In this article
Further along the same row of sliders that holds exposure and contrast, Telegram keeps a Soften Skin control. It smooths the texture of skin while leaving eyes, hair and lips where they were, so the face stays readable instead of turning into a mask.
It is a good implementation of an effect that is usually done badly, and it is still the second thing to try. The first is fixing the light, because that is what is actually wrong with most of these photos.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Find the slider, which sits past the controls everyone stops at.
- check_circle Recognise when the problem is the lighting rather than the skin.
- check_circle Set an amount that survives being looked at on a large screen.
- check_circle Fix one spot without smoothing an entire face.
Watch the eyelashes rather than the cheek — whether they stay sharp is the whole difference between this and a blur.
face_retouching_natural Why it does not just blur the face
A plain blur treats every part of the image the same and takes the eyelashes with the pores. That is the plastic look, and it is what most beauty filters produce.
This slider distinguishes between fine variation with little contrast — skin texture, small blemishes, sensor noise — and edges with strong contrast, which are the features. It smooths the first and leaves the second alone. A face keeps its definition while the surface between the features quietens down.
The technique is not magic and it has a failure mode: push it far enough and it runs out of things it is confident are features. Then the boundary between a smoothed cheek and a sharp eyebrow becomes visible as a faint halo, and that is the point at which a viewer stops seeing a photo and starts seeing an edit.
Before you reach for this slider
Four photos that look like they need smoothing. In two of them the real problem is something else, and fixing that removes the urge entirely.
light_mode Direct flash, shiny forehead, hard shadows
grain Grainy, taken indoors at night
edit One mark you would rather was not there
group A photo of someone else
In order: light first, then a small amount of this, then the brush for anything specific.
settings Using it
- Attach the photo and open the editor The paperclip, then tap the thumbnail, then the sliders icon in the bottom toolbar.
- Scroll the row past the usual controls Soften Skin is further along than brightness and contrast, which is why most people have never met it.
- Fix the exposure first Highlights and shadows, while you are in the same row. This changes how much smoothing you want.
- Add a small amount Enough that you notice it disappear when you hold the image to compare, and no more.
- Zoom in before sending Around the eyes and along the jaw. Those are where over-smoothing shows first.
This page is one slider and the brush work that goes with it. The curriculum step covers the editor as a whole — the drawing layer, text, and working frame by frame on video — which is where the localised fixes above actually happen.
At a glance
- 1Find the slider
Soften Skin sits further along the adjustment controls.
- 2Light first
Harsh shadows are usually a lighting problem, not a skin one.
- 3Go easy
Check the result on a large screen before sending.
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