Masters Academy

Frequency Separation Fundamentals

This lesson shows you how to get started doing an advanced retouching technique known as Frequency Separation. Using an included action, you’ll be able to easily separate an image into two layers, one that contains the fine details and one with all the basic colors and shading. Then you can retouch the two layers separately, which will allow you to replace the texture in skin without affecting the color/shading, or smooth out undulating surfaces without losing texture.

Note: The actions mentioned in the video are included within the practice images .ZIP file below. Also, at around 12:20 in the video, you might notice that the results of my retouching looks different than expected. That’s because I didn’t realize that my Clone Stamp panel settings were not at defaults… I show you that setting later in the video.