Frequency Separation In-Depth with Mixer Brush in Photoshop

today we can learn a unique way to do frequency separation using the mixer brush the less frequency separation it's one of the best techniques to soften the skin why best because it does soften the skin at the same time it maintains the skin texture unlike your mobile applications which has a beauty mode if you capture selfie just soften your skin so much that your skin looks like a wax statue from Madame Tussauds it won't do like that also if you're a beginner awesome we're going to start right at what the heck is frequency also we're going to touch upon the steps involved before and after frequency separation and where does it exactly fall in your workflow so all this and more in this power factorial so without any further ado let's get started [Music] Before we jump into any of the stuff we need to understand the basics first off what the heck is frequency so frequency is nothing but number of oscillations per second I'm going to repeat that for you number of oscillations per second make sense no let me just illustrate so if I move my hand if I complete five oscillations in one second so my hand is moving fast and I'm moving at five times in one second then what's the frequency of my hand five Hertz so frequency is measured in Hertz if I move it 20 times in one second the frequency of my hand would be 20 Hertz so again what is frequency number of oscillations per unit of time every color of light has its common frequency and as far as light is concerned what is light it's an e/m wave what is p.m. electro magnetic wave so therefore a digital image can be depicted in form of frequencies so have a look let me just show you so for example this is the image and it can be shown in the form of frequencies now image can have tons and tons of frequencies going on around but just for simplification purposes let me just draw a few frequencies so you just black in that okay this is just for demonstration purposes don't get worried as to what the heck I'm doing so this is the line this is the graph and just let's paint it wine so that you guys can see it okay now let's take a brush and draw the frequencies okay on a new layer with say red now there are lots of frequencies in the pen but I'm going to draw two extremes okay so it has a low frequency just like that okay like that and it has a high frequency let's draw this with a different color on a different layer so that it makes sense for you okay high frequency just like that okay now what's happening and this is time by the way if you are wondering what the heck is going on this is time okay this direction is time T so high frequency more oscillations per second so more changes low frequency low oscillations per second the red one okay now have a look at this have a close look at it look at the high frequency it's having more changes okay rapid changes quick changes then the low frequencies okay white got it so in an image and this is important in an image what rapidly changes color the texture right if you look at a texture it just there's a poor if you look at the skin there's a poor there's a bump there support there's a bump it rapidly changes color so we can say that this high frequency is for the texture okay and what doesn't change quite often and what does change very seamlessly smoothly the color of the skin the one which is behind the texture have a look so this doesn't change so quickly this is the low frequency doesn't change so quickly and this depicts the color and the tone of the skin and since this is high this is very rapidly changing this depicts the texture of the skin so we want to soften the skin but we do not want to affect the texture and we want to work on them separately so if there was a way to separate them just like this so this is the low frequency separated this is the high frequency we separated and this process of separating the low frequencies and the high frequencies is called frequency separation as simple as that so finally here we are putting up in this beautiful image were submitted by passing a vente thank you so much Buffy I this photo actually I love the wind light is being falling on her face really truly love it so let's go ahead and perform frequency separation but before we do any of that let us talk about what to do before frequency separation okay so when you get your image right from the camera our first job is to adjust the light and where to adjust the light light room right or if your Adobe Camera Raw user you can use that too that's exactly the same then our job is to remove the pimples remove the acne remove the blemishes and then remove the eye bags and all of that okay so I've already done it and if you want to check out dedicated videos on that make sure to go ahead and check out the links right here or in the description so here I have first of all remove the blemishes just like this let me just zoom in so that you can see so very minimal blemishes before after and then remove the eye bags just a little bit okay so you might ask why is eyebags separate from the blemish layer because I just wanted to decrease the opacity there so if the opacity was like hundred this wasn't looking real we wanted to look at natural so we kept the opacity somewhere around eighty percent you might have seen clay models right so how do they make clay models first of all they set the wireframe right okay and then above the wireframe they put up the clay and then they paint on it you once you paint you just cannot adjust the clay and once you apply this clay you just cannot adjust the wireframe and that's exactly how this works first we adjust the light think of that as the wireframe of the clay model then we remove the blemishes to liquefy and all that stuff in that structure then we apply that think of that as clay and then we paint what is that frequency separation softening the skin and all that stuff you paint so after all of this all you have to do create a new layer okay let's close this group I've made a group of both of those let's create a new layer just above the group and press ctrl alt shift and E command option shift and E if you are using a Mac what does this do this creates a merge layer of everything that you see right now in the canvas or in other words if you go file save as JPEG or any other file format and open that up as a layer just above this this is exactly what you will get now make a copy of this press controller command J ok name this one color or you can also name it low frequency what does the low frequency had color and tone right color and you can name this right click on it or just double click on the text I'm sorry and name that high frequency or details or even texture whatever you want so this is