R E TO U C H I N G  

W I T H  
F R E Q U E N C Y   S E P A R AT I O N  
Get Flawless, Realistic Skin
W h a t   i s   F R E Q U E N C Y 
S E PA R AT I O N ?  

When you separate your photo into 2 layers:

HIGH FREQUENCY: Details

LOW FREQUENCY: Color & Tone
LOW FREQUENCY       HIGH FREQUENCY 
W h y   u s e   F R E Q U E N C Y 
S E PA R AT I O N ?  

It preserves the natural skin texture. When you

blur out skin, it looks plasticky and fake. Yuck.
NO!
 How to use 
F R EQ U E N C Y 
S E P A R AT I O N ?  
In 7 Easy Steps!
 1. Create the 
F R E Q U E N C Y  L AY E R S  
Create 2 copies of your base layer. Rename the first LOW
FREQUENCY and the second (top) HIGH FREQUENCY
 2 .   LO W   F R E Q U E N C Y 
Layer 
Use Gaussian blur on the low frequency layer to smooth
out the skin.
 3 .   H I G H   F R E Q U E N C Y 
Layer 
Under IMAGE, select
APPLY IMAGE. Change
settings to

L AY E R   –   L O W  
F R EQ U E N C Y 
S U B T R A C T:   S c a l e   –   2 ,  
Offset – 128, don’t 
invert 
OR  AD D :  Sca l e –  2 ,  
Offset – 0, Invert 
 4. Change BLENDING 
MODE 
Change the blending more of the HIGH frequency layer to
LINEAR LIGHT. 
 5 .   R E M OV E   F L AW S   f ro m  
t h e   H i g h   Fre q u e n c y  L a y e r 
Use the stamp tool to select areas of good skin to replace
imperfections. 
 6 .   S M O OT H   S K I N   i n  
Lo w   Fr e q u e n c y   L a y e r  
Use the MIXER BRUSH to blend the skin tone. The best
setting is MOIST, HEAVY MIX. 
7 .   C O LO R   C O R R E C T I O N  
(Op_onal) 
Make a blank
layer under the
high frequency
layer and color
any areas that
need correcting
with a low
opacity. You can
adjust the layer
opacity if you
need to. 
Once you know the basics, you can play around with this
technique to create fun effects (or even add
imperfections – like I did for this tutorial).

Fo r  m o re   d e t a i l s ,   i nfo r m a_ o n ,  
and a FREE ACTION – Visit 
kelseacherie.com