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Skin Smoothing
Retouch portraits without the plastic look. An on-device face model finds each face and protects the eyes, brows, lips and nostrils, then an edge-preserving bilateral filter softens blemishes and uneven texture while a little natural skin texture is added back.
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How to use the Skin Smoothing
- Open a portrait by dropping, pasting or choosing it. A drawn sample face with blemishes shows how the tool works.
- Wait for face detection. The face model downloads once (about 4 MB) and finds every face; the status line shows how many were found.
- Set the strength. Start with the Natural preset, then adjust Smoothing strength, Blemish size and Keep skin texture. Drag across the photo to compare before and after.
- Refine if needed. Turn on Show smoothing mask, then use the Smooth brush to add skin areas or the Protect brush to keep details such as freckles, jewelry or stubble sharp.
- Download the retouched portrait as PNG or JPG at full resolution (up to 4000 px).
What happens to your portrait
- Face landmarks. The MediaPipe Face Landmarker model places 478 points on each face. The 36 outline points form the face area; points around the eyes, eyebrows, lips and nostrils are traced and cut out with a margin so those features stay sharp.
- Soft mask. The mask edge is feathered by about 2.5% of the face width, and (optionally) multiplied by a YCbCr skin-color likelihood so hair over the forehead, glasses frames and beards are smoothed less.
- Bilateral filter. Each skin pixel becomes a weighted average of its neighbors: weight = exp(−distance² ÷ 2σs²) × exp(−color difference² ÷ 2σr²). The spatial radius scales with face size and the Blemish size slider, so a close-up and a group photo get similar results.
- Texture back. The finest detail, original minus a 3 × 3 box blur, is added back according to Keep skin texture, which restores pores and avoids a waxy look.
- Blend. The retouched skin is mixed with the original by mask × strength, so outside the face nothing changes.
Recommended settings
| Photo | Strength | Blemish size | Keep texture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional headshot, LinkedIn photo | 40–60% | 30–45 | 50–60% |
| Selfie with uneven skin | 65–80% | 45–60 | 35–45% |
| Close-up beauty shot | 80–95% | 60–80 | 20–30% |
| Group or full-body photo (small faces) | 60–75% | 40–55 | 30–40% |
| Men's portrait with stubble | 40–55% | 30–40 | 55–70%, Protect non-skin on |
Tips for natural retouching
- Compare at 100% size. Smoothing that looks subtle on a phone screen can look strong in a print; drag the before/after divider across the face.
- Protect freckles and beauty marks with the Protect brush if you want to keep them.
- Retouch before resizing. The filter is scaled to face size, but more pixels give a finer, more natural result.
- Fix lighting first. Brighten or white-balance the photo before smoothing, since color changes afterwards can reveal the retouched areas.
Frequently asked questions
How does face-aware skin smoothing work?
First a face landmark model places 478 points on each face. The tool fills the face outline, cuts out the eyes, eyebrows, lips and nostrils, and softens the edge of this mask. Then a bilateral filter is run only inside the mask, and the result is blended with the original according to the strength slider, so nothing outside the skin is touched.
What is a bilateral filter and why not just blur?
A bilateral filter averages each pixel with its neighbors, but gives a neighbor less weight the more its color differs. Smooth skin areas get averaged, which removes small spots and uneven texture, while strong edges such as the jawline, nose and hairline are left sharp because the colors on either side are very different. A plain blur would soften those edges too.
How do I avoid the plastic, over-smoothed look?
Keep some texture: the Keep skin texture slider adds back the finest detail (pores) after smoothing. Use the Natural or Light preset, keep strength around 50 to 75%, and choose a Blemish size that matches the spots you want to soften rather than the largest setting.
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The face model and all filtering run inside your browser. The model file is downloaded from a public CDN the first time, but your photo never leaves your device.
What if no face is detected?
Faces that are very small, strongly turned, covered or drawn may not be found. In that case the tool smooths skin-colored areas instead, and you can use the Smooth and Protect brushes to adjust exactly which areas are retouched. The same fallback is used when the face model cannot be downloaded.
Does it work on all skin tones?
The face mask comes from facial landmarks, so it does not depend on skin color. The optional Protect non-skin and neck smoothing steps use a broad YCbCr skin color range that covers light to dark skin; if a part of the face is wrongly protected, switch Protect non-skin off or paint it with the Smooth brush.
Can it remove wrinkles or acne completely?
It softens fine lines, small blemishes and uneven texture, but it is not a healing or cloning tool. Large spots and deep wrinkles become less visible rather than disappearing, which usually looks more natural.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.
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