high frequency this is low frequency now let's turn off high frequency for a second and come back to low frequency or the color and let's blur it out so zoom in and this is crucial the number you choose for blurring this is crucial go to filter blur and then Gaussian blur and gradually just increase it from 3 0.1 gradually just increase it and stop at the point where the skin texture go away exactly at the point where all of the skin texture go away don't don't go too much okay just stop at the point where skin textures go away so have a look at the skin texture here so just ok this seems right let's increase it a bit so 8 is right for me because this is a very high resolution photo 50 megapixels taken by Canon 5d Sr click OK once you're satisfied and then it blurs the photo now when we blurred the photo we actually deleted the high frequencies because we blurred it out the color and tone still remains but the texture is gone because we blurred it out and since the texture is gone we have deleted the high frequencies now we want a layer with just the high frequencies how do we get it so this layer has just the low frequencies and this layer just above it the details layer has everything so if we subtract if we delete the low frequencies from there we get what high frequencies so let's turn this back on and select the details layer then go to image and then applying image in the apply image choose the layer color we want to subtract the color layer from it ok or the low frequency ehn make sure the channel is RGB and the blending as the name suggests subtract and choose the scale to and offset 128 now why the scale do because scale determines the amount of subtraction we want to fully subtract it so let it be 2 because the maximum value of scale is 2 minimum value is 1 okay so let's keep it the maximum value which is 2 and offset Y offset 128 let me just show you let me just show you I just wanted to show you this this is important so what is the value of neutral gray if you go to this have a look at the neutral gray so the value of neutral gray is are 128 gee 128 and be 128 what's the maximum value of r g and b 255 what's the minimum value of r g and b zero so what comes in the middle 128 now you might think half of 255 is not 128 127 point 5 or something like that but we are taking zero into consideration so in total we have 256 256 divided by 2 what is Pat 128 so 128 comes as a neutral gray now since we are going to change the blend mode to something like linear light we have to have neutral gray so that these Blaine blend modes actually delete everything which is 50% gray or neutral gray so let's go to image and then apply image so scale to 128 layer you have to choose color and that looks perfect to me color RGB subtract to 128 click OK then we're going to change the blend mode of this one to linear light it knocks off everything which is 50% gray and that's why we wanted it to have neutral gray and 128 number so choose back to linear light and if you make a group of both of these so press ctrl or command hold it select the other one press controller command G if you make a group of both of these even if you turn it off have a look it doesn't change because these two images combined deform combined to give you the same image but if you just keep one of them open let me just turn off these if you just keep one of this open this is blurred out and this just has details but both of these combine to give you the exact in the switches wonderful now we want to work on this color layer you want to make you want to really blend in the color so come to the color layer and select a brush and this time select the mixer brush so first of all let's understand what the mixer brush does okay so then we can work with it properly so make a copy of the color layer and this is just for fun just for demo control the command J and let's turn the details layer off and let's see what it does okay we select the mixer brush and then all it does it just blends in the colors if we just paint in C it just blends in the colors but here's the thing while we are blending the colors it's adding a little bit of white why because have a look we have chosen the white color we just want to blend in the existing color so what do we do we make sure that this is checked off this is deactivated load the brush after each stroke just this is deactivated if if you deactivate this it becomes transparent now it doesn't add white to it it just blends in the existing colors now the mixer brush has certain properties just like a real brush okay and very easy to understand wetness how with the brushes okay so if the brush is high if the witness is high have a look if you drag from there it will drag in a lot more then if the witness is low which means just compare this with a dry brush and a wet brush simply a wet brush just drags more a dry brush drags less that's pretty much it again there is this load how much how much is the capacity of the brush how much color that a brush can take at a time then we have mix now mix it certainly for if you pick a color for example if you had something like green right there and she painted so it's 90 percent of the mixes just like 0% it mixes well and it just keeps the green if the mix is too much it just keeps the green at minimum okay so okay and mixes it up with existing colors so this is not for you doesn't matter what the mix is because anyway we're going to deactivate this doesn't really matter and slow is what you already know flow and opacity flow controls the intensity of the brush for our work make sure this is checked off this is transparent then wetness is 1% 1 to 5% depending upon your choice and then everything to the same mix to 90 or whatever just leave it to the default and load 75 is okay and slow maybe 10 to 20% I'm going to choose 10% depending upon the number of strokes you want to paint ok let's go ahead and delete this color copy and all we have to do now we have the detail of the skin texture separate and we have this the color separate we need to blend in the colors let's go ahead and zoom in on our head and let's choose the mixer brush which is already chosen and paint in the direction of skin texture so skin texture here is going from up to bottom or bottom to up and we're going to paint in the exact direction ok just like that to blend in the colors be careful this is destructive this is not non-destructive ok just paint in and here as you can see the skin texture is going from left to right so paint in like that here okay I'm also going to share with you my personal trick which I use just after this just want to show you what exactly is happening ok let's have a look at it before and after doesn't seem much of a change but if you look at the