How to smooth out wrinkles in Photoshop

Wrinkles on the face and other parts of the body are an inevitable evil that will overtake everyone, be it a man or a woman.

This trouble can be dealt with in different ways, but today we’ll talk about how to remove (at least minimize) wrinkles from a photograph in Photoshop.

Let's open the photo in the program and analyze it.

We see that on the forehead, chin and neck there are large, as if separately located, wrinkles, and near the eyes there is a continuous carpet of small wrinkles.

We will remove large wrinkles with a tool "Healing Brush", and small ones - "Patch".

So, create a copy of the original layer using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+J and select the first tool.

We are working on a copy. Press and hold the key ALT and take a sample of clean skin with one click, then move the cursor to the area with the wrinkle and click again. The brush size should not be much larger than the defect being edited.

Using the same method and tool, we remove all large wrinkles from the neck, forehead and chin.

Now we move on to removing small wrinkles near the eyes. Choosing a tool "Patch".

Using the tool, we outline the area with wrinkles and drag the resulting selection onto a clean area of ​​skin.

We achieve approximately the following result:

The next step is to slightly even out the skin tone and remove very small wrinkles. Please note that since the lady is quite elderly, it will not be possible to remove all the wrinkles around the eyes without radical methods (reshaping or replacement).

Create a copy of the layer we are working with and go to the menu “Filter – Blur – Surface Blur”.

Filter settings can vary greatly depending on the size of the image, its quality, and the tasks at hand. In this case, look at the screenshot:

Then press the key ALT and click on the mask icon in the layers palette.

Then select a brush with the following settings:

We choose white as the main color and paint over the mask, opening it in those places where it is necessary. Don't overdo it, the effect should look as natural as possible.

Layers palette after the procedure:

As you can see, there are obvious defects here and there. You can eliminate them with any of the tools described above, but first you need to create a fingerprint of all layers at the top of the palette by pressing the key combination CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E.

No matter how hard we try, after all the manipulations the face in the photo will look blurry. Let's give it (the face) some of its natural texture back.

Remember we left the original layer untouched? It's time to use it.

We activate it and create a copy using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+J. Then we drag the resulting copy to the very top of the palette.

Then go to the menu “Filter – Other – Color Contrast”.

We set up the filter based on the result on the screen.

Next you need to change the blending mode for this layer to "Overlap".

Then, similar to the process of blurring the skin, we create a black mask and, using a white brush, open the effect only where it is needed.

It may seem that we have returned the wrinkles to their place, but let's compare the original photo with the result obtained in the lesson.

With enough perseverance and accuracy, using these techniques you can achieve fairly good results in removing wrinkles.

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I have already added lessons on the topic of reducing wrinkles in Photoshop more than once, but I think it would be nice to learn how to do this using different methods. In fact, this method is very similar to the previous ones that I shared with you, but there are still key differences.

The essence of this method is to minimize the appearance of wrinkles on the face, and not completely remove them. I think everyone will agree with me that upon reaching a certain age, every person develops wrinkles. In photography, lighting can sometimes “exaggerate” wrinkles, making them look unnatural and unattractive (this also applies to young people). As editors, our job is to help people look their best while keeping it as realistic as possible.

In today's tutorial I will use the image of an old man. In the photo there are wrinkles on the man's face. It doesn't look too awkward or excessive - normal age-related wrinkles on an older person's face.

In this case, I will use the Healing Brush Tool and a new layer above the photo to fill in the wrinkles. I'll then adjust the opacity of the top layer so that the changes on the new layer blend directly into the photo. This is a pretty simple method, so let's get started.

Photo selection

This is the photo I will use in today's tutorial. First of all, I pay attention to wrinkles on the forehead, under the eyes and around the mouth (smile lines). These are the ones that stand out the most. If you decide to use your photo and work on it in this way, just grasp the meaning of this method and apply it to your photo.

Healing Brush Tool

I will use the same principle of the Healing Brush tool that I have already written about in other tutorials. Therefore, in order not to write the same thing, I will provide you with a link to the previous lesson, and today we will only touch on the specifics of the tool. If you want to learn more about how this tool works, read the lesson “Working with the Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop.”

The way this tool works is this: activate the tool, find an area that you can use as a source, and then paint over whatever you want to “repair” with the brush. Of course, there are still some nuances that need to be taken into account, but I have outlined the general essence of how the Healing Brush tool works.

Here's how the healing brush works when the Align option is turned on: if you take the tool and draw in a circle, the source will also be sketched in a circle. As you experiment with this tool, you will see that the pointer (source) consistently follows the brush. Don't worry, it's easy to understand once you start using the tool.

Since our photo is already open in Photoshop, let's create a new layer on top of the background one. To do this, click on the create a new layer icon at the bottom of the layers panel. This is what the layers panel should look like at this stage:

Next, go to the Tools panel and select the Healing Brush.

Adjust the desired brush size to the size of the wrinkle and be sure to soften the edges with the tool. In the top options bar for Sample, select All Layers. Since we will be painting on an empty layer, it is important that this option is active because the layer below will also be affected. The Align option, located to the left of the Sample option, should also be active, because we need color gradients from this person's skin. If I didn't have a sample paint brush, the result would have looked pretty weird.

With the tool configured, take a sample of the area above the left eyebrow by holding down the Alt key and clicking the mouse. After that, fill in the wrinkle above the left eye.

