Using Face Refinement mask for subsequent operations

Strangely, the Face Refinement plug-in doesn't seem to offer color compression. If this is correct, is there a way to use the mask it creates for operations outside of the plug-in?

I don't think you can use the mask outside of the OFX, which is unfortunate.

You can copy the OFX node, use the “show mask” checkbox and pipe the black and white mask image into the key input of a new node (you’ll need to invert the key input for the new node in the key palette).

The mask is not as sophisticated as you might expect, it’s essentially a soft ellipse with eyebrow holes.




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Ah, thanks. Is my understanding that the Face Refinement tool does *NOT* include color compression correct?

No, the colour compressor is a seperate OFX. I have used it on faces / skin before but you need to be gentle, it’s a fairly blunt tool. I’d usually use it with a key and a garbage mask.

For dramatic skin tone variation I usually use multiple nodes with keys and masks targeting different skin zones, and try and push things a bit closer together without loosing desirable variation and texture. Can get complex quickly, I’d only really do this on a traditional “beauty” style shot.


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I like to nudge hue, saturation and lightness of skin tones together to varying degrees. Small changes (especially compressing hue) can make a nice subtle difference without the weird plastic look of "smoothing." It's like a very thin coat of make-up.

Me too, I just find it inevitably has to be done “the hard way” (ie carefully and manually) to end up looking any good. Much like makeup, if the end goal is consistent skin tone, different problem areas require different levels of treatment and technique to get to an overall consistent and pleasant result. The colour compressor can be a bit like applying a thick layer of foundation over someone’s entire face - it tends to make things unnaturally consistent!


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