before announcer if we just turn it off have a look before after we have blended in the skin so we'll have a look before after of course we need to paint more but you get the basic idea or what exactly is happening now what I personally do from time to time and this is just my personal workflow is that I turn up the details layer and see if everything is blended in well or not so I work most of the time with the details layer turned off and then using the mixer brush to make sure everything is just smooth as you can see things are not smooth around here so I just go ahead paint in pretty well just like that and if you don't want to paint so much you can always go ahead and increase the flow to around 15 to 20 percent but don't go too high ok so this is very much softened in make sure nothing odd happens we can see a faint line here we need to blend that pretty properly ok alright there we go make sure the colors don't spill in so here is just have a look here it is a little black make sure it just doesn't spill in over the skin that would look stupid okay non-realistic so here there's a line we need to just blend it in properly and we need to take care of these bumps and make it really really smooth here a little bit there you can go ahead keep on painting just like that have a look at the nose you need not paint it in this direction it will look strange if I just turn it on this just looks strange so let's just turn it off and make sure everything is just like smooth and this time you're going to make sure that it looks like a wax statue so paint in this direction and just like you very painting with a brush maybe creating a piece of art just like that da Vinci style okay look the direction of the strokes top to bottom just in the direction of the nose okay just like that okay and you can go on and on and on and on in this in this direction and create stuff and have a quick look at the before and after I'm just going to skip in so I just turn on the details have a look at the before and after before after look at the nose how beautiful it looks right now you can just go ahead with this turned on and soften this up even more okay so for you to learn the strokes for you to learn the direction where the brush goes it will take time so you have to practice but the details layer turned off now I'm going to skip to my final one let me just open the final one so this is the final one I've just completed blending in the colors have a look so if I just turn this on solo look how smooth the skin is now and this should be your objective turn off the details layer and make everything else make the skin smooth and make sure nothing spills over anything so let's just turn back everything on have a look at it before and after so if we just turn off this have a look before after makes really a ton of difference now I have not blended in the neck you can do that as well come to this one just turn it off and make sure everything is going smooth right there in the next just like that and you can go on and on.for ours in this and this is so much more fun to do okay and that's pretty much all about frequency separation using the mixer brush have a look at the before and after final one so this is the after I'm not sure where they can see this in the screen in the video so this is after actually and this is the before after before after and one of the important tips that I learned the hard way is this once you're doing frequency separation blending in the colors make sure you do not soften the smile lines have a look at this girl she has some smile lines and I deliberately haven't softened this area have a look at it before after I've just blended things in but I haven't soft in this area it just really looks non realistic okay so make sure you do not touch the smile times so that's all about frequency separation now what to do after frequency separation let's go back to the clay model in the clay model we set the light right by setting up the wireframe wireframe acted as a light and then we set up the clay clay is what blemishes structures liquify and then we painted with what skin softening frequency separation whatever technique that you use doesn't really matter then after that what do we do we just make it very some dresses we just decorate it with some jewelry and stuff so think of it like this going from inside to outside now we can go ahead enhance the eyes enhance the lips enhance maybe the dress or maybe apply some filters dodging and burning okay always go from core to the layer and that's pretty much it about frequency separation and where does it come in the workflow so just a quick recap what is frequency separation frequency separation is the technique of separating the high frequency from the low frequency what does the high frequency have textures what does the low frequency have color and tone now you can work on the color and the tone blend it in you can also work in the texture okay if you want to work in the texture you can also select the details layer and just patch in different texture from different areas you can do that as well now when to do frequency separation let's go back to the clay model once you have put the clay you cannot go back to the higher frame once you have painted you just can adjust the clay and once you have made it wear their uniform you just cannot get the paint change so the frequency separation is just after when you get the clay right when you get the structure right and you do the blemishes and you all the liquify just after that and just before applying all the other filters dodging and burning maybe some curves may be some fancy stylizing filters so on and so forth last but not the least and this is really important when we are softening the skin using any technique make sure you do not soften the smile lines and I'm going to emphasize that for you repeat that for you do not soften this smile I'm picky okay oh really and that's pretty much it hope you enjoyed this and if you did make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe ring the bell so that you my friend don't miss anything I'll take that my next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 795,724

Rating: 4.9505863 out of 5

Keywords: frequency separation, frequency separation photoshop, retouching, soften skin, skin retouching, frequency separation steps, make skin smooth, what is frequency separation, piximperfect, smooth skin photoshop, retouch skin, airbrush skin, skin texture, skin smoothing, photoshop tutorial, retouch, photoshop, portrait retouching, wrinkle, blemishes, makeup, fashion photography, portrait photograhy, airbrushing, head shot, glamor, skin

Id: Z8mnzVNaiD0

Length: 21min 19sec (1279 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2017