| Download Bikini Model Shoot from SXC.hu. Open up the image in Photoshop. We will be editing this photo at its original size. |
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| First thing we have to do is to hide all the unwanted dots/pimples around the face. Using the Clone Stamp tool, pick an area near a dot/pimple and clone that part to cover itself. Next thing is to smoothen the face. Using the Eyedropper tool, pick color on the face. With Brush tool, set the mode to Soft Round 50px and Opacity to 20%. |
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| Create a new layer and start painting the skin smooth. |
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| Let’s move on the smoothen the body. Duplicate the original model layer and rename it to "Surface Blur". Instead of airbrushing the entire body parts, go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Set the Radius to 5 and Threshold to 20. |
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| When we apply Surface Blur, the bikini and background got smoothened as well, which is what we do not want. So select the "Surface Blur" layer and apply Layer Mask to it. Invert the mask to black. Using the Brush tool with #FFFFFF, paint only to reveal the smoothed skin. |
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| Now let us make the model stands out more from the background. Duplicate the original model layer and rename it to "Lens Blur". Select the duplicated layer and go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Key in the settings as shown in the diagram below. |
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| As the entire image are affected, we need to create a mask so only the background is blurred. Apply a Layer Mask to "Lens Blur" layer, then using Brush tool with #000000 to hide the model. |
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| Duplicate the original model layer again. Rename the duplicated layer to "Soft Light". Rearrange this layer to be above all the other layers. Set its Blend Mode to Soft Light. |
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| Create a Levels Adjustment Layer and key in values 15, 1.00, 255. |
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| Create Brightness / Contrast Adjustment Layer and set the contrast to 10. |
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| Create the Hue / Saturation Adjustment Layer and set the saturation to -5. |
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| Create a Curves Adjustment Layer and adjust the Blue and Green curves to look similar to the ones below. |
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| And we are done! This is a simple yet effective photo retouching tutorial. Hope you guys will like it. |
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I am Johnson Koh, an Art Director based in Singapore. Founded 10Steps.SG with the purpose to share my experiments and interesting design news. Connect with me on LinkedIn. 
90 Comments | Write a Comment
super like it..i will try this one..thankxx
hi guys, i am a newbie to photoshop, i got lost where it says:
“When we apply Surface Blur, the bikini and background got smoothened as well, which is what we do not want. So select the “Surface Blur” layer and apply Layer Mask to it. Invert the mask to black. Using the Brush tool with #FFFFFF, paint only to reveal the smoothed skin.”
what exactly is going on here…
Hi Johnson Koh sir,
PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS STEP CLEAR:
‘So select the “Surface Blur” layer and apply Layer Mask to it. Invert the mask to black. Using the Brush tool with #FFFFFF, paint only to reveal the smoothed skin.’
Hey Guys, Perfect timing! It was useful for my team. very well written and researched. Thanks for sharing
I’m still learning from you, while I’m improving myself. I certainly love reading everything that is written on your website.Keep the information coming. I enjoyed it!
Hey Johnson, I try to fallow your tutorial but can’t doing something perfect like your. The are really perfect, the blur efect was used with particolar capacity. Write more about blur efect to make skin perfect.
I appreciate your step by step guideline you have done really great job. thanks for the helpful tutorial.
what a excellent work they are doing,if not means no one like to see these models,Bcoz of all this,they look sexy…..Any way Thanks 4 good job….
oalah… gambare kuk apik2 sih…!!!
fotone kuk apik2,…carane pie nuw…????
aq mbok diwarai…please…!!!!!
“So select the “Surface Blur” layer and apply Layer Mask to it. Invert the mask to black. Using the Brush tool with #FFFFFF, paint only to reveal the smoothed skin.”
Please Please help with this part, how exactly do i apply a layer mask and invert it?
Great Tutorial! newbie but now im found! hahaha…
Very good tutorial on photo retouching…
The best photo retouch tut i have come across! So easy
Hello everybody. This blog was fantastic! Lots of terrific information and inspiration. Keep ‘em coming… you all do such an ideal job at writing… cannot let you know how much I, for one respect all you do!
