Portrait Retouching - Skin Softening

This is my favourite technique for softening skin as it looks natural. I use this method adding texture back into the skin.



Top: The RAW version (sharpening, contrast, and colour editing in Lightroom 3)
Bottom: The final image after retouching.




In Photoshop remove all spots and blemishes with the healing brush tool.




Duplicate the background layer and add Surface Blur (Radius 39 and Threshold 31) to the layer. Change the opacity of this layer to 50%. 



Add a layer mask to the layer and using a soft brush paint over the skin area, avoiding the eyes, lips and nose areas.




Press and hold the Ctrl key and click once directly on the layer mask tumbnail. Go to the layers panel and click on the Background Layer. Press Ctrl-J and create a new layer of the selection. Move the new layer to the top in the  Layers Panel. Select Filter, Other, High Pass with a radius of 5.8 pixels and apply to the new layer created. Finally change the blend mode for this layer to Soft Light.