Skin Smoothing: Removing Acne and Blemishes | Adobe Photoshop Tutorial
Adobe released the Skin Smoothing neural filter with the release of Adobe Photoshop 22.0 in October 2020 . Skin Smoothing adds in blur and removes some of the sharp shadows and utilizes content aware fill to give an approximate of the actual skin if there were no blemishes. While it does not always completely remove the blemishes it does work similarly to using concealer. It takes approximations of the skin tone and blends it on the harsher areas. Similar to a Snapchat filter this must be used in moderation to achieve semi-realistic results.
How to Enable Skin Smoothing
The Skin Smoothing Neural Filter can be activated with the following steps.
1. Select an Image
Open a Photoshop document and select an image
2. Accessing Neural Filters
Go up to the top and select Filter > Neural Filters
3. Select Skin Smoothing
The Neural Filters panel will load on the right side of Photoshop, go ahead and select Skin Smoothing and toggle it on.
4. Remove Acne
Adjust the blur slider from 0-100 percent (default 50) to change how much blur is used on the subject’s face.
5. Remove Blemishes
Slide the smoothness slider on a -50 to 50 scale to remove harsh shadows and contrast created from blemishes and other such marks.
6. Output
Select your preferred output method and then select OK to export the final result.
Controls
Blur
The blur control adds or removes blur based on a 0-100 scale that determines the blur of the details on the subject. This is the primary control for acne removal.
Smoothness
Smoothness is also controlled on a -50 to 50 scale and is used to remove harsh contrast such as shadows and highlights. This will be the primary control for blemish removal.
Conclusion
Skin Smoothing is a great filter to have, however I’m not entirely happy with the end results all the time. These filters are more a quick fix than a replacement for hand edits however as technology gets better that is a very distinct possibility. Again as said in the beginning, this filter is a step-up from the Snapchat filters that revolutionized the platform. As you can see in the acne image, a harsh line is created at the bottom as an error from the AI. Check out our other articles on the 22.0 update: Neural Filters, Sky Replacement, and Pattern Preview.
