I'm on a roll with the Decrack help and now I would like to tackle a couple other problems that seem to come up frequently.

I suppose waterspots is a basic and maybe is in Eismann's book or if you know where else, would appreciate. I have a photo taken in one of those make-it-look-like-old-time photo booths and the ink is fading leaving white spots all over. And, a regular (well polaroid) with actual waterspots.

Will try attachment - hope it shows up.

Gail

Gail
You will have to try uploading the attachment again.
There is no single way to fix water spots since they are not consistant in their damage and each photo is different. You may clone out some spots or in areas of little detail you might be able to do a dust and scratches filter with the history brush. It just depends.
DJ

DJ or whomever knows of an easier process for blending bleed out/age spots from those look-like-old-times photo vendors - I would be obliged. I will try attaching the photo again. It is very difficult to clone these out. I can do the background simply by blurring, but there are dots or spots all over the rest (face, hat, etc.) I've done a lot on it (although this is the original) but there must be an easier way. Advance gratitude - I hope I can help someone else soon like you all help me...although it appears I have a long ways to go. I will soon post one of my worst b4&aft so you can see I do do some things well.

Sorry, I attached the wrong photo.

It must be time to quit, I must be getting to tired to do the simple things.

You have another thread called Faded that had this photo. Is this about the same photo? If so check out that thread for my answer. Although you won't get any magic words just hard work. It's not an easy photo to fix.
DJ

Sorry DJ - I did have a different one with water spots and I hadn't gotten that far in the links, I was stuck on Davids answer and links to that Gimp program.

This one I also just cloned the waterspots and did a color thing with them and I can't remember what else. I just wondered, as I said, if there was an easier way..but as you said there probably isn't, it was just a lot of hard work. :o

Dj: Two things: 1) do all threads of the same or like information stick together and not go in chronological order with other information? 2) I went back through all the threads I thought I could but it didn't seem to end, do they go around in a circle? I learned a lot from other peoples questions and answers, but I was just curious how these threads run. Pretty neat stuff and links. THANKS TO ALL.

Gail,
Here's what I did to fix this. I ran levels and curves to brighten the image then I selected the large water spots with a 2 pixel feather and did a curves on that until is was close in match to the outside area. There is still a ring left which I cloned out along with the small water spots. This one was really pretty easy.

Now to address your next qestion, Threads do not stick to gether. Each thread is a seperate topic or subject and the only things that stick to it are the posts in answer to it. They are however housed under a catagory that covers the overall subject matter. Such as Challenge forum houses all threads that have to do with the challenges or the Salon houses threads that are topics other than related to photo retouching. Some threads are very long and may seem to go on for ever but they do not go in a circle or connect up to another thread even if they have some related topic. Hope that helps
DJ

:) Thanks DJ - just wanted to show you what I did cuz I work too long on pics that should be simpler (I thought) (my mother used to say - that's what thought did - 'it' just thought was the implication). I may have blurred it too much, but it seems ok. Anyway, my finish is attached.

Then I was wondering, where is the place that states the main thread topics so I can wander through another group? I found it once but I don't know what the route was. Graciously.

Gail
Excellent. Looks like you handled it very well.

To get to the main Forum list page from any page in the forum just go to the top of the page and click on "RetouchPRO Forums"
That will give you the list of Forum Catagories. If you click on a Catagory name you will get a list of all threads in that list. There may be several pages of lists so you will have to look at the bottom of the page and see if there are other pages. Usually in the lower right hand corner. The more you go through the forum the easier it will become to you so dig in. There's lots of good info.
DJ