The red circle indicates the area I worked with. Similarly, go through all the areas that I listed a little earlier. See the result below. I'm doing this as an example so you can understand how the tool works.

You can see with the naked eye how the wrinkles have disappeared.

Reducing wrinkles, not removing them

Now our goal is to bring back some wrinkles. If I had kept the photo as is, I would not have changed anything else. In fact, an older man should have wrinkles on his face, so I don't want to remove them completely.

To reduce the effect of our corrections, go to the Opacity slider in the Layers panel and move it to the left to 50%. As a result, wrinkles will appear, but this will eliminate their “darkness” and “heaviness”.

And here is the last result:

I think it turned out pretty good. Magazine photo editors do this work all the time.

Lighten Blend Mode

And in conclusion, I would like to add one more important detail; it can play a huge role in work of this nature. If I were to apply the Lighten blend mode to the top layer, all the pixels that are darker on the top layer than the bottom layer would be removed. On the other hand, using this blend mode only preserves the lighter pixels on the top layer. This is important because in these situations we are trying to get rid of shadows in the areas we are painting.

The Lighten blend mode compares the base color and the overlay color, and keeps whichever is the lightest of the two. If the overlay colors and base colors are the same, no changes occur. Similar to the Darken blend mode, the Lighten blend mode relies on three RGB channels to blend pixels.

I hope I have explained in detail how to minimize the appearance of wrinkles on your face.

Good time everyone! Today, as part of our study of Photoshop, we’ll talk about some retouching issues. Often, even well-shot portraits do not always satisfy the client. One of these moments is wrinkles. Not everyone likes it when any “flaws” stand out strongly on the face.

And then a successful photo must be saved. Retouching will help us with this. Today we will use two main tools and, at the same time, apply techniques for “finishing” a photograph to the desired condition.

We will use this photo as an example. In the program, it will be much easier to remove this age-related feature than having a cosmetologist do the same on a living face. Of course, most people need to remove wrinkles in person, but as they say, that’s a completely different story.

And we will look at how to remove wrinkles in Photoshop. This can be done using two tools. One is the Healing Brush and the other is the Patch Brush. Moreover, the operation is very simple. Read on, I’m sure you will succeed too!

Removing wrinkles from a photo using the Healing Brush tool

So, let's use this tool first. Looking ahead, I will say that it is better for them to remove large wrinkles, and for small ones use the “Patch”. We load the photo into the program. In the toolbar on the left, find the Healing Brush tool and activate it.

Next, we move the cursor, it will be in the form of a circle, over a clean, wrinkle-free part of the face. Let's take this area as an example. Press the ALT key, the cursor will look like a target, and click with the left mouse button. Thus we set a pattern. Now let's release ALT and move on to the wrinkles themselves.

For comfortable and high-quality work, the image can be enlarged on the monitor screen. To do this, use the key combination CTRL+, to decrease CTRL-

Click on the right mouse button and move along the wrinkles. We see a cross walking nearby. This is the section of the brush that determines the template color. It is necessary to ensure that this cross goes exactly over a clean area of ​​skin. Periodically adjust the main color by holding ALT and selecting the desired area. In the course of the actions taken, we get the result.

Hurray, we have just removed the defects that interest us from the photo! We continue to work.

How to Smooth Out Wrinkles in Photoshop Using the Patch Tool

This is the second tool with which you can remove wrinkles. Upload a photo and go to the same set of tools as in the first option. Just select “Patch” there.

It is a rectangle with dashes, sort of like a piece of fabric and thread ties. That's probably why it's named that way. What do we do next? We select a place to delete and, by pressing the left mouse button, outline the area.

We ended up with something like a selected area, as if we were using the Selection tool. You may need to practice to choose the right area.

Now move the mouse cursor to the center of the selected area. It took the form of a patch and two arrows, one directed upward, the other to the side. This means that you need to hold down the mouse button and move this selected area towards a clean area of ​​skin. That's what we do

We moved it, now release the mouse button. The highlighted part blinked and the wrinkles disappeared. What happened? Just a blank area became a template for selection and replaced the area to be deleted. We do the same with all areas of wrinkles. However, in some places we see a strong difference in tonality. There was a stain on the area being removed. It is necessary to “bring” the image to acceptable characteristics.

This is because it is more convenient to do such large areas with the “Healing Brush”, but the “Patch” is well suited for wrinkles that are located under the eyes. However, everything can be fixed here too.

First of all, create a copy of the layer that was just processed with the patch tool. After that, select “Filter – Blur – Surface Blur” from the menu.

In the window that appears, select the necessary filter settings. For different drawings, they may be different.

Now let's create a mask for this layer. Press Alt on your keyboard and click on the mask icon in the layers palette. As a result we get:

Next, select the “Brush” tool, activate the mask (it should be additionally selected in the layer) and move the brush over the mask, highlighting the necessary areas. As a result we get.

It remains to eliminate minor errors. To do this, first of all, create a fingerprint of all layers by pressing the key combination first CTRL+SHIFT, and then immediately ALT+E.

The photo remains somewhat blurry. To eliminate this, activate the very first original layer, the one with the wrinkles. Create a copy of it and move it to the very top.

Next, select “Filter” – “Other” – “Color Contrast” from the top menu.

In the window that opens, select the following settings:

Then you need to change the blending mode of this layer to “Overlay”.

The picture took on a more pleasant appearance.

That's all. As you can see, nothing complicated. Practice, get good at it, everything will work out for you! Good luck in mastering Photoshop.