Smoothing filter in Photoshop?

Question

When I did an image processing module in my Physics degree, we used to use a smoothing filter followed by a sharpening filter in order to bring out the large scale detail and eliminate the small scale noise. Let's not worry about the sharpening filter. The smoothing filter would work by taking greyscale (or colour) values for a pixel and the surrounding 8 pixels, adding them together and dividing by 9 (or some similar calculation). Is there an equivalent filter in Photoshop because the nearest I can find is a blurring tool which gives undesirable effects. Can you help me?

Answer 1

You would think Photoshop would give you this, because they use that exact function to set the eyedropper sample size.



Gaussian blur will get you close, but you can design your own filter:

Filter >> Other >> Custom

Enter "1" in the central 9 edit boxes, and use "9" as a scale factor. Save it somewhere if you plan to use it a lot.

Answer 2

Gaussian blur under filters might get you what you want. It is adjustable. Depending on which version you have, there are other blur options under filter>blur



You can also make a duplicate layer, (gaussian) blur that layer, and erase or mask the details you want tio keep. This may take some practice to keep it from looking altered.



My favorite way to smooth an image:

Use the eyedropper tool with a fairly large sampling to pick up the color you want. Make a new layer (when you do this, you can play around with the layer mode- sometimes setting the mode in the new layer box to [color] gives nice results). Fill or paint that layer with your selected color. Lower the opacity to around 15% (adjust to your liking). Now erase (mask works much better, if you know how- it's easy to learn.) the parts you don't want.

Answer 3

I use the filter Median. It's located in Noise>Median.



I usually put it to 7 or so pixels, and then play with the Opacity on the layer. Then do the thing to remove it on the parts I need sharp. It works much better than Gaussian Blur because it has a more realistic touch to it, but it works the exact same way.

Answer 4

The last guy was right, select the skin with the polyaganal Laso tool with a pt or two of feathering. Do it in several sections and abvoid the eyebrows, major facial feratures etc Gausian blur it mildly 2 to 3 pcs. (depending on quality dpi of image) Or rubber stamp or blur/smudge tool (finger on icon) if minor just beware of minor skin color changes. Practice, you'll get it right. Try new things, play. There's 6 differnt ways to get the same outcome in Photoshop. Just find what works for you.

Answer 5

My favorite way to smooth without taking away detail... After making all manual adjustments to a photo (levels, spot healing, clone stamp, B/W, etc.), convert to Smart Image. Go to Surface Blur, and play with the percentage in the preview (I usually like about 7 %).