This lesson softens wrinkles naturally in a portrait — the goal is reduction, not erasure, so the face stays alive.
2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version.
Quick Method (No Frequency Separation)
- Duplicate the background layer.
- Pick Spot Healing Brush (J) in Content-Aware mode.
- Click any visible spots, blemishes, small wrinkles.
- For longer lines (under-eye, smile lines): Healing Brush (J),
Alt/Opt-click a clean texture to sample, then drag along the line. - Too smooth? Drop the retouch layer’s opacity to 60-70% to bring back some age — realism preserved.
Pro Method — Frequency Separation
- Duplicate the background twice (Low and High).
- On Low: Gaussian Blur 6-10 px.
- On High: Image > Apply Image, Layer = Low, Blending = Subtract, Scale 2, Offset 128. Set its blend mode to Linear Light.
- Now Low holds tone/color and High holds texture. Paint over wrinkles on the Low layer with a soft brush (sampling nearby clean skin) — texture survives, wrinkles fade.
2026 Shortcut
Photoshop Neural Filters > Skin Smoothing or Lightroom’s Adaptive Skin preset do it in one tap. Frequency Separation is still the gold standard for portrait photographers.
