Adjust the smoothing intensity sliders until the skin achieves your desired texture. Click to render.
Here’s why this 20-year-old plugin deserves a fresh look today:
Even though Kodak has long since discontinued development and support for the Digital GEM Airbrush Professional plug-in, its legacy endures. For over a decade, this tool was the gold standard for automated skin retouching among portrait and wedding photographers. Its ability to preserve fine details like hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows while smoothing skin was unmatched by competing products at the time.
Designed as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, making it easy to integrate into existing workflows. kodak digital gem airbrush professional 20 key new
Modern retouchers spend hours building frequency separation actions. GEM Airbrush 2.0 achieves a similar result in one slider: it separates detail from tone internally. The "Edge Preservation" slider is the key new control you’ve ignored. At 60-70%, it softens skin without touching eyelashes, hair strands, or fabric edges—something many AI tools still fail at.
: Unlike standard Gaussian blurs, this tool smooths skin while preserving hair, eyebrows, and skin texture. Detail Control
I can provide specific, step-by-step instructions on setting up a 32-bit bridge environment for your exact system! Share public link Adjust the smoothing intensity sliders until the skin
Around , Kodak released version 2.1 , which was a significant milestone.
Use the Apply Image tool paired with a Linear Light blending mode to isolate the texture.
The next time you instantly smooth a selfie with a smartphone filter or apply a one-click portrait enhancement, spare a thought for the Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush Professional 2.0 — the tool that helped pioneer the art of automated skin retouching, and did it with remarkable grace. For over a decade, this tool was the
October 26, 2023 Subject: Feature Overview and Licensing Structure Product Status: Discontinued (Legacy Software)
By 2007, it had become a core part of the KODAK PROFESSIONAL Image Enhancement suite , often used alongside "Digital ROC" (for color restoration) and "Digital SHO" (for exposure). It was famously demoed on photos of rugged subjects, such as a rodeo barrel rider , to prove it could soften skin without losing the "grit" and detail of the scene.