A Sophisticated Method for Removing Acne, Blemishes, Scars, etc. from a Portrait

When attempting to remove unsitely blemishes and scars from a person's face in a portrait most PhotoShop users incorporate the use of the healing brush tool. Here is another method that works quite well.

Duplicate the background image on a new layer. Apply a guassian blur strong enough to blur out the offending areas (in this case I use a radius of 7 on medium sized image -- for full-sized images I usually use a radius of 30-50). Make a layer mask for that new blurred layer that hides everything (Layer->Layer Mask->Hide All). Then get the paint brush tool, with white color, and opacity and fill of about 30%, h 0 hardness. Paint on the layer mask over problem skin areas to reveal the blurred layer, going over the worst parts multiple times show more, and just one or two passes over most areas. You'll get a feel for it after trying it a few times. When you like how it looks, flatten the image and you're done. The nice thing about doing it this way is you can vary the opacity of the blur layer using the layer blending options, you can make it show through more in some areas and less in others, and you have much more control than either the cloning tool or the healing brush.

Source: Adorama