HOW TO SOFTEN FRECKLES IN PHOTOSHOP

When we do our makeover shoots some clients like to have strong make-up applied and for a couple of hours feel a different person and some want a softer approach and just enhance their natural features.

Retaining a freckled complexion

For me freckles have a natural attractiveness, being of that skin colour myself. But some express their self-consciousness and ask what we do to cover over without it appearing to be overdone.

First we apply the make-up with a small amount of foundation and in near neutral colours only to enhance skin complexion and with eye shadow and lip colour to correspond. We will apply colour to bring out facial contours for example the cheekbones. This is certainly best done in the comfort of our make-up facility in our Darlington studio.

However we will generally finish off a photo in Photoshop and here is the method I use.

The purpose is not to remove the freckles altogether, after all it they are a natural feature and not altogether a bad one. So this technique aims to reduce the dominance of the freckles allowing the underlying structure of the face to come through. We are seeking to retain enough of the original look of the face rather than an overworked appearance.

Sampling Colour

Select the Eyedropper tool and check to see that the Sample Size (in the options bar) is set to average 3x3 or 5x5 pixels. Choose a part of the face to be brushed and click to select a colour of the skin to be applied. This will appear as a foreground colour

Brush Blend

Select the Brush tool and change the blend mode to Lighten, selecting the mode from the drop- down Mode list in the tool’s option bar. When the brush is in the Lighten mode Photoshop compares the paint colour with the pixels being painted over. Only the pixels that are darker are replaced with the paint colour, effectively lightening the area.

Opacity Change

In the options bar reduce the opacity. I prefer to reduce it to quite a low percentage, say 10%, and gradually cover over the area. Whatever you choose a setting of 100% would produce a result that was too smooth. Reducing the opacity allows a little of the old freckle texture to show through, maintaining the feeling of realism while reducing the freckles’ dominance.

Working over small areas depending on the shade and colour tone paint over the freckles until each part is to your liking.

Another way of lightening a face is to copy the image layer, change the blend mode to Screen and then reduce the opacity of the layer to say 40%, or whatever looks best, bringing back some of the original. Apply a layer mask to the Screen layer and using a black brush on the white background of the mask bring back the original or darker areas you want such as hair and clothing.