Toronto Photography Meetup Group

My process is simple, although in this case it takes some time to do. It'll probably take as long to explain as to finish an image. Here goes:

- After optimizing and converting from RAW, import to CS3.
- duplicate layer (Ctrl-J).
- Use the spot healing brush (J), and the smallest size (use [] to control) to remove as many zits as possible. You can click quite quickly here - use two hands. Use the clone tool for any troublesome border areas (like ear piercing marks).
- Create a new transparent layer (click icon at bottom of layer palette).
- Set the brush at 25% opacity at a relatively large soft size. The idea is to use this like a large powder puff. Don't worry about dust getting everywhere - we'll clean that up later.
- Repeatedly sample the underlying color (use the Alt key) and brush a bit. Sample some more and brush this color on a large area with that color. Don't sample highlights - just sample the nearby skin color.
- This will even out color, mute shiney skin and soften the face. We want soft but not too soft.
- Since we used a large brush, we got powder on the eyes, eyebrows, lips etc. We're going to erase that by adding a mask and painting black at 100% over these areas.
- We're going to add some grain to this softening layer. I added noise (Filter - Add Noise - 5%, uniform, mono)
- Reduce opacity of this layer to 80% to let some more shine and skin texture come through.
- Flatten.

what's RSI?