How to Smooth Skin in Photoshop: Achieve Flawless Skin in Photos 

Photoshop is a powerful tool that can help you achieve smooth and flawless skin in your photos. Whether you’re a professional photographer or just someone who wants to enhance their pictures, here are the steps to smooth skin effectively.

How to Smooth Skin in Photoshop

Method 1. For Beginners

Photoshop is powerful with so many editing features. But if you are new to the software or image editing, it might be overwhelming. However, this tool offers a quick action to help you smooth skin in your images.

Step 1. Open Photoshop. (If you haven’t got this tool on your device yet, go to its website to download and install it.)

Step 2. Go to File and select Open. In the next window, navigate to the location where your photo is saved, choose it, and click Open to add it to the editor.

Step 3. Open Discover Panel. Here are 3 ways to open it.

• Press the Cmd/Ctrl + F keys on your keyboard. (Cmd is for Mac and Ctrl is for Windows)
•  Choose Help > Photoshop Help from the menu bar.
• Use the search icon at the upper right of the app workspace to access it.

Step 4. In the Discover panel, go to the Browse > Quick Actions and select Smooth skin.

Step 5. Select Face, then select the face in the image you want to adjust. Select Smooth, and then use the Smoother slider to adjust.

Avoid over-smoothing. Otherwise, the image will look unrealistic.

Step 6. Click File on the top toolbar, choose Export from the list, and select Save for Web to export your photo

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Method 2. For Pros

After loading your picture, you can follow the steps below to manually smooth your skin.

Step 1. Duplicate the Layer

Right-click on the background layer and click Duplicate Layer to keep a backup of the original image.

Step 2. Remove Obvious Pimples and Spots

Zoom in the image to 100% to remove obvious pimples and spots.

• Use the Spot Healing Brush for small defects (the brush size should be slightly larger than the defect)
• For large-area scars, use the Patch Tool to select and then drag to a clean skin area.

Step 3. Soften Skin Texture

1. Create High-Low Frequency Layer Group

• Duplicate the background layer twice, name the upper layer High-Frequency, and the lower layer Low-Frequency.
• Click the small eye in front of the high-frequency layer to hide it.

2. Process the Low-Frequency Layer (Smooth Light and Shadow)

• Select the low-frequency layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Adjust the slider until skin looks smooth but not blurry.  
• Use the Lasso Tool (L) to select the skin area > Right-click > Feather (20-30 pixels) > apply Gaussian Blur again (radius 2-3 pixels) to make the transition more natural.

3. Process the High-Frequency Layer (Restore Texture)

• Show the high-frequency layer. Go to Image > Apply Image.
• Select the Low-Frequency Layer for the layer, choose Subtract for the blend mode, 2 for the scale, and 128 for the offset. Click OK.
• Change the blend mode of the high-frequency layer to Linear Light
• Use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) or the Patch Tool to remove the remaining obvious defects (such as large pores).

Step 4. Adjust Brightness and Shadows

This is to deal with stubborn color spots and local unevenness of light and dark.

1. Click New Adjustment Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel, select Solid Color, choose Neutral Gray (#808080) for the color, and change the blend mode to Soft Light.
2. Use the Brush Tool (B), with 10 – 20% transparency, 10% flow, and black/white as the foreground color, and gently sweep over the areas that need to be brightened or darkened.
3. Use the black brush to paint over the over-bright areas to darken them.
4. Brighten the shadow areas (such as nasolabial folds) by using the white brush.

Tips: you can also use the Two-Curve method, which is more Advanced, to retouch it further.

Step 5. Even Out Skin Tones

Create a New Color Balance Adjustment Layer. Adjust the sliders to under Midtones to reduce redness or yellowness. Use a black brush to erase non-skin areas on the adjustment layer mask.

Step 6. Final Touches

Press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E to merge all layers into a new one. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Keep the value in 60-80 to keep the skin natural.

Step 7. Export

Click File, choose Export, and select Save for Web to export your photo.

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Conclusion

By following these steps, you can use Photoshop to smooth skin in your photos, creating a more polished and professional look.