How to smooth out images

Removing blemishes from images is not an easy process, and there are lots of tutorials out there on how to smooth out images; my tutorial aims to show you a very basic and simple way of doing that. All you need is Adobe Photoshop CS4 or up - as I'm not sure if the features we will be using were available in older versions - and a "sharpened" image. I will be using a random Alexander Skarsgård image taken from Google that I sharpened myself beforehand.

Open your image in Photoshop, then go to the top Filter menu and select Blur; we will be using either the Blur, the Gaussian Blur or both options based on how much we want to smooth out the image.

Since I want to smooth out the image a lot, I'll be using both Blur and Gaussian Blur options; the first has no settings, just select and click on it to apply and you should have something like the image down here.

To apply the Gaussian Blur go to (top menu) Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur... and, once the tab opens, set the value to 0,2/0,3 - that comes in handy if you have to smooth out an image just slightly.

Click OK and repeat as many times as you like - I usually don't do more than 2 times, 3 tops, as more is almost never needed; here's what I have as final result after applying the Blur and the Gaussian Blur (3 times) filter.

Once you've applied these filters, the image should be smoothed out enough to hide minor blemishes. Enjoy! ^.^