This is the million-dollar question. The eb-complete skin retouch action pack.atn is not a magic "fix all" button. It is a productivity multiplier.
The action gets you to 80% quality in 1% of the time. Your skill as an artist determines the final 20%.
To get the most out of the eb-complete skin retouch action pack.atn, do not just run every action at once. Follow this professional sequence: eb-complete skin retouch action pack.atn
Step 1: Raw Conversion Do your white balance and exposure corrections in Lightroom or Camera Raw. Do not sharpen the skin yet.
Step 2: Initial Cleanup Before running any actions, manually remove large blemishes (like stray hairs or big acne spots) using the Spot Healing Brush. The EB pack works best on a pre-cleaned image. This is the million-dollar question
Step 3: Run Frequency Separation Select the "EB Frequency Separation" action. Hit play. Wait 2 seconds.
Step 4: Evaluate Skin Tone If the skin is too red or yellow, run the "EB: Skin Tone Balance" action (if included) or add a Curves adjustment layer manually. The action gets you to 80% quality in 1% of the time
Step 5: Run Dodge and Burn Run the D&B action. Zoom in to 100%. With a soft brush at 5% flow, slowly paint highlights on the tops of the cheeks and shadows on the sides of the nose.
Step 6: The Final Glow & Sharpening Run "Soft Glow" – then immediately add a black layer mask (hold Alt + click mask) and paint white only where you want the glow (typically the forehead and chest). Run "High-Pass Sharpening" – mask this onto the eyes, lips, and jewelry only.
Even the best .ATN files can run into errors. Here is how to fix the most common problems with the EB-Complete pack.
The pack usually includes multiple action sets grouped by technique: