Portrait photographers have always struggled with skin retouching, but now ‘neural filters’ do it automatically. Julie Pallant tests out Photoshop’s
Skin Smoothing filter.

"Over the past few years, Adobe has been working on a number of Photoshop neural filters you can use to quickly and easily modify your images. In this article, I put the latest version of the Skin Smoothing Neural Filter in Photoshop (Version 24.0.1) to the test.

"The Skin Smoothing Neural Filter uses artificial intelligence to identify faces in the image and to create a mask so that the skin smoothing does not affect the hair, eyes, eyebrows and mouth. It then applies a set of edits that help to smooth out the skin tone, wrinkles and blemishes to produce a more flattering portrait.  Potentially, this could save you a lot of time compared with more traditional skin retouching techniques.

"Even if you are new to Photoshop, using the neural filters is fairly straightforward. Just open your image in Photoshop and follow the steps described below. It works best on images of a person facing towards the camera where the filter can easily identify the key facial features."

Julie will take you step-by-step through the process in the current issue of Better Photography magazine! Current subscribers just have to login to read online or download to their device. Not a subscriber? I'd love you to join and help support our small community. For just AUS $29.88 (it's 40% off, but you must use the coupon code BP40) you can subscribe for one year and have access to over 50 back issues as well. Subscribe now - visit our website here - https://www.betterphotographyeducation.com/better-photography-online/about-the-magazine