How to soften skin and change clarity

[mileslthorne]

I have been looking at this as an alternative to Lightroom. All seems good except I can't see a way of softening skin and clarity, this is crucial for portraits. Have I missed these options or are there alternative\workarounds? Thanks

[Zylog]

"Wavelet denoise" plugin works good enough for me. I use it in a separate layer for face only. It works in LAB color mode, therefore slight value in a Lightness channel and more aggressive in a Color allows to save skin texture and avoid plastic skin.
Sometimes it needs to adjust "Details" too.

The plugin "Wavelet sharpen v3" has a "Unsharpen Mask" function with optional "Clarity" checkbox. With "Radius" value >=50 it provides a Local contrast enhancement AKA "Clarity".

[mileslthorne]

Thanks very much Zylog, I will take a look at those plugin options

[Kneops]

I don't use it often, but Gimp has an Orton effect I rather like. Sharpens and softens at the same time.