiar with the layer mask, you better check out my Layer Mask in Photoshop tutorial. The link will open in new tab.

Choose the Brush Tool and change the foreground color to White.

Fig. 5

Adjust the size of the brush as per your needs and reduce the hardness to 1-5%. Now start brushing only on the skin. Avoid edges like jawline, nose, eyes, lips, etc. Your photo will start to look like Fig. 6. I have started to brush from the bottom of her face.

Fig. 6

You and I are human and we are bound to make mistakes. This is a certain chance that you might have brushed over the edges also. We’re going to fix that now. Change the foreground color to black and start brushing on the edges like lips, nose etc. Fig. 7 shows how the area where I was brushing just before taking the screenshot. The black arrow represents that area.

Fig. 7

This is all for today. This is how you soften skin in Photoshop. Check out the final image one more time.

Fig. 8

The Brand New Select Subject in Photoshop

Hey guys, welcome the brand new Select Subject in Photoshop. I received a notification on my Creative Cloud that a new version of Photoshop is available. I quickly checked what Adobe has added to Photoshop and I saw the Select Subject.

I quickly updated my Photoshop to use this tool. I had already guessed what this feature does by its name. Yes, you are correct. This feature tries to find the subject in the photo. I cannot say that Select Subject in Photoshop is flawless and I am expecting few improvements in this feature in the upcoming months.

Time to try it. Fig 1 shows the lion that I selected with the help of Select Subject.

Let’s begin with the tutorial, guys.

What is Select Subject in Photoshop?

Select Subject feature in Photoshop tries to find the subject in the photo. It uses artificial intelligence to draw a selection around the subjection.

Where is Select Subject in Photoshop Located?

The feature is hidden in Photoshop. You need to grab either Quick Selection or Magic Wand tool by pressing W to see it. Fig 2 shows the exact location.

You can also use it by going to Select>Select Subject.

How to Use Select Subject in Photoshop?

Umm. Just click on it and that’s it. 😀

Did you notice that Photoshop automatically selects the subject in Fig 3? I did not need to make the selection using any tool. It was a one-click selection. Just one and then bam.

The selection made by Select Subject in Photoshop is not flawless. You need to refine the selection. I am going to use Select and Mask feature to refine the selection. Go to Select>Select and Mask.

I have highlighted the imperfection in Fig 3 that I am going to fix with Select and Mask.

The first thing that I am going to do is grab the Refine Edge Brush Tool (press E in Select and Mask). Now I am going to use it on the edges.

Pro Tip: Whenever you use Refine Edge Brush Tool, make sure that the center of the brush is outside the subject. If you can’t keep it outside, increase the size of the brush.

Look at Fig 5 to see how beautiful the selection is made.

In case you haven’t noticed, I did not even touch the controls on the right side. The selection is made just with the help of Select Subject and Select and Mask. Press OK to make the selection.

This is all guys.

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