Quick and easy photo smoothing effect [tutorial]
 

This is a very simple effect that some of you may not know.
I threw this tutorial together to show you how to do this fast and easy.
I wrote this for another forum, but thought some of you guys in here may find it useful.

The effect gives photos a "smooth" effect - often used for glamour, nn teen sites, and a handful of other niches.
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Pick the photo you wish to use. For this tutorial i'm going to use a picture from one of our upcoming sites.
http://www.dubiouscash.com/etc/t/1.jpg

- In Photoshop, Duplicate the photo layer and have the new layer on top of the original layer.
- Go to FILTER > BLUR > Gaussian Blur and blur it by 7 pixels.
- Set the new layer's blending mode to screen.
http://www.dubiouscash.com/etc/t/2.jpg

As you can see thus far, the photo looks smooth and somewhat angelic.

- Now duplicate the 2nd layer and place this new layer above it.
- Set this new layer's blending mode to overlay.
- Adjust the opacity to the level in which you see fit.

I came up with this using 39% opacity and the sharpen tool:
http://www.dubiouscash.com/etc/t/3.jpg

Experiment furthur with this to see what you can come up with. This tutorial is simply a basic effect - it can be enhanced greatly from here.

Good luck! :)

:thumbsup

good tutoial bro , works for me :)

good tutorial, thanks for sharing :thumbsup

badass. nice effect i can add to my batches. appreciate the tutorial. :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

Nice tut!

Very nice tutorial man thanks...

I'm going to try it on a pic of myself :thumbsup

Im going to try it also, nice girl btw. I like her boobs...

Nice girl and nice tut! Thanx! I'll try it out

http://www.fuckedupgalleries.com/gfy/new.jpg I think this one works out better.
Also, your technique is really not used for nn teen sites... :2 cents:

I can post a link to how I did it if you want?

Wow, oh please do. Post the link.

Please do that looks awesome
Not to mention ya'll have a good subject there :thumbsup

Thanks! Great tip :drinkup

nice trick there... and Nembrionic... link?

Excellent Nembrionic!
Post how you did it for all of us to see! :)

Or you can just put some vasoline on you filter.

Looks like some changing of the levels and some healing brush work.

This pic has serious contrast issues, look at the histogram.

You may consider to try 'multiply' instead of 'screen', depends on the image.
Also try 'remove dust and scratches' instead of gaussian blur.

http://www.imagevenue.com/loc79/6a2e8_ps1.jpg

Me thinks you have serious monitor problems. That one is EXTREMELY dark....

Yes, its way darker than the original, looks better that way, YMMV.
My display is calibrated.

Tell us, tell us! :food-smil

My version

nice shop effects.

I prefer the original.

That's why I hate glam pics :moon

Yes please post how you did it.

Hugs,
Danielle

Oldie but a goodie. I do that to blur backgrounds when I'm outside and the background is grass or trees or something else highly detailed. Blur the second layer, then invisible the original layer. Erase the person from the blurred layer (so she remains sharp), then make both layers visible. Voila! The background is slightly out of focus, the model remains front and centre.

Of course, if you shot it right in the first place with a nice lens, you wouldn't have to do this ;)

Did I miss the link to Nembrionic's Tutorial?

bump to see some tutorials posted. :)

Hugs,
Danielle

I <second> for the link!

:xmas-smil

Nembrionic.. please post link... that looks killer.

bump bump bump

I bet he just put it through one of those automatic programs and has no fucking clue how to actually do it manually.

bump bump bump

no offense, but i dont like yours at all. nembrionics looks great, post a link for us please. i usually change the brightness/contrast to higher but it doesnt work nearly as good.

Thats good shit bangman. Thanks!

:hitit

Ok, he never showed up to tell us how he did it, so he really must not even know how to do it himself.

There are some cool photoshop plugins that do this type of thing automatically and looks good most of the time.

Open image.
Ctrl A
Ctrl C
Ctrl V

Filter> gaussian blur 1-2 not too blurry.

Set layer to overlay

That's how I would do it. Might need some tweaking. Also you could try other layer types like color dodge etc.

Actually, instead of 1-2 2.2 on Blur should be good, and set image layer to softlight rather than overlay. The settings can be different depending on the source image so it's best to fiddle some. These settings should give a good starting base.

Here's the output from these settings.

http://www.xsitespinner.com/test.jpg

:thumbsup

Great thing you did membronic... atleast it dont look cartoonish and not so glam... :xmas-smil

would any of you guys like to test this techniques on either of these two pics? i'd love to see what you guys can come up with, thanks :)

http://www.karisweets.com/boards/gfy/01.jpg

http://www.karisweets.com/boards/gfy/02.jpg

nice tutorial, thanks for sharing :hitit

oh, and nembrionic, please post a link to the tut dude!

http://www.pimpinpays.com/gfy/01.jpg

similar to mentioned earlier by elli... duplicated the layer, guassian blurred the top one, adjusted "luminosity" on the blurred layer depending on how much of the original layer i want to show through... then on that blured layer i just quickly erased such areas as the eyes, hair, lips, bit of the nose. so that the original layer shows through.

i used a feathered eraser so i didnt get any hard eraser "edges"

really didnt take long at all, few mins max.

cheers, matt.

looks awesome, thanks man :)

It does look beautiful, but I like her freckled looks better, personally. She's wicked cute.

nice tutorial! thanks!

It is a crime to touch that girl's (Kari Sweets) face in her photos. She is SO HOT.

Fantastic tutorial! I've always wondered how that was done. I assumed it was done via the camera.

That really does look beautiful. Thanks for sharing this great effect! :)