Please help a newbie with gimp

[star]

Hi I am new @ trying to do any PP and I have seen some posts on here that talk about smoothing out skin or getting rid of blemishes on a photo but I don't recall any specific instructions on how to do so, the only software that I have right now is Gimp 2.6 and I am still trying to get the hang of it. Any help that you can offer will be appreciated, the only tool I can think of that might accomplish this task is the smudge tool ???
Thanks in advance,
Star

[starrylaurie]

You can use the smudge tool, but you'd need to soften the effect quite a bit by opening the toolbox and lowering it from 100% to .... whatever ends up looking natural. 25% or less, I'd say. I usually use the clone tool and the healing tool when getting rid of blemishes, the smudge tool will simply smear the color around a bit & you don't want to add to the redness around a blemish. Play with it, though. GIMP is a powerful tool once you get the hang of it!

[tingeliM]

The healing tool is pretty good. I've tried it once or twice.
You just ctrl+click somewhere where there's the color you like and then start clicking on the face and the tool mixes the selected color with the places you're clicking.

[skipjack]

Yeah. Your best bet when trying to clear away skin blemishes or wrinkles or anything to do with the skin would be the healing tool. It takes a part of your skin and copies it then it will paste over the spot that you would like to heal. It works wonders once you get the hang of it. Try It!

[a0x808080]

This tutorial on touching up faces might help: Tutorial

There's a lot of different tutorials on the net, but that's the first one that came up that gave you screenshots of GIMP to go along with the steps in the tutorial.

[star]

Thanks .... starrylaurie, tingeliM, and skipjack for all your tips and info.

Also THANK YOU a0x808080, I am a visual learner so the tutorial link you provided really helped me to better grasp the concept.

I have been trying to find my way through Gimp and wanted to make sure that I was experimenting with the most effective tools, thanks for the help it's really appreciated!