Good tut..
I wish I had found your site sooner. Just adding you to my feed reader now.
Hmmm work became very easy right:D
Hi, I wounder how you mask the hair. Its quiet difficult to mask the hair as it got many fine details. Any shortcuts for this?
Use a tablet and use the brackets keys([ and ]) to change the size of your brush. Also when you make a mistake press x to change between background and foreground colors.
Learned new technique today
Bendigo su creatividad, Muy buen trabajo, muy didactico pero no entiendo lo de start painting the skin smooth
Se refiere a que simplemente pintes la piel con una brocha de opasidad al 20% usando el droplet tool(shorcut Alt) para escojer colores similares a la parte en la cual estás trabajando.
‘Create a new layer and start painting the skin smooth.’
How do you do this?
Just use a brush with an opacity of around 20% and using the droplet tool(shorcut Alt) to pick similar colors to the part that you’re working on and paint on the face
amazing tutoral, thanks very much
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh muito rox, massa mermoooo karacaaa fikei impressionado nunka tinha vistu una coiza dessaa…………………..uUuHGhUhHUuHhuUuhUu
I can see the blur using this technique. Don’t try to pull this off as professional.
A valid point, if you can see the blur, it isn’t professional. Don’t forget that in print corner-cutting is many times more visible, in a web sized image it’s more difficult to pick up on. If it is easy to spot in a web sized image, you’ve gone way too far.
Danny
Retouching and Digital Art
Nice one Ravi! I like the way you put it
o gos……… I though they shoot photo like that………
now i know behind every successful model there is a photoshop behind……..
thanks,very well
Doesn’t she look gorgeous, excellent work.
Thanks for an interesting lesson. After skin degradation, not bad to add noise for structure restoration. I on a site have many lessons on a retouch
Skin tone is pretty unnatural, to my mind. Pretty yellowish, I’d say.
Kudos for the work on skin texture, though.
Great tutorial. Will come in very handy
nicely explained.
this is awesome.
kudos for sharing.
btw i’ll give surface blur a try, cos i never thought of that before until i read this.
awesome effects for our training through tutorials
Thanks Markus for the explanation!
@anonymous mike: you extend the layer mask just a little bit more than the image, ie. you unmask parts of the picture so that the “halo” effect that lens blur does disappears. Does that make sense?
excellent tutorial. i love , detailed step. Thank for this lovely tutorial.
I didn’t know about the surface blur – that is a great technique. Also didn’t think of the blue/green curves channel adjustment – that’s very clever too. Some nice little tips I’ve not thought of before.
Great tutorial
impressive tutorials…
when you do the lens blur won’t part of the girl be “blurred” into the background, so when you mask the girl, there will be a halo from her on the background? you can’t see this in your tiny web images, but I’m sure it is there. any ideas on how to avoid this issue?
NICE tutorial, many thanks!
that’s a great way of touching the photos. thanks dude.
Thank you my friends!
that was a great retouching. Nice work as always Johnson
I admire your work – great! I don’t know about body, but face looks a lot better!
Great tutorial, have to try, thanks.
@photostar73 and e11world: Thanks for the pointers guys!
@Bombchell and Bariski: Looking forward to your work
@sadhu: Hey! How r u? The model is edged out briefly using the Brush tool in a Layer Mask. Check out the images with Surface blur and Lens Blur layers.
Thanks bro, good tutorial indeed. Will try it later today.
Good tutorial! However, if you want to take this a step further to make it more hollywood like, you should push her waste in using any tool that you’re comfortable with. Even using the bloat tool to make her breast look bigger. I know it’s not right but that’s how most magazines and other photo touch ups work. Am I wrong?
yay thanks I just learn something new. I think I’m in love with tutorials. will try this after the gym.
how did u edge out the model?
din see you mention about path…
this is excellent tutorial and will appeal to many people because everyone needs a little retouching
very good tutorial! I want to say anyway that painting with the brush on the skin is very much destructive… I think this an operation to do with very much attention, and eventually work also on the leve transparency.
A good work with hue/saturation on red and yellow will be useful.
Thanks for the good tutorial!