25.01.2015 16:13Pixelmator Tutorials – Quick Retouch: Smooth Skin

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Quick Retouch: Smooth SkinEveryone wants to look attractive in photos. Silky-smooth skin is a tiny detail that helps to achieve precisely that.

Step 1

Open an image, preferably a portrait photograph that you would like to retouch in Pixelmator.

Step 2

Create a blurred overlay for the image to help smooth the skin. First, choose Layer > Duplicate to duplicate your image layer. Then, double-click the

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Gaussian thumbnail in the Effects Browser. Set the Amount to approximately 35 and click OK to apply the effect.

Step 3

Since the smooth overlay is required for the facial skin only, it’s necessary to erase everything on the blurry overlay apart from the skin (in our case,the background and hair). To do that, first click to select the Eraser Tool in the Tools palette. Click to select a regular soft brush at any size in theBrushes palette (View > Show Brushes) and use the Eraser Tool to delete the entire area around the skin.

Tip: In order to quickly change the diameter of a brush, use the Left Bracket ([) or Right Bracket (]) keys on your keyboard.

Step 4

For more precise editing, first turn off the original layer of the image you’re applying the effect to (in our case, “Relaxing”) by deselecting itscheckbox in the Layers palette. Hiding the main image layer makes it easier to edit the blurry overlay. Then, change the Opacity of the Eraser Tool toapproximately 15-20% in the Tool Options bar (View > Show Tool Options) and drag over the darker edges around the skin to erase them.

25.01.2015 16:13Pixelmator Tutorials – Quick Retouch: Smooth Skin

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Step 5

To accentuate the facial features (such as eyes, eyelids, nose, lips), first turn the main image layer back on. Then, increase the Opacity of the EraserTool (E) to approximately 70% and simply drag it over the facial features to delete the blurry overlay selectively.

Step 6

For even more precise results, turn off the main image layer and continue using the Eraser Tool to erase the darker edges around the facial features.Also, in order to make the entire skin overlay softer, reduce the Opacity of the Eraser Tool to 10-15% and drag over the entire area.

25.01.2015 16:13Pixelmator Tutorials – Quick Retouch: Smooth Skin

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Step 7

Turn on the main image layer again to see the results. If the smooth overlay looks too artificial, reduce the Opacity of the blurry layer toapproximately 80%.

The blurry face overlay not only smoothes the appearance of the skin but also hides wrinkles and makes a person’s skin look much younger. Onceyou’ve learned to retouch skin, feel free to experiment with different images.

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Tutorial Comments

1. Jaice - November 27th, 2011 at 6:20 am

Wow it worked! No more dark circles! I look great!

2. Tim Kho - January 17th, 2012 at 2:18 pm

Thanks, great tip

3. Justin - January 26th, 2012 at 3:50 pm

Superb tutorial, thanks!

4. Max - February 17th, 2012 at 10:47 pm

It kind of worked for me. Took a few tries and a little tweaking of the opacity %’s for it to really look natural. It was definitely a step in the rightdirection though. I would have been lost without these instructions. I’ll keep playing with it.Thanks!

5. Anita - May 25th, 2012 at 11:35 pm

Thanks, another great tutorial.

6. binaryrevolt - June 13th, 2012 at 2:58 am

Great tutorial, very handy. Thanks

7. Raj - June 17th, 2012 at 2:31 am

Awesome tutorial! Perfect. Thank you!!

8. Gonzalo - August 19th, 2012 at 6:52 pm

Nice and Easy! very good!

9. jenna lee - August 29th, 2012 at 10:45 pm

thnx a lot it worked out great

10. Sriram Varadarajan - November 1st, 2012 at 3:53 am

Great tutorial! Thank you!

11. Justin - April 30th, 2014 at 3:03 am

Great tip but I would argue that there’s a better way to achieve this:My method is to duplicate the base layer and place this duplicate as the top layer. Now bring up the effect browser (⌘3) and apply a gaussian blur

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of about 8px to this top layer. Next, right click the top layer and apply a layer mask to it. By default the layer mask will be white, meaning the entiretop layer is blurry. You’re going to use the paint bucket tool to paint this layer black and hide the gaussian blur. Now select a white paint brush (orgrey for lesser effect) with a soft brush and paint the blur back in over the model’s skin, leaving out areas like eyes that should be sharp. If you makea mistake, just paint black over it to hide that part again. When you’re finished, adjust the opacity of the top layer until the skin looks smooth yetrealistic, then flatten your layers (⌘E) and export.Using a layer mask and paint brush allows you to be more precise with the gaussian blur effect and the extent to which it is applied to various partsof an image, plus it’s super easy to correct mistakes by painting over them in black.

12. New User - May 18th, 2014 at 5:58 pm

I am a new user to this program and I this tutorial is not intuitive to a new user. For example, when you say “double click the gaussian thumbnail inthe effects browser” I do not know what to do. I don’t see an “effect” browser. I do not know what the “gaussian thumbnail” icon looks like and I donot see anywhere that explains what the different icons/thumbnails are. I try to hover over them but none of those match this tutorial. I’m sure thisis a good tutorial for those already familiar with this program but it does not help a new user.

13. Ausra - May 19th, 2014 at 12:47 pm

@New User: The Blur thumbnail is in the Effects Browser. To view the Effects Browser choose View > Show Effects, then in the Effects Browser look forthe thumbnail that has “Blur” written below it. If you have All effects group open in the Effects Browser, it is the very first thumbnail in the palette.

14. Ian - August 19th, 2014 at 11:16 am

@Justin, thanks for posting your alternative method. I got better results more quickly doing it that way but don’t really understand masks so I don’tget why it works.

15. Justin - September 19th, 2014 at 5:37 am

@Ian You’re very welcome! A layer mask simply allows you to apply an effect (in this case Gaussian blur, but any effect will do) to portions a layerrather than the entire layer at once. The advantage here is control – you can paint areas in white or black, respective, to show or hide the effect, orchange the opacity of the layer mask.If this is too much work, one can use the blur tool in Pixelmator to smooth skin with a soft brush. Layer masking is necessary for other effects thatdon’t have their own specific tool though, so it’s an important technique to learn.

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