Airbrush/skin smoothing

[GeoffwithaG]

I'm looking to smooth skin more than that obtained by "Adjust > Skin Smoothing" I found a photoshop tutorial (link below) -Method #2 (5 mins 30 sec), but I cant seem to "hack" a PaintShop Pro version. Can any SuperUsers help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJad3iA ... Ximperfect

Thanks
Geoff

[LeviFiction]

According to this post on the blend modes in Photoshop (https://photoblogstop.com/photoshop/pho ... -explained) Vivid light is a more extreme version of Hard Light, which is similar to Overlay. I find Hard Light too harsh so I used overlay but give both a try as you're applying the hard pass and guassian blur effects.

It's not a perfect one to one using either of thsoe two modes, but it's close. PSP does not have smart filters so we can't replicate being able to go back and change our minds but so long as we don't merge anything we can always recreate it. So the simple steps are.

1) Duplicate Background layer (Layers -> Duplicate)
2) Change blend mode of top layer to "Overlay"
3) Negative Image (Image -> Negative Image)
4) High Pass until the flaws go away (Effects -> Edge Effects -> High Pass)
5) Gaussian blur until just before the flaws come back (Adjust -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur)
6) Add Mask (Layers -> Add Mask Layer -> Hide All)
7) Grab paint brush, set color to white, hardness to zero, and paint back in the areas you want repaired.

Here's an example of the result using the same image as in the video.

skin-smooth.png

[GeoffwithaG]

Thanks so much! This works great.

[Andy2011]

An alternative approach is described in a video by Scott Williams Photography (The Power of Frequency Separation...) using another product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKsUH02GdFg&t=799s
I have been able to (mostly) replicate it in PSP 2020. I certainly don't have the presenter's skills and I am not sure that I used the best PSP tools for the job!
This was a quick exercise and more work would produce a better result.
Also, I think the model is very courageous to be phototgraphed with unsightly acne.
The process broadly follows the video:
1. Duplicate the background layer TWICE and group those two new layers (helps with comparison)
2. Convert the top layer in the group to high pass and blend mode 'overlay'
3. Blur the second of the two layers (Normal or Gaussian)
The settings for the High Pass and blur are a matter of experimentation - I used a radius of 17. The aim was to get the resultant image, prior to corection, nearly equivalent to the original.
PSP 2020 doesn't appear to have a low pass filter so blur is a proxy.

3. Address the redness of the skin on the blurred layer (e.g. makeover tool)
4. Address the scars of the acne spots on the high pass layer (clone but taking care to match hairs)
5. Duplicate the blurred layer and apply more blur and adjust the hue/saturation/lightness to reduce the overall redness
6. Add a mask to that layer (exclude all) and then paint in as required.
The layer stack I used is:

Layers.jpg

Original image:

Frequency SeparationV2.jpg

Result:

Frequency SeparationPSP.jpg

In summary, the separation of high and low frequencies is a useful technique.

[LeviFiction]

The same channel the OP asked about, PixImperfect, has a similar frequency separation video for correction, they also used Gaussian Blur in Photoshop as the low frequency layer. So yeah, perfectly valid method.