RESOLVE FX · SKIN RETOUCH SYSTEM
Beauty.
Smooth the harshness.
Keep the person.
Beauty is Resolve’s dedicated portrait-retouch effect. The useful workflow is not “blur until smooth”: choose the operating model, control smoothing, restore structural detail, restore believable microtexture, then use grain and Global Blend only as finishing tools.
Smoothing · Levels
Detail · Texture
Grain · Global Blend
The lab is intentionally frequency-oriented: raise smoothing, then use Detail and Texture Recovery separately. If the face becomes believable only after heavy grain or a very low Blend, the upstream balance is probably wrong.
Independent deterministic teaching model. It does not reproduce Blackmagic’s proprietary Beauty filtering or exact control scales. Use it to understand causality: smoothing removes variation, detail/texture recovery return different frequency bands, grain restores integration, and Global Blend controls the final mix.
Five native Resolve 21 Inspector captures plus an independent retouch teaching model.
SMOOTH · RECOVER · INTEGRATE01RETOUCH WITHOUT PLASTIC
Beauty works when softness and believable structure remain in balance.
Blackmagic describes Ultra Beauty as smoothing general imperfections while preserving facial features, then recovering texture. That sequence is the right mental model for the whole effect.
Retouching should reduce harshness, not signs of life
Beauty is useful when skin becomes calmer while eyes, lips, lashes, hair, and believable microtexture stay intact. Judge not “how smooth” the image is, but how much structure you removed and how much you deliberately restored.
Order matters more than any single slider
Choose the operating mode and smoothing character first, then restore structural detail, then microtexture, and only then decide whether grain is needed. Keep Global Blend as the final safety valve; it scales the result but does not repair a bad internal balance.
Beauty does not need to process the entire frame
For talking heads and portraits, it is often safer to limit the node to skin or face using qualifiers/windows/tracking. Hair, clothing, and background then avoid unnecessary smoothing, while Beauty can be tuned more precisely.
Official Blackmagic overview: ResolveFX Ultra Beauty ↗
02REAL RESOLVE 21 CONTROLS
Read the Inspector as four stages, not as a pile of sliders.
The five native captures confirm the menu options and the actual control names. Start with mode/smoothing, then recover detail, recover texture, and finish with grain/global mix.
01 · MODE + SMOOTHING
Choose the processing character, then reduce harsh texture.
- Operating Mode
Automatic, Advanced, and Ultra Beauty expose different depth and automation. Ultra Beauty is Blackmagic’s advanced corrective-beauty mode for more controlled, natural retouching.
CHECKDo not switch modes halfway through fine tuning and expect identical processing character.
- Method
The capture exposes Flatten and Filter. This changes smoothing character, not merely strength.
CHECKCompare pores, nasolabial folds, hairline, and lashes, where differences become easier to see.
- Strength
Primary smoothing strength. Higher values increase the risk of waxy skin and lost local contrast.
CHECKRaise it until the imperfection stops distracting, not until skin becomes maximally smooth.
- Levels
Controls how deeply or across what scales the smoothing stage treats texture as surface structure.
CHECKToo much can start affecting meaningful facial structure rather than only rough skin texture.
- Quality
Full, Fast, and Fastest trade evaluation quality against interactivity.
CHECKMake final detail and grain decisions on Full and inspect at 100%/200%.
02 · DETAIL RECOVERY
Restore structure that smoothing should not have erased.
- Strength
Sets how much structural information Detail Recovery restores after smoothing.
CHECKIf the face becomes harsh and dirty again, you are restoring the original roughness rather than useful structure.
- Width
Sets the characteristic scale of the detail being recovered.
CHECKTune it against eyes, lips, brows, and natural folds rather than a single cheek patch.
- Gamma
Redistributes recovery according to detail intensity, shifting emphasis between weaker and stronger structure.
CHECKWatch for halos and excessive microcontrast around strong edges.
- Blur
Softens the recovery map when restored detail looks too hard.
CHECKBlur should not become a second smoothing stage; use it to calm recovery only.
- Preview Edges / Details · Preview Recovery
Diagnostic previews reveal what is being treated as structure and what the recovery stage actually restores.
CHECKTune recovery in diagnostic view, then return to the final image and verify naturalness.
03 · TEXTURE RECOVERY
Bring back skin presence without restoring all original harshness.
- Texture
Strength of restored microtexture. It is finer in intent than structural Detail Recovery.
CHECKThe goal is to remove plasticity, not make pores the main subject again.
- Scale
Sets the scale of the texture pattern being restored.
CHECKMatch it to the real pore scale at the shot’s focal length and resolution.
- Detail / Edge Balance
Balances fine texture against more edge-like components.
CHECKWhen favoring edges, make sure lashes and lip contours do not detach visually from the skin.
- Preview Texture
Shows the texture-recovery contribution without the distraction of the final composite.
