How to Airbrush an Image

This Tutorial will take you through a step by step process on how to ‘airbrush’ an image. (rev1.2)

1) Firstly we are going to need an image we want to work on. I have picked the always glamorous Eliza Dushku for this tutorial (not that she needs any work).

So once we have opened our image the first thing we need to do is to use the Heal Brush tool to remove any obvious blemishes like the freckles etc. You can be as thorough as as you like here because the cleaner you get the image the better the end result will be. Use a small enough brush though to avoid losing any detail.

As you can see from the above image the freckles are now gone

2) Duplicate this layer now and apply the Dust and Scratches filter.

Filter > Noise > Dust and Scratches

I used these settings below but it can be adjusted to suit the image used.

3) The next stage is to use the Gaussion Blur
Filter > Blur > Gaussion Blur
Again I used these settings but this should be adjusted for each image used. The Aim here is to remove the banding that nay have occurred in the previous stage and to give the whole image a smoother complexion.

4) The final step is preparing Eliza is to add some Noise as skin is not generally plastic looking.

Filter > Noise > Add Noise

I used these settings but again these can be adjusted to suit.

5) So now we are ready to add our ‘improvements’ to our original image.

To do this create a Layer Mask on the adjustment layer we have been filtering.

Now select the Paint Bucket Tool and fill this layer with black. This simply hides the layer.

6) Now comes the fun part, we simply ‘paint’ on our new skin. Select your paint brush (use a size that suits the area you’re painting) select white as your colour and simple paint on the new skin. If you make any mistakes simply select black as your colour and repaint to fill in the mistakes and so on. You should end up with something like this:

7) Now I hear you screaming ‘FAKE!!!’ but give me a minute, we’re not finished yet. We have a few minor adjustments to make.

Firstly add let’s add a Hue and Saturation layer and adjust settings to suit the image.  Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation

Next add a Photo Filter layer, adjust settings to suit.
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter .

Finally we are going to add a layer we can use to sharpen our image.
So create a new layer and add image and set this layer blending mode to Overlay.

Layer > New Layer > Image > Add Image

Now on this layer select: Filter > Other > High Pass

You can now adjust the opacity of the high pass layer to suit so it doesn’t up looking to cartoony or CG’fied, I chose 30% and ended up with this:

I added a few more slight changes, increased the colours slightly on her makeup, added a few highlights to her hair and slightly darkened some of the features on her face like her nose and just a few wrinkles / creases (..just a few :p)

Now Isn’t she Beautiful

Now it may seem time consuming but with practice this can become a quick and fast process.

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