How to Tidy Up and Smoothen Skin, and Do Eye Makeups in Photoshop

Posted on September 13th, 2009 under Photo Effect, it has 28 Comments and 34,247 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to Tidy Up and Smoothen Skin, and Do Eye Makeups in Photoshop. Along the way, I will also explain the steps you can use to effectively produce smooth skin and get rid of black spots on face.

Previously I posted an interesting (well, at least I think it’s intersting) showcase displaying 30 Stunning, Absolutely Magical Photo Manipulations Focusing on Human Eye. A lot of people asked if I could produce a simple tutorial show the steps you can take to do eye makeups. Well, here it is :)

This is a faily basic tutorial and it’s designed for beginner. Tools we will be using included Spot Healing Brush, Dodge/Burn Tool, layer blending, and adjustment layers. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the before and after effect of the eye:

Before

Left_eye_by_PzychoStock

After

5 effect 2

Ok let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stock:

Eye

Step 1

Load the “Eye” stock image into Photoshop, now let ’s take a look at the original image and here is the analysis I came up with:

The image has a lot of black spots, and bits of hair that really disturbs me
The skin is OK, but if we can make it smoother would be bettter
The eye colour is perferably better in Blue, and those bloodlines in the white part of the eye can go.

After you’ve done the above analysis, duplicate the background layer once and name it as “face skin”let’s grab the Healing Brush tool (J):

1 healing brush

Set the brush size to 15px, and hold down the Alt to define a source point as shown below:

1 grab skin

Gently work you brush around the spots you wish to heal:

1 heal

And clean up the lower part of the image as well, until you reach the following effect:

1 effect

Step 2

Now we have a fairly clean face, let’s tackle the eye. Firstly duplicate the previous “face skin” layer once and name it as “eye”. Firstly we want to get rid of the bloodlines in the eye. To do this, again we use the healing brush tool, define a new source point on this layer as shown below:

2 grab

Adjust the brush size accordingly to around 10-12px, work your way around the white of the eye until you reach this effect:

2 effect

Step 3

Now we onto the smoothening of the skin. We have used the healing brush tool before however, for the overall effect, it’s really handy to apply the dodge/burn tool (O):

3 dodge burn

So duplicate the previous “eye” layer once and name it as “dodge and burn”, use the dodge tool with the following settings:

The secret here to to set exposure level to a very low amount.

Work your dodge tool around the area you want the skin to become smoother and lighter, until you reach the following effect:

3 effect

Please note, you will have to adjust the brush size for different area, for the best result possible. Practice with it!

Step 4

Ok we can tweak the image a bit by adding some image adjustment layers:

Black and white (Set to blending mode to “Screen”)

4 bw

Duplicate this Black and White adjustment layer once, and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “Hard Light”, you will have the following effect:

4 effect

Now we’re on the interesting part of changing the eye colour. I simply created a new layer called “eye colour” on top of all other layers, grab a soft, round brush with a light blue colour and paint around the pupil:

4 paint

Change the layer blending mode to “colour” and you will have to the following effect:

4 effect 2

We can now add a shining reflection on the pupil. To do this, create a new layer called “reflection” on top of all other layers, grab a small white brush and paint on the centre of the eye, as shown below:

4 effect 3

Step 5

Now we can add some dotty effect around the eye. Firstly let’s make this dynamic brushset:

Shape Dynamics

5 shape dyn

Scattering

5 sacttering

Other Dynamics

5 other dyn

and make sure you tick “Airbrush” and “Smoothing”.

Create a new layer, use this brushset to paint around the eye: (Set brush flow to around 40%)

5 paint dot

and we can add a curve adjustment layer to bring some depth into the image:

5 curves

and you will have the following effect:

5 effect

We can add some final effect onto our eye. How about some colours?

To add some colour around the eye, simply create a new layer on top of all other layers, set its blending mode to “overlay”, and grab some nice markup colour you like and paint around the eye:

5 effect 2

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Hearing Aids Says:
That’s very well done. I can’t wait to try something like it. Thanks for the tutorial.
Too bright Says:
Very well done. But!. I think you made the “skin” too bright, I dont get the feeling of it beeing a real person. But otherwise well done, gonna try it,
april Says:
how do i “tweak the image a bit by adding some image adjustment layers:

Black and white (Set to blending mode to “Screen”)”

i don’t understand, help?
James Says:
@april: Ok, basically you add a new adjustment layer “layer > adjustment layer” on top of all the previous layers you created. In this case, choose “black and white”. Once the adjustment layer is added, then you go and change the blending mode of this black and white adjustment layer to “Screen”

Hope this helps!
James Says:
@Too bright: just my personal taste :)
basketball shoes Says:
wa so cool
so beautiful
Redskin Says:
Nice tutorial. Just for the detail, the eye only, makes the b&w layer a cool effect. Couldn’t you write a tutorial about manipultaing the eye? No beauty effect but something sci-fi like?…

Keep up the good work!
Juventina Says:
Hey great tutorial thanks a lot… but I’m kinda stuck were April is, its
Layer > New adjustment layer > ? ( it gives various options eg Levels, curves, color balance etc) which option should I chose?

I’m a beginner sorry for the dumb questions :))
Juventina Says:
Thank you, never mind cs2 doesnt have the black and white option i installed cs3 now im sorted
grazie
Court Says:
you make it look so simple its actually kinda confusing
Phits Says:
tnx a lot im ur fan..very nice tutorial…….u are my master
hoz Says:
Thank you for your tut! I hade a little doubt when it came time for changing the layer blending mode to “colour”… but i got the following effect:Wow! =) very nice