CHECKIf the preview looks like an aggressive high-frequency map, the final image will likely feel artificial.
04 · GRAIN + GLOBAL
Integrate retouched skin back into the texture of the shot.
- Add Grain · Strength · Size · Softness · Saturation · Detail Loss
Additional grain restores statistical and visual variation after aggressive cleanup. These controls set amount, particle size, sharpness, chroma, and detail-loss character inside the grain contribution.
CHECKGrain should integrate retouched skin with the source, not hide poor smoothing choices.
- Global Blend · Blend
Blends the entire FX result back with the source. This is the safest final intensity control.
CHECKIf Blend must be reduced heavily, revisit Smoothing and recovery stages instead of relying on global dilution.
03THE RETOUCH PATH
The safe order is isolate → smooth → recover structure → recover texture → integrate.
This order makes failures easier to diagnose. If the hair is soft, fix isolation. If skin is waxy, fix smoothing/recovery. If retouched skin feels detached from the shot, solve integration last.
Protect what should stay sharp
Use a qualifier/window/tracker when needed so hair, clothing and background do not inherit skin smoothing.
Teaching workflow, not a literal Resolve node graph. Beauty can sit on a full-frame node, but a tracked skin/face isolation often protects hair, wardrobe and background from unnecessary smoothing.
04PRODUCTION PRACTICE
Three practical setups cover most Beauty work.
Use them as decision frameworks rather than fixed numeric presets: face scale, lighting, codec, sharpening and existing noise all change what “natural” means.
Corporate interview under harsh light
Limit the node to face/skin, use Ultra Beauty, apply moderate Smoothing, and first restore eyes, lips, and brows through Detail Recovery. Add Texture Recovery only after checking at 100%, then use a touch of Grain if needed and finish with Blend.
Close beauty shot
Work more gently than the small viewer suggests. Close-ups reveal repeated blur patterns and synthetic microtexture quickly. Check bypass and adjacent frames often so the face does not change character from frame to frame.
Fast rough preview
Use Fast/Fastest and a simpler mode for responsiveness, but switch Quality to Full before delivery and re-evaluate detail, grain, and Global Blend. Final decisions should not be based only on the accelerated preview mode.
05BEAUTY VS OTHER REFINE TOOLS
Choose Beauty when the problem is skin texture, not when the task needs feature-aware AI control.
| Tool | Best at | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Beauty | General skin smoothing with explicit detail/texture recovery and optional grain. | Not a feature-by-feature facial analysis system. |
| AI Blemish Removal | Fast localized removal of small blemishes. | Much narrower than a complete retouch chain. |
| AI Face Refinement | Face analysis and feature-specific corrections. | Heavier workflow when you only need gentle skin smoothing. |
06TROUBLESHOOTING
Most Beauty failures are frequency-balance failures.
Do not cure every problem with more controls. First identify whether the failure comes from isolation, smoothing, structural recovery, microtexture, or final integration.
01Skin looks plastic+
Likely cause: Smoothing is too strong or Detail/Texture Recovery is insufficient.
Fix: Reduce Smoothing first, then restore structure and microtexture separately; do not try to rescue the image with Grain alone.
02Eyes and lips became soft+
Likely cause: The FX is acting too broadly, or Levels/Strength are affecting meaningful facial features.
Fix: Restrict the node with a mask and use Detail Recovery/Preview to bring structure back deliberately.
03Texture Recovery looks sandy+
Likely cause: Texture/Scale/Detail Edge Balance are restoring too much texture or the wrong texture scale.
Fix: Reduce Texture, match Scale to real pore size, and re-check Preview Texture.
04Retouching separates from the rest of the image+
Likely cause: The retouched region lost the source texture/noise, or Global Blend is too high.
Fix: Back off the internal stages, then add subtle Grain if needed and reduce Blend at the end.
07PRE-FLIGHT
A Beauty pass is finished when it survives bypass, 100% inspection, and motion.
08FAQ
Practical Beauty questions.
Where should I start with Beauty?+
For serious portrait work, start with Ultra Beauty and moderate Smoothing, then move through Detail Recovery, Texture Recovery, Grain, and Global Blend.
Should I always use Grain?+
No. Grain is useful only when retouched skin becomes too sterile or visibly separates from the texture of the rest of the image.
Does Beauty replace Face Refinement?+
No. Beauty is a broader skin-retouch/smoothing tool. Face Refinement analyzes a face and exposes feature-specific controls. Choose based on the task rather than assuming one universally replaces the other.
Can Beauty be applied to the full frame?+
Yes, but for portrait work it is often safer to isolate face/skin so hair, clothing, and background do not lose texture.
Sources and boundaries
The page separates evidence from demonstration: actual Resolve labels come from native captures and Blackmagic documentation; the interactive frequency model is only a teaching aid.