Touching up Portraits

Here is a little tip for touching up portraits in Photoshop called Frequency Separation.  Frequency separation works because it allows you to separate the texture of an image from the color and the tone.  When retouching you can focus on just the texture or the skin just beneath it.

Before

After

Step 1.   Creating Copies

In Photoshop, create two copies from the base image.  Name the first copy "Low Freq Blur" and the second copy "High Freq Texture".  Toggle the "High Freq Texture" layer visibility to off.  Group the two layers into a folder and rename it Frequency Separation.

Creating copies

Step 2.   Adding Gaussian Blur

Select the "Low Freq Blur" layer.  Then go to to Filter, Blur and select Gaussian Blur.  Add enough blur to the image that the texture disappears but not enough that everything blends together.  The amount depends on the photo but 4 to 8 is a good estimate.

Step 3.  Apply the Image

For the next step, toggle "High Freq Separation" layer to on.  Then select the High layer and go to Image and then Apply Image.In the layer selection choose the "Low" layer.  For the blending selection choose Subtract.  Add the value 2 for Scale and 128 for Offset.

Once you select the values, the image will turn gray with some faint details.  The faint details are the details blurred out from the "Low" layer.  Change the layer blending mode to Linear Light to finish the step.

Applying the image

Step 4. Remove Blotches

The next step is to remove the uneven colors of the skin.  Select the "Low" layer.  Use the lasso tool and select an area of uneven skin tone.  Change the feather to around 30px to make the transition smoother.  Once you made the selection, add more Gaussian Blur to it.  Set the blur radius to a point to where the skin tone blends well.  Repeat this for all areas where you think there is uneven skin tone.

You can also clone out areas where there are different colors on the skin, such as pimples or a dark scar.  Once you cloned it out, select the general area of the imperfection and then apply Gaussian blur to even it out.  In this step of Frequency Separation you are only dealing with the skin color or tone and not the details.

Step 5.  Edit Textures

For step 5, select "High" layer.  Select the Cloning Tool and change the Sample Layer to Current Layer.  Clone out the imperfections such as scars and pimple.  When you clone out things on this layer you are only cloning out the texture and not the color, so you can sample from an area with different color and apply it to another.

The last thing you will want to do is adjust the opacity of the group.  You can apply as much or as little of this effect to your overall image.  Set the opacity to what you think works well.  That is Frequency Separation.