How do you edit skin?

[Squidward91]

I love photoshop, but I have never really been able to master making skin looking flawless. For example, in this photo, how could I remove the area I circled near the eye? And how would I make the skin look overall more smooth, specifically with removal of the wrinkles on the eyelids? I guess what I'm trying to achieve is "magazine quality" if that doesn't sound too lame. Love to see your edits and hear your ideas

 

[IamSam]

With the Brush Tool and a custom made splatter (skin) brush. Sample the surrounding colors and blend with low flow setting.

 

[Rich54]

One thing to remember about "magazine quality" flawless skin is that magazines like Vogue start with professional makeup, professional lighting and professional photographers, so they've already got a very good image before they ever get to Photoshop. Aside from the issues in the specific image you posted, there are many techniques for skin touch-ups in general. One of the best is called Frequency Separation, which is a Photoshop technique that isolates the skin texture on one layer and the skin tones on a separate layer, so that each can be edited independently. I've attached a good tutorial on that, but I suggest you view others, as well. I also highly recommend a book called Skin, by Lee Varis, who wrote an entire book on digital skin retouching and also has a website containing many tutorials. If you're really interested in this subjext, I suggest you read/view all of these. Here's a link to that (once you're in the wedsite, click on Education>Free Tutorials). http://varis.com/#

 

[Squidward91]

These tips were extremely helpful! Here’s what I ended up with. Not perfect but definitely an improvement. Thanks

 

[IamSam]

Your off to a great start. Keep up the work.

Just one point. The bridge of her nose now appears flat and without dimension and depth. You need to add back some shading to the inside area of the eye and the edge of the nose. There also needs to be some highlighting on the ridge of her nose bridge.

 

[Squidward91]

Oh yes I see what you mean. Which tools could I use to achieve the shading and highlighting?

 

[IamSam]

On close examination of your work, I see that you did some great work with the brush tool. Make the texture slightly larger (increase the brush size) so the brush work will appear more like skin...............remember that skin is not one solid color, it's many combined. You want it to be natural so sample color from the adjacent skin. Carry those colors in the same directions, both in width and length, as the natural skin. As for the darker shading, sample the darker skin just under her eye and apply lightly and slowly build.