Good day! Welcome to our guide on how to remove blemishes from photos. Blemishes like pimples, scars, blackheads, and spots can ruin an otherwise perfect image. Sometimes makeup isn’t enough to make skin look flawless in photos.
The good news? There are simple tools and apps for blemish removal on both PC and Android. In this post, we’ll focus on Photoshop techniques to clean up your images and make them look professional.
Step-by-Step Guide to Remove Blemishes in Photoshop
Wondering how to remove pimples or blemishes in Photoshop CS6? The process is the same for all blemish removal. Follow this simple step-by-step guide to learn quickly and get professional results.
Step 1: Open Photoshop for Removing Blemishes
The image is taken from the website called Pixabay. You can download the same image from the site or explore for more images as you like. I have chosen this one because the blemishes are large in number in the image, and you will be surprised how they are removed completely, and the women will be picture-perfect.
The first thing to do is open Photoshop CC2019. You can use earlier versions as well. Photoshop CS6 is a great option for the job. Anyway, you can choose anyone you like.
Step – 02: Add Image
After running the Photoshop program, add the image by clicking on the ‘File’ > Open and select the image from the drive or you can just drag and drop on Photoshop if you are not a beginner. Copy the image by Pressing Ctrl+J for Win or Command+J for Mac so that the main image stays intact, and you can check the changes by comparing it.

Step 3: Make a Selection of the Subject
Make a selection of the subject skin containing the impurities with the convenient tool you like. It doesn’t matter much. A rough selection of the portion is alright to edit the image well. You may use the quick selection tool; the keyboard shortcut is ‘W’.
Click and drag over the skin all the way to select. While making the selection, more than the required section may be selected. To remove them, press and hold Alt for Win or Option for Mac then click and drag over to deselect the area you do not require.

Step 4: Select and Mask
Now click on the tab ‘Select’ > Select and Mask. You may see the ‘Refine Edge‘ under the ‘Select’ tab in previous versions.
Step 5: Radius Level
Check the box ‘Smart Radius’ then go for ‘Radius Level’. For this image, I will increase the radius to 7 pixels. Use the ‘Refine Edge Brush Tool’ to brush over the hair that comes on the skin and the edge (if required). I also changed some more options here such as ‘Smooth’ to 18, ‘Feather’ to 2.9 pixels, ‘Contrast’ to 18%, and kept the ‘Shift Edge’ unchanged.
You can adjust them all according to the image you are editing. You can increase or decrease the ‘Opacity’ to get a better view while adjusting. Go to the ‘Output Settings’ and select Output to ‘New Layer with Layer Mask’. Click ‘OK’.

Step 6: Use Surface Blur to Smooth Skin
Next, you need to go to the tab ‘Filter’ > Blur > Surface Blur. For this Image, I will keep the Radius to 21 pixels and the Threshold to 28. You can adjust the amount as you require. You can check the preview and the image as soon as you change.
This should be configured according to the size and the resolution of the image. Make the combination with the calculation so that most of the impurities can be removed here. The rest of the impurities can be taken care of soon. Hit ‘OK’.

Step 7: Use Of Brush Tool
In some areas of the face, we do not want to be smoothened. So, we will restore them such as eyebrows, eyes, eyelids, lips, and overlapping hair on the face with the brush tool. Select the layer mask and go to the brush tool. The brush tool shortcut is ‘B’.
From the brush tool options, keep the ‘Hardness’ at 0%, ‘Mood’ at Normal, ‘Opacity’ at 100%, and ‘Flow’ at 100%. Press ‘Enter’ for Win and ‘Return’ for Mac. To make your brush size smaller or larger you can use the keyboard shortcuts ‘[‘and ‘]’. Brush over the areas you want to reveal and untouched.

Step 8: Use The Blur Tool
If you find an area that is not smoothened over by the process earlier, use the ‘Blur’ tool to do the job. For this, you need to activate the face layer first. Take the tool and drag over the areas you want to be smoothened.

Step 9: Spot Healing Brush
Now it’s time to remove the spots on the face. Select ‘Spot Healing Brush’ and check the ‘Content-Aware’ button is active. The spot healing brush shortcut is ‘J’.
Step 10: Adjustment The Layer
Use the brush tool by adjusting the size a little larger than the blemish and clicking over them. Do this until all the blemishes, scars, and imperfections are gone.

Step 11: Add Some Noise
Now add some noise. Go to the tab ‘Filter’ > Noise > Add Noise. Select Gaussian and check Monochromatic. For the image, I am keeping the amount at 1.25%. For any other image, adjust the amount according to the type and quality to match the rest of the image. Click ‘OK’ to apply.

Step 12: Final Touch | Remove Blemishes from Photos
We are pretty much done here. We also call it, photo retouch blemish remover in Photoshop as it is retouching by the process.
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Final Thought | Remove Blemishes from Photos
There are many more options in Adobe Photoshop CC and CS6 you can use for outstanding and magical transformation of images. Skin smoothing in Photoshop is quite efficient. However, you may face a little difficulty if you are a beginner. We provide photo face cleaner online services as accurately as we can. Check out our webpage Clipping World and try our services’ trials for free.
