Retouching Magic with Frequency Separation

Jana Marcus
Jul 20
1 min read

Updated: Aug 23

Ok, Photog friends –Throw away the portrait retouching software – I’ve got a treat for you!

If you are like me and shoot lots of portraits, one of the most important tools of your post-production is producing flawless skin for your clients.

Flawless skin creatd with Frequency Separation, maintains skin texture.

I used to retouch in Photoshop with the clone tool on “light” at 30% opacity. The results were good, but took a long time – and in the cloning process, the tone and textures of the skin changed, often looking unrealistic. Then I invested in Portrait Pro software to make my life easier. The results were nice, but often too artificial for my liking, and there was WAY too many choices – like make-up and hair color correction – that didn't work that well.

I needed a realistic solution – as you probably do too!

Whether it's a client with blemishes or someone with uneven skin tone, you want to maintain the texture of the skin for the most realistic retouch.

I had heard about the Frequency Separation technique in Photoshop, used by professional retouchers. I decided to try it myself. Not only is it Fabulous with a capital “F” – but very easy to execute.

The trick is that you are separating the texture of skin from the tone of the skin on different layers, and adjusting them as needed.