We’ve all seen those pictures people post where their skin is SO smooth they look like plastic dolls. I get it. I hate my fine lines, too. I want my zits to disappear at least in pictures since they are sticking around in real life well into my late 30s, and that’s just not fair.
But you’re not fooling anyone when you use apps like Facetune and overdo it to the max. Instead, here’s a simple editing trick I use in Snapseed (available for iPhone and Android for free!) to smooth out my own skin. Yeah, I know it’s definitely not a #nofilter look, but I’m not here to shame anyone for wanting to love what they see in a photo, myself included, ok? Just trying to show you an easy way to make it look less vaseline-on-the-lens-ish.
I took this photo with my front facing camera on my iPhone XS Max in portrait mode. (That phone was SO worth the upgrade!)
The first thing I do, usually, is brighten my skin tones using a curve with a bump up in the middle of the line. If that’s confusing to you and you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out my eBook Picture Play. I break down curves for you in it!
If you have a blemish on your face, you can use the healing tool to erase it.
Brightening your skin and decreasing shadows is a great start in eliminating the focus on fine lines, but to really make a big difference, head to the Selective tools. Swipe down to select “structure” then decrease the structure.
Place a + over your skin in the photo, use two fingers to pinch or pull until the red area is only selecting the skin you want to smooth. Then swipe your finger left to decrease the structure. For this photo I decreased by about 40.
If you want to go one step further, you can run a noise minimizing app, like Noiseware. This is helpful for photos that are shot in low light and are grainy to start with. (I cover how light affects your photos in Picture Play, too!)
Here’s my before picture + picture after brightening mid tones/skin tones with a curves bump + picture after decreasing structure + picture after running Noiseware at the default setting.
And for my final edit, I added a filter from A Color Story– Santa Monica from the Mood pack at 53%.
Before
After
If you want to learn more about how to take and edit pix with your phone that you will love, I hope you’ll consider purchasing my ebook Picture Play! It’s an instant download, and the tips work for any type of phone with a camera. You can even use it to edit pix you take with your DSLR that you send to your phone.
Click below to get my eBook! Learn how to take and edit photos you LOVE with just your phone and some free/cheap apps!
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