Everything You Wanted to Know About Gaussian Blur in Photoshop for Video Tutorial

[Yutosi]

Photoshop Top 40 with Deke McClelland #14 - Gaussian Blur

In this video Deke explains how Gaussian Blur is used throughout Photoshop for both softening and sharpening pixels in your images. He shows you the math behind Unsharp Mask and how it uses Gaussian Blur to do it.

Gaussian Blur is a filter that blurs an image and can be used to soften skin, make smooth edges, and much more. But it's also the math behind the Feather command, drop shadows, and everything that is soft in Photoshop. Watch this video and learn why Gaussian Blur is so important.

 

[Glamcreations]

Hi,
I love your video, would you have this in PDF? Would love to start using your methid in my work.

Cheers
kylie ;-)

 

[KrystalDream]

The technique of sharpening the eye with Gaussian Blur can be really useful, but I really don't like editing skin with Gaussian Blur. It gives it an unrealistic look and that's usually not a good thing, unless you don't want it to look real. I never use that technique. If you remove all the detail from a face and make it completely smooth, it can look quite amateurish I reckon.

 

[chet webley]

Deke McClelland is a majorly cool dood, IMO. I love the way he presents his videos. If you have a look at his website, there are LOADS of interesting and useful snippets of information there

 

[Glamcreations]

cheers for the replys and have to agree i've used it a few times when i first started editing photos and i must admit the look was pretty fake looking.

What i have been doing when working on skin is by using clone stamp tool and air brushing the skin with a soft brush and low opacity would you also reccomend this way or do you use a better way maybe?

Many thanks
glamcreations

 

[chet webley]

I've only done one retouch so far - of my wife on our wedding day. (I'll post the before & afters when I get home tonight).

Before I did it, i researched A LOT on the internet, and decided to use parts of several methods that I'd seen. Essentially, i used the patch tool and the clone stamp tool for imperfections, then smoothed out the tones with the surface blur. I found a wicked tutorial which shows you how to apply the surface blurred areas in a realistic way, so that you still get the skin texture showing through, but a really nice, natural looking skin tone.

I have since researched further, and have stumbled across 2 other methods (which can be used together) called "Dodge & Burn retouching" and "frequency separation" These 2 methods are used by the very high end retouch studios. When I've done a retouch with these methods, I'll post the results (don't hold your breath though!)

I don't have the links to the tutorials that I found here at work, so again, I'll post them when I get home tonight.

 

[Glamcreations]

Hi chet,
thanks heaps for your response and am very interested in what you can teach with your methods.
Thank god for internet tutorials they are a god send.
I've attended photoshop classes in my area however they just don't go into dept enough and show you the basics. In photoshop there are always a number of ways to achieve an outcome so I really like to take a bit from everyone and play with my photo to see which way is going to work best. I really admire people like yourself that are experienced and willing to help others so thanks so much

 

[chet webley]

... I really admire people like yourself that are experienced and willing to help others so thanks so much

HAHA! I'd hardly call myself experienced! I've only been using photoshop "properly" for about 18 months, I reckon. :redface:

Nearly everything I've learnt I've found on the internet. There are some fantastic tutorials out there, you just have to persevere and wade through all the rubbish ones. My tip for tutorials is to try and avoid those that say "Set this brush to this diameter, this colour, etc., etc." - they are just teaching you parrot fashion. try to find tutorials that explain why certain things are done a particular way, and what those functions are actually doing. You'll get a much deeper understanding of how photoshop works, and be able to apply your newfound knowledge to other projects much more easily.

Anyways, here's a few of the tutorials for retouching that I found particularly useful:-

Airbrushing - Natural Smooth Skin | Photo Retouching
Retouching a Studio Portrait | Photo Retouching
Edge Sharpening | Photo Retouching

and then over at retouchpro, I'm being blown away by the knowledge of the users there:-

RetouchPRO Tutorials

Not just skin smoothing tuts, but also colour balance, difficult masks and more.



and here are some amazing examples of dodge & burn retouching:-

http://nienna1990.deviantart.com/

 

[Glamcreations]

Cheers have had a look and printed these out to try- many thanks

 

[KrystalDream]

Thank you so much for the links! That DeviantArt girl really knows what she's doing. We should try to get her on her to teach us some retouching techniques! Haha!

 

[chet webley]

My pleasure I'm glad you found the links useful.

 

[jovanv96]

Thanks for this video