Is there a preferred skin smoothing method?

Every time I need to do a serious skin smoothing method, I use google to find one and it's always different. Is there one basic understood method with explanations as to why to do it that way? Some use layers for the entire image. I usually have to section off what I want smoothed and go at it that way since a lot of my portraits are a bit wider or include other objects that I wish to keep detail in.

There are as many different ways to use photoshop as there are users, there is no right or wrong, merely what works for you.

One thing a lot of people do is get ahold of one of the portrait retouching pluug-ins -- Portraiture or Portrait Pro and work with it, learning how to use it without overdoing it. One gets a feel of whether they prefer to depend on the plug-in or take the ideas and adopt a DIY approach.

Which is based on a older high pass method. Retouching techniques are constantly evolving. If you are looking for something standard, portraiture is good. If you wan to go learn it, I like this tutorial:
http://www.christyschu​ler.com/retouching.htm​l

If you really want to dig into it, this is a good resource:
http://www.modelmayhem​.com/po.php?thread_id=​439098

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=HwtuG107ack

although i have a more complicated workflow for important pictures, for some of them i just use a brush with small clarity in LR and in ps a made an action that is basically just a gausian blur + mask + blending mode changes...

Depends on the size and the skin of the final product.

cameronrad wrote in post #11852865
http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=HwtuG107ack

This is a really great method and one of the only methods I have seen other than the curves layer dodge and burn method that produces results that look real from web size to large print. Maintaining good texture is the key in any skin work.

There's no one preferred method but some work better than others. The current rage is all about "Frequency Separation."

And of course the trend in skin smoothing. There was a time when it was okay to take smoothing to barbie levels, but nowadays with vastly higher resolution cameras that can finely resolve skin texture, techniques have to adapt too.

Different photographers use different techniques because you're not really going to smooth skin from a 12mp camera the same way as from a 21mp or even 40mp camera, and the scale of the subject matters too, because you're not going to process a close-up the same way as a waist-up shot.

chauncey wrote in post #11849314
There are as many different ways to use photoshop as there are users, there is no right or wrong, merely what works for you.

Never say there is no wrong way to do something, you are begging some one to prove you wrong. As for wrong was of skin smoothing, I think we have all seen them on this forum to one degree or another.

Cameronrad's method is a good way to work, or other methods that are like it. The main quality of good skin work is creating and maintaining a good skin texture, not getting rid of it. Do your best to maintain detail in the skin and not to turn it into a giant gradient. As Kolor Pikker says, the size of the image may also influence how much work you will have to put into it for a quality result.

tonylong wrote in post #11849346
One thing a lot of people do is get ahold of one of the portrait retouching pluug-ins -- Portraiture or Portrait Pro and work with it, learning how to use it without overdoing it. One gets a feel of whether they prefer to depend on the plug-in or take the ideas and adopt a DIY approach.

+1 here.

TheLostVertex wrote in post #11855338
Never say there is no wrong way to do something, you are begging some one to prove you wrong. As for wrong was of skin smoothing, I think we have all seen them on this forum to one degree or another.

Cameronrad's method is a good way to work, or other methods that are like it. The main quality of good skin work is creating and maintaining a good skin texture, not getting rid of it. Do your best to maintain detail in the skin and not to turn it into a giant gradient. As Kolor Pikker says, the size of the image may also influence how much work you will have to put into it for a quality result.

Thanks man! Basically I tried to take all 20+ pages of that thread on "Frequency Separation" on Model Mayhem and dumb it down. I figure if people want to know the details of it and more about it then that thread is available.