How to create an "airbrushed" look

How to create an "airbrushed" look

1. Load your image into PaintShop Pro
2. In the Layer window, right-click on the image and select "Duplicate"
3. With the new layer selected, right-click in the Layer window and select "New Mask Layer", "From Image", select "Luminance" as the Source and then OK.
4. Right click in the new mask group and select "Merge", "Merge Group"
5. With the merged mask layer selected, go to "Adjust", "Blur", "Gaussian Blur". You will need to play with the amount of blur to get the effect you want. It varies based upon the size and pixel density of the photo you are dealing with as well as the strength of the effect you desire. For the six megapixel images from my Canon 300D I like to use a radius of 6. Enter the amount you want and hit OK.
6. If you stopped here, the image looks out of focus. That's really what the airbrush technique is all about, reducing the sharpness to smooth out detail in a photo. But, lack of sharpness is disturbing to the viewer. The trick is, only certain important areas need to be sharp, to give an impression of good sharpness overall.
   When it comes to photos of people, we look at faces. In particular, we zero in on eyes and the mouth. Sometimes our attention may be drawn to other spectacular accessories, such as jewelry. We need to keep these elements sharp, while retaining the pleasant smoothing blur in all other regions.
   To accomplish this, make sure you are still on the blurred layer and select the Eraser Tool. Choose a round shape, a size appropriate to the areas you are working with and a hardness of about 30. Zoom in to help you maintain high precision. Carefully erase the blur in the areas of the eyes and lips.
7. Now return to the layers menu. For the layer with the blurred image, select the Opacity slider and move it down to around 65%. This will reduce the impact of the blurring until you end with just the impression of smoothness.
8. Inspect the photo. Determine if there are other elements of the picture where blurriness is detracting from the composition. In those areas use the Eraser Tool again to wipe out the blur effect.

This article adapted from information posted to rec.photo.digital by Tom Nelson. See the original article here