Overview
Skin retouching in a general purpose editor is slow because the general purpose editor does not know what skin is. Frequency separation, dodge and burn on a soft light layer, careful clone work at high magnification, all of it produces excellent results and all of it takes a long time per frame. SkinFiner does the same separation automatically and gives you sliders for the parts that actually vary between images, which turns twenty minutes of manual work into about ninety seconds for the common case.
The important part of the design is that it treats texture and tone as separate channels. Smoothing acts on the tonal layer and leaves pore structure alone, which is exactly the opposite of what a blur based tool does. The result is a face that reads as photographed rather than as illustrated, which is the failure mode every automatic retoucher has been criticised for.
How the retouch actually works
The program builds a skin mask automatically on open, detecting skin tone regions and excluding eyes, lips, hair and background. The mask is editable with a brush, which you will use on the shots where somebody is wearing something in a similar tone to their skin, but for most images the automatic pass is correct.
Within the masked area the image is split into a texture component and a tone component. The smoothing slider works on tone, evening out blotchiness and colour variation without touching pore detail. A separate texture slider works the other way, so it can be reduced on a shot with harsh detail or pushed up on one that was shot slightly soft. Blemish removal is a separate brush that works on the texture layer only, so a spot disappears without leaving a smooth patch where it was.
Tone controls cover evenness, brightness, saturation of the skin region specifically, and a warmth control that fixes the colour cast from mixed lighting without shifting the rest of the frame. There is a shine reduction that targets specular highlights on the forehead and nose, which is the single most common fix on any image shot under a hard light.
Batch work and presets
Presets store the whole slider state and apply to a new image in one click. For a session shot under consistent lighting that is enough to carry an entire set, and the batch panel will run a preset across a folder and write the results to an output directory with a naming pattern. On a shoot with several hundred frames that turns a job that nobody wants into something that runs while you do something else.
The batch runs on the automatic mask, which is the limitation to be aware of. It is right on the overwhelming majority of frames and wrong on a handful, so the sensible workflow is to batch everything, review the output at a reasonable size, and take the few that failed back into the single image editor for a manual mask.
Standalone or as a plug-in
The standalone application opens the usual raster formats plus raw files from the common camera bodies, and writes back as a flat image or a layered file with the retouch on its own layer. The layered output is worth using, because it means the retouch strength can be adjusted afterwards with a layer opacity rather than being baked in.
The plug-in installs into the standard host filter path, so it appears in the filter menu of a general purpose editor and returns the result to the layer stack. That is the arrangement most retouchers prefer, since the rest of the work stays in the program they already have open and only the skin pass leaves it.
What you get
- Automatic skin mask detection with brush editing for corrections
- Texture and tone separated so smoothing does not remove pore detail
- Independent texture slider for softening or reinforcing detail
- Blemish brush that works on the texture layer only
- Shine reduction targeting specular highlights
- Skin specific tone, warmth and saturation controls
- Preset system covering the full slider state
- Batch processing across a folder with output naming patterns
- Raw file support for current camera bodies
- Standalone application and host plug-in in the same install
Inside the archive
- SkinFiner standalone application, 64-bit
- Host plug-in installed into the standard filter path
- Preset pack covering common lighting situations
- Raw camera profile set current to this build
- Notes on the layered output workflow
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 21H2 or later, Windows 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Processor | Quad core, 2 GHz or faster |
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB for batch runs on large raw files |
| Graphics | Any card with OpenGL 3.3 support |
| Storage | 1 GB free, plus space for batch output |
| Display | 1920 by 1080, a colour managed panel is worth having |
Installing it
- Unpack the archive to a local folder.
- Suspend real time protection for the length of the install.
- Run the installer as administrator and let it detect the host application for the plug-in.
- If the host is not detected, point the plug-in path at its filter directory manually.
- Open the standalone once and confirm no trial watermark appears on an exported file.
Mirrors
| Route | Region | Note | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, primary | Europe | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Direct, secondary | Asia Pacific | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Torrent magnet | Global | Small file, direct is usually faster | Online |
Release history
- Skin mask detection improved on darker skin tones
- Fixed batch output ignoring the naming pattern on the first file
- Raw profile set refreshed for recent camera bodies
- Shine reduction reworked to avoid flattening cheekbone highlights
- Layered output now names the retouch layer usefully
- Batch panel added with folder recursion
- Reduced memory use when processing files above 60 megapixels
Questions about this release
Does it make skin look plastic?
Not at the default settings. Smoothing acts on the tone layer and leaves texture alone, which is what prevents the plastic look. Pushing the texture slider far down will produce it if you insist.
Can it run as a plug-in inside my editor?
Yes, the plug-in installs into the standard filter path and returns the result to your layer stack.
Does batch processing use the automatic mask?
Yes. It is correct on most frames. Review the output and take the few failures back into the single image editor.
Are exported files watermarked?
No. The licensing is applied in this build, so exports are clean at full resolution.
Does it open raw files?
Yes, with the bundled camera profile set. For a very new body, convert to a linear format first if the profile is missing.
Comments
Mask detection on darker skin is noticeably better than the version I had. Was the one thing holding it back.
Using it as a plug-in so the rest of the retouch stays where it was. Clean exports, no marks.
Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.
Batched a 400 frame event set overnight, six needed a manual mask. That is a good ratio for me.