Does this look like a dirty fingerprint in the background of this picture? How should I approach cleaning this off? Thanks. Sylvia

hi sylvia,

havent seen you around for a while. welcome back :)

and yes, it does look like a print. clone, push, smudge, airbrush, or even extracting the person from the background shld work. you might could even do it with a flood fill if you got the settings right.

craig

Hi Sylvia, welcome back.

Are you asking how to get rid of it in Photoshop, or are you asking how to clean the fingerprint off the original?

If the latter, I think we'd need to know what kind of print it is, what kind of paper, how old, and just about anything else you can tell us about it. (Don't know anything about this kind of work myself, but this is the sort of info that's usually asked for by those who do).

Hey it would be nice if you could remove the fingerprint before it was scanned. The good news is that the print is on a non-important part of the picture so I copied the layer and used median blur on the copied layer. On that layer I used a layer mask filled with black and then painted the mask with white where the fingerprints where.

I then ran neat image on the photo to clean up the rest of the image

Finally I copied that layer and sharpened it using smart sharpen and again added a mask and painted the mask so that only the eyes and nose were sharpened.

G'day Craig, mate could i impose and ask whats meant by the term "Push" as i am a nivic ehere also:)..
Cheers

It's not a fingerprint.

The texture doesn't travel onto the girl. If it was a fingerprint then the person applying the fingerprint has only left their prints on the wall behind the girl. She would therefore have to be in front of the person with the thumb, if it were a fingerprint. That would be a cool trick, and he'd have to have a giant thumb.

It looks like the texture of the wall.

M.

He'd only need a giant thumb if it was a large picture, if it were a small picture enlarged for the post, then a normal thumb would do the job.

But agree with you about it not showing on the girl's face, could indeed be wall texture, but it sure looks like a finger print.

Thank you everyone. I have missed the board. Other things have been pulling me away but I've decided I've really need to make time for this since it's something I love and really want to learn. However, as usual almost everything that's been said is over my head. I'm so in prekindergarten with this. I am working with Photoshop 7 and I am trying to clean up the image digitally, not physically. Craig, I've got to get my books and read up on 'Push, Smudge, and Airbrush". Phil, I love the results you produced but everything you did went right over my head. I'm very frustrated trying to learn the concept of masking. Reading about masking isn't getting through to me. I need some hands-on assistance and thus far I haven't found it in my area. The debate over whether it's a fingerprint or not is interesting. When I look at this .tif image in Photoshop, most of that side of the photo has a lot of what looks like dirty fingerprints while the other side and background look normal like what a photo and background should look like so I'm thinking it's many dirty fingerprints. Either way, I've got to get it cleaned up and in order to do that, I've got to get the skills to be able to do that. Thanks everyone. Sylvia

Well you aren't alone in trying to understand these concepts. Katrin Eisman's Book "Restoration & Retouching; vol 3; page 70" makes some comments about masking and adjustment layers. Maybe this will help.

Using Photoshop make a new file by using file/new
Select the preset "Default Photoshop Size" Name the file Mask [picture 1]

Select a nice red color and fill the background layer with red. You can use the swatches palette or the color picker to make that your foreground color. Under the Edit/Fill Menu select Fill with foreground color. Now the background layer should be red [picture 2].

Click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette (1.)
Name the Layer Lime Layer
Fill the lime layer with a green color
Add a layer mask to the Lime Layer (2.)--[picture 3]

Notice that the mask icon has a thick frame which means its selected. That means that when you paint on the lime layer you will be painting the mask not on the lime color. Also notice that the foreground color is now white and the background color is black. [picture 3a]. What you paint on the mask controls what part of the layer is shown. The mask is filled with white so all of the layer is visible. So select black as the foreground color. Select a brush. Now paint on the lime layer (your painting the mask) with your black brush. What is painted black on the mask hides the layer. Since the part of the mask that is black hides that part of the lime layer, the bottom red layer shows through. [picture 4]

It's wall texture.

This is not a fingerprint.

The clue is the edges of girl against bg, has nothing to do with her face. It's her hair and garment vs. wall, esp on left side of pic.

M.

volvo and anna,

'push' is a tool in paint shop pro. the equivalent in ps, i'm told, would be a very heavy smudge. you're simply sort of setting the brush in a spot and pushing that color/shade around until you let up. the main difference between push and smudge is that push keeps the same paint color as you go where smudge tends to fade out in a short bit. so, push is very handy for painting things like edges. you set the brush on the edge, hit the shift key, and put your brush further along the line and then click again. this will drag the color you first set completely along that line to where you clicked again. at a low opacity it's very handy for very fine work, using very short strokes.

and anna, smudge is just what it sounds like, smudge. you sort of mush the pixels around as if you were finger painting...sort of :)

airbrushing is also pretty close to the real airbrushing. you know, those little air pistol things that shoot out a spray of paint and give a sort of speckled look at times. they used to be used a lot for painting onto t-shirts and things.

and the reason the fingerprint or whatever it is doesnt show on the girl's head is because of the darkness of her hair along there. the values of hair along there range from 0 to about 21 or so, essentially hiding/erasing the texture or print...or whatever it is. but it's moot anyways. it's garbage whatever caused it.

craig

Craig,

Thanks for those explanations. I got into my Photoshop book and found smudge. I'm glad to know 'push' is associated with Paint Shop. I'm probably going to try several ways of cleaning this up and see what comes out the best. You all may be my judge. I've still got to read up on airbrushing.

Phil,

That was a good exercise in masking and I was able to do that with no problem. But I don't know how to take that simple exercise and apply it to working with a photo. After doing it, I went back to your directions of how your achieved your results and attempted to follow that same path but crashed. This is what makes it hard about trying to learn something without an instructor present. This is what I did. I copied my image. Then I hit mask using the mask button in the pallet. Then Edit> Fill> Foreground color Black. But nothing happens. ??? Even though the mask didn't fill with black I continued to try to keep going with the rest of the steps but nothing happened. I'm sure there's probably something very simple I'm missing but it's not happening for me. Thanks so much for your help.

Sylvia

Well I don't know what to say except your right having an instructor present would help. Why don't you try this. New file, default photoshop size and fill the background layer with red. New Layer and fill that layer (layer 1) with green. Now you should see nothing but green. Now while holding the alt key Windows or the option Key Mac, click the layer mask button.

The mask should appear and it should be filled with black. Since Layer one is completely hidden all you should see is red. Paint on the back mask with white color and the green in layer 1 will start to become visible.

I'm going to have to come back to that. I'll show you what I've accomplished with the techniques that I do know how to use............ which I guess is just the simple stuff. Next I want to clean up the face and see if I can bring out the features on the right side of the face that are washed out and overexposed.