Skin Softening

Skin Softening reduces small texture while returning selected detail. It is one adjustment, so it can sit on an adjustment layer behind that layer's mask: a face mask or a smart layer's subject matte keeps the softening to the skin and off the rest of the photograph, which is how it is meant to be used.

Controls

• Softening sets the scale of smoothing. The normal useful range is intentionally modest.
• Detail back restores higher-frequency structure after smoothing.
• Strength blends the result over the original.

Set Softening to address the texture size, raise Detail back until pores and edges remain believable, then lower Strength until the change is not obvious. Avoid judging at Fit; use 100% and also check the whole face at normal viewing size.

On the Base layer the section applies to the whole photograph; on an adjustment layer it follows the layer's mask, and the section header says which. In Graph the node is heeler.skin_soften; photographs saved when Skin Softening was a block of nodes load as the one node with their values carried over.