Often retouchers would spend a few hours in Photoshop cs6 to work on model's skin with great care and thoroughness removing every imperfection with the help of healing tools and clone. Many of us are not patient enough to do such kind of work, but luckily now there are certain things we could do for cutting corners. The best method to do such work is known as smoothing technique. It gives the subject a silky and smooth skin while withholding certain details & texture. Therefore, an individual can avoid being end up with dreadful “Plastic look” which some methods might produce. Fashion photography usually requires high precision and smoothness that enhances the image and makes it look more realistic than the original image. Below are the steps for Smoothing in CS4 and CS3, but if an individual wants greater control on the strength of smoothing effect, then a touch of Gaussian blur could be applied in Step 02 and Step 03. As the picture is transposed in the starting stage, the higher blur radius will lead to higher fine effect. While drawing the mask one shouldn’t be too precise in Step 03. Some quick strokes consisting of large, soft-edged brush would do fine. Step 01: Copying the layer First, one must open ‘highpassstart.jpg.' Then by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J for copying the layer. Note: if a user is working with lots of layers then he must highlight the topmost layer to merge a copy. He can merge the copy by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E after he selects the top layer. Rename the current layer as ‘high pass.' Click on blend mode drop-down to choose Overlay. Step 02: High Pass and Overlay This feature is commonly used in a photo studio to enhance the texture and create a new profile by overlaying method. Overlay allows the user to merge multiple images on a similar page. High pass and overlay are used in professional headshots which require the focus on the object which is the user itself. First, go to filter option and click on options and select High Pass. After selecting High Pass, the user must set the Radius at 9px and then press ok. This will enable sharpening only when the image is inverted, or else it will enable the softening the effect. To invert the image, the user must click on the image and then go to the adjustment, and select invert option (or by pressing Ctrl+I) and the colors on the High Pass layer will be inverted. This feature is the basis for graphic designing and professional photography, which is taught in photography classes worldwide. Step 03: Smoothing the Skin Smoothing is done to eliminate irregularities on the skin texture and make it uniform throughout the plane. Smoothing enables the user to obtain clear and smooth surfaces on the working texture without any color changes on it. The user can apply to the smooth effect on the skin by holding Alt key and then he must click on "Add Layer Mask" icon on the bottom of layer panel for adding a full layered Mask that would completely hide the softening. After this process, the user must grab a Brush tool and select soft-edged brush nib and then select the white color. After setting the color to white then the user must paint all over the subject to discover the High Pass layer. Sometimes the image might pixelate; therefore it is necessary for the user to smooth the skin and avoid it from pixelation. The above information is available on most of the photography sites, and the user can refer the website for further more queries. The user can also opt for various photography courses to learn the basic concepts of image editing. The Smoothing effect is mostly used in wedding photography where the camera must focus on more than one objects at the same time. After clicking the shots, the wedding photographer composes the shots and process the images often in their own photographic equipment. A wedding photographer no just has high equipment but also has high precision in capturing and editing the photos. He understands the relation of the images whether it is natural or created. First, the images are captured directly by the photographer which are called as a raw image and then the photographer uploads the image on the system to upload in CS3 or CS4 to enhance the quality of the image as per the need. Smoothing helps the photographer to have a clear surface all over the image, and if there are any irregularities, it can be removed with the help of software.
