Basic steps – Enhancing the skin

The Enhance Skin screen enables you to apply various skin filters and improve the quality of the facial skin. Follow these instructions to perform skin cleaning.

1. Click to edit the facial mask.
   
   

2. Click the Automatic  Skin Mask button to edit the facial mask automatically.

• Under Area Selection, click Full Image to allow the facial mask to include the entire image and apply the skin filters to all the skin area in the image. Alternatively, click Face to limit the facial mask to be applied only to the face.

• Drag the Tolerance slider to change the tolerance intensity of the facial mask.

• The Skin Color box displays the average skin color as calculated by the software from the image.

3. Click the Manual Edit button to edit the facial mask manually.

• Under Increase/Decrease Mask, click the button to increase the facial mask area or the button to decrease the facial mask area. Click and drag the cursor over the image to change the facial mask.

• Drag the Brush Size slider to change the brush size while modifying the facial mask.

• Drag the Opacity slider to change the opacity of the brush while modifying the facial mask.

• Click the Mask Color box to change the color of the facial mask.

4. Click Apply to apply the facial mask and proceed to the next step. Red eye is a very common effect caused in photographs due to incorrect flash settings or light conditions. This effect can be reduced using the red eye reduction tool.

5. Click the button to remove red eye effects.
   
   

6. Remove the red eye effect as follows:

• Drag the Pupil Radius slider to adjust the size of the pupil (black circular opening in the center of the eye). Selecting the correct pupil area prevents erroneous removal of red parts in the image. Drag the circular pupil markers on the image to adjust the position of the pupils.

• Drag the Intensity slider to specify how much eye color to use when removing the red eye effect and the intensity with which it blends with the original color. Use a higher setting if the red eye effect is very strong.

• Click the Fill Color box to select the color that you want to add to the eye pupils. Select the desired color from the color palette displayed. You can also add a custom color to the palette by clicking Choose Custom Color and choosing a color from the color spectrum. Alternatively, click the eyedropper under Fill Color and the cursor changes to a dropper when hovered over the image. Click to sample the color from the eye in the image and this will be used to replace the red areas in the original image.

7. Click Apply to remove the red eye effect and proceed to the next step.

8. Click the button to apply the following skin filters to the image.
   
   

9. Check the Smooth Skin box to apply a skin smoothening filter. Drag the Smooth Level slider to change the intensity of the smoothening filter.

10. Check the Shadow/Gloss Reduction box to remove bright or shadowy areas from the image. Click the Shadow button to remove shadows or Gloss button to remove excessive gloss. Drag the Fuzziness slider to determine the area where the filter is applied Drag the Intensity slider to adjust the strength of the filter. Use the color palette under Fill Color to select a fill color to replace the glossy or shadowy areas in the image. Alternatively, you can use the eyedropper to sample a color in the image and use it as the fill color.

11. Check the Adjust Skin Tone box to apply more color tones to your image. Drag the Tone Level slider to change the intensity of the skin tone. Use the color palette under Skin Tone to select a color for adding to the skin in the image. Alternatively, you can use the eyedropper to sample a color in the image and use it as the skin tone color.

12. Click to apply any one of the 5 skin templates: Smooth, Degloss, White, Pink, or Sun tan. The Smooth Skin, Shadow/Gloss Reduction, and Adjust Skin Tone filters are adjusted using preset values for each effect.

9. Click Apply to apply the skin filters and proceed to the next step.

10. Use any of the Toolbox tools to apply skin filters manually in desired areas as follows:
    
    
     

• Drag the Brush Size slider to change the size of the brush used for applying a manual skin effect.

• Drag the Opacity slider to change the intensity of the skin filter applied.

• Use the color palette to choose a color for the desired skin filter.

• Use the eyedropper tool to sample a color from the image and use it for the skin filters.

• Click the button to apply paint to the image. Click and drag the mouse over the image to apply color manually as desired.

• Click the button to create a smudging effect on the image. Click and drag the mouse over the image. The tool picks up color where the stroke begins and spreads it in the direction of the stroke.

• Click the button to smooth hard edges or sharp areas of the image and reduce unwanted details. Click and drag the mouse over the image to smooth the pimples, wrinkles or other blemishes of the skin.

• Click the button if you are not satisfied with any changes that you have made. Click and drag the mouse over the image to restore the image to its previous state.

Tips:

• Click and hold down the button to view the original picture for comparison. Release it to view the edited picture again.

• Click the button to return back to the original unedited image and discard all your changes.