Step 4: Invert "Layer 1"

So far, we've used the High Pass filter to sharpen all the edge details in the image, but what we really want to do is smooth and soften everything that is not an edge detail, like the woman's skin. In other words, we want the opposite of what we currently have. We want to soften all the non-detail areas while leaving the edges alone. To do that, all we need to do is invert the layer!

With "Layer 1" still selected, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, choose Adjustments, and then choose Invert, or for a faster way, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I (Win) / Command+I (Mac):

Once you've inverted "Layer 1", take a look at your image in the document window. A moment ago, the image was suffering from an extreme amount of sharpening, but now everything appears soft and blurred-out. That is, everything except the important details in the image. The woman's eyes and mouth are slightly blurred out, but nowhere near the extent of her skin:

Step 5: Lower The Opacity Of "Layer 1" To Fine-Tune The Amount Of Skin Softening

We've definitely succeeded in smoothing and softening her skin, but we need to take the effect down a few notches to keep things looking realistic. For that, all we need to do is lower the opacity of "Layer 1". Go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette (directly across from the blend mode option). You'll see the word "Opacity" and that it's currently set to a full 100%. Click on the right-pointing arrow, which brings up a small slider bar, and simply lower the opacity of "Layer 1" until the smoothing looks more natural. There's no set amount to lower it to since it will depend on your image, so just keep an eye on your image in the document window as you drag the slider. I'm going to lower my opacity down to about 60%. Again, your value may be different:

With my opacity lowered, the softening now looks much better:

Notice how the minor amount of softening over her eyes and mouth has become almost completely unnoticeable at this point, while her skin is nice and smooth. If "almost completely unnoticeable" isn't quite good enough for you and you want to make absolutely certain there is no softening at all over those areas, continue on to the next step.

Also, throughout this tutorial I've been referring to this technique as a way to smooth and soften skin. At the moment, we're actually softening the entire photo. We haven't done anything yet to limit the softening to only the person's skin. You may very well like the effect of having the entire photo softened, and if that's the case, there's no need to remove the effect from the rest of the image. If you do want to limit the softening to just the skin, continue on.

Step 6: Add A Layer Mask To "Layer 1"

To completely remove any softening from the important details in the woman's face, I'll need to use a layer mask. To add a layer mask, again make sure "Layer 1" is selected and then click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Nothing happens to the image in the document window, but we can see in the Layers palette that we now have a layer mask thumbnail added to "Layer 1":

Step 7: Select The Brush Tool

We're going to paint on the layer mask, and for that, we need the Brush Tool, so either grab it from the Tools palette or press the letter B on your keyboard to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Step 8: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

Since we need to paint with black, we'll need to set our Foreground color to black, since the Brush Tool paints with whichever color we have our Foreground color currently set to. By default, whenever we have a layer mask selected (which we currently do), Photoshop sets the Foreground color to white, while setting the Background color to black. We can easily swap them by pressing the letter X on the keyboard. As we can see in the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette, we now have black as our Foreground color (the top left square) and white has become our Background color (bottom right square):

Step 9: Paint Over The Details In The Face To Hide The Softening Effect

With our Brush Tool selected and black as our Foreground color, we can now paint away the softening effect over any areas where we don't want it. Painting with black on the layer mask doesn't actually "remove" the effect, it simply hides it from view. If we change our minds later and want to bring the effect back in areas where we've hidden it, all we'd need to do is paint with white over those areas to reveal the effect once again.

If you need more information about layer masks, be sure to check out our Understanding Layer Masks tutorial in the Photoshop Basics section of the website.

Using a small, soft-edged brush, I'll paint over the woman's eyes and mouth to completely hide the softening effect from those areas. You can change the size of your brush at any time by pressing the left bracket key on your keyboard to make the brush smaller or the right bracket key to make it larger. Also, you can control how soft or hard the edge of the brush is with your keyboard. Hold down your Shift key and press the left bracket key to make the brush edges softer, and hold down Shift and press the right bracket key to make the edges harder. Here, I'm painting over the woman's eyes with my brush:

I'll continue painting away any softening effect over her mouth, especially her teeth since we don't want them to appear soft, and maybe over the bottom of her nose and her eyebrows as well. If we look at the layer mask thumbnail, we can see all the areas where I've painted with black:

And here's what my image now looks like. The areas I've painted over are now completely free of any softening, even though it was very subtle to begin with:

Step 10: Paint Away The Effect From The Rest Of The Image

As I mentioned a moment ago, you don't have to limit the softening effect to only the skin if you like how the effect looks when applied to the entire photo. But if you do want to limit the softening and smoothing to just the person's skin, simply use your Brush Tool and with black still as your Foreground color, paint over everything in the photo except for the person's skin.

In my case, my photo is cropped tightly around the woman's face so there isn't much else in the photo for me to paint over, but I'll go ahead anyway and paint with black around the rest of the photo. We can see by looking again at the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette that I've now painted with black all around her face, removing the softening effect from everywhere except her skin:

And here, with the softening and smoothing effect now being applied only to the woman's skin, is my final result:

And there we have it!

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