Are there any effective Photoshop CS3 plug-ins for removing dirt and dust marks from old pics rather than doing manually using the history brush and gaussian blur?

Thanks

I've had good luck in the noise area - dust/dirt feature tool thing.

I haven't used this but I have purchased some of their other products...
http://akvis.com/en/retoucher/index.php

there is a trial period...the bummer is that it is only 10 days

It's worth a try...thanks Skydog.

Lets us know your results

welcome to RetouchPRO, Davet.

two of the most used here are Polaroid Dust and Scratch Removal and Neat Image.

Thanks guys I'll give all these a try.

Dave

Craig, I used to use Polaroid Dust & Scratches! Got rid of your choice of either white or black specs. It was free, too.

Since you mentioned it I just fired up the installer, and it worked on my Intel Mac and Leopard! I never did use the standalone version, but it works (takes a bit of experimentation though, since there doesn't seem to be a live preview).

Photoshop CS3 doesn't seem to recognize it as a plug-in, not surprisingly.

Photoshop CS3 doesn't seem to recognize it as a plug-in, not surprisingly.


Phew... thought that I was going crazy trying to get CS3 to recognize it...

hi plugs,

glad to hear it works on those systems. i'm a little surprised. this little app has been around for a long while now. and no, there is no live preview in stand-alone mode, but it's pretty easy to work with, nonetheless.

i wish polaroid would upgrade this and do a formal mac version as well.

ummm, i'd be very surprised if cs3 didnt recognize this. as far as i recall, it's a standard .8bf file in the child/parent mode. do remember that when using within an editor, there is a pixel limit on image size. that may be why you're having trouble.

I just did a search and you can still download it from here (http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html).

ah, good.

maybe i'll write polaroid.

The background was badly marked as well as overall dust so I still ended up using gaussian blur for the background.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_9Tc7X1GI-AM/R9pQLOP86AI/AAAAAAAAAjU/vi-6Tsxf1KU/s1600-h/Edwardian.jpg

well, I did install a version just the other day and it DOES show up as a plugin in CS3....

Anyone try the digital-ice plug-ins for photoshop.

http://www.asf.com/

SHO seems an auto version of GEM+ROC.

ICE is an adaptive dust removal tool.

I know that kodak has been developing this software for 50 years, so Its worth looking at. It does work pretty well for my Nikon SuperCoolscan 5000.
It has mixed results for my V700, as the ICE algorithm can get confused and spit out garbage, when doing photos that is. No problems with transparencies/negatives.

Re: Dust & Scratches. I've been repairing old family photos and have been using D&S on a separate top layer, then erasing through the results where it smoothed out highlights too much (eyes, watches, buttons, etc.).

Caveat: D&S doesn't work properly on layered images so you have to make a separate duplicate of your Background layer (I select all>copy>new document>paste>flatten), and drag the treated results back onto the original image as the top layer.

If it shows up in CS3, perhaps you are using a PPC Mac (or Windows)? Works on my PPC Mac, but not on the Intel, I don't think.

Re: Digital SHO (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/digitalshopro.html) (etc.). I've had these Kodak plug-ins since 2003 and I think they were updated once since then (?). I consider them oldies at this point (though nowhere near 50 years; how can that be?). I would look elsewhere (iCorrect (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/icorrecteditlabpro.html), etc.).

I am in shock right now. I just downloaded the Polaroid Dust and Scratch Removal Utility and tested it on a picture I had worked on manually a while back. It took about 10 minutes to do what originally took me HOURS to do...and it looked better! I appreciate the discussion on plugins (I am using this tool standalone because I have gimp) and I am glad that 'plugsnpixels' provided the link! THANKS!

Jim

Following from plugsnpixels post, I have tried Dust and Scratches many times but I have always had poor results. My usual problem is that it creates more serious artifacts than the flaws that it fixes. I have tried the plugin and the standalone.

I have a large number of old photos that I want to restore.

I have read so many favourable comments on D&S I am sure that I must be doing something (or maybe lots of things) wrong.

Apart from plugsnpixel's tip (about layers), where can I get more advice on making D&S work optimally?

I am using an iMac PPC G5 and Photoshop CS2.

zeuster

You're welcome, Jim!

zeuster, best I can say is play with the settings and see what they do. Fix the worst stuff with D&S and erase through what gets overdone (mainly highlights).

zeuster, welcome to RetouchPRO.

one way to help you out here, aside from writing a tutorial on D&S, would be for you to post a before and after and tell your settings you used and what you like and dislike about the piece after d&s. others could then take your before and apply their own settings and post their afters and we could all compare and perhaps learn.

MSU Image Restoration, Retouch Pilot and Wire Pilot are excellent restoration plugins worth having IMO.

The former is free for non-commercial use and the Pilots both have a free version you can do a lot with.

Many thanks to plugsnpixels, Kraellin and secretagents for your replies to my question.

To explain a little more the problems I am having, no matter how much I fiddle with the settings, when I find a combination that results in an acceptable result on the dust and scratches, I find ugly artifacts are created *elsewhere* in the image. They take the form of ugly crunchy areas around high-contrast edges. When I fiddle with the settings to make the *artifacts* acceptable, I find that the dust and scratches are still easily visible and therefore still need fixing.

I don't fully understand what some of the controls in D&S do but with fiddling I have found what seems to be the best settings. I am surprised there appears to be no documentation around that explains their use--specifically, how to obtain optimal results.

I have often wondered whether the PC and Mac versions of D&S are different under the hood, which might explain why the results reported on forums seem to be so positive (perhaps from PC users) while others might be experiencing similar problems to me (using Macs). Can Mac users comment on their experiences, please?

I guess Kraellin's suggestion might be the way to go. I will look around for a suitable example to post so others can see what I am talking about.

With respect to the alternative plugins suggested by secretagents, I have looked at the publishers' websites and (unless I have missed something) they appear to be PC only. I am using a G5 PPC Mac. So while they seem to be really useful tools for PC users, but unfortunately, they will not help me.

zeuster

I would still try the erase-through-the-layer approach to bring back the areas you wish to keep untreated.

I'm surprised there is no other easy spotting app like this available! Far as I know...

Many thanks to plugsnpixels, Kraellin and secretagents for your replies to my question.

To explain a little more the problems I am having, no matter how much I fiddle with the settings, when I find a combination that results in an acceptable result on the dust and scratches, I find ugly artifacts are created *elsewhere* in the image.

History Brush or layer/masking to keep only what you want to keep of the filter you applied to the entire image, no ?

With respect to the alternative plugins suggested by secretagents, I have looked at the publishers' websites and (unless I have missed something) they appear to be PC only. I am using a G5 PPC Mac. So while they seem to be really useful tools for PC users, but unfortunately, they will not help me.

Sorry about that. I am only beginning to discover that there are people using Macs out there.

With Intel processors, Macs ARE PCs! That's how I use Windows-only plug-ins and apps.

plugsnpixels, secretagents and others

Thanks again. I see what you are saying--there are well established techniques for retaining the wanted effects of a process (D&S cleaning in this case) and discarding any unwanted effects.

I guess I had high expectations (unrealistic?) for D&S--I didn't expect to have to follow with another process to retain wanted effects while excluding unwanted effects.

As noted earlier, I am using a PPC G5 (ie it doesn,t have an Intel CPU), so I don't have a practical option for running Windows on my computer.

zeuster

zeuster, try using D&S in stand-alone mode. there, you can mask areas so that something you dont want affected, wont be. you can also mask it in photoshop or other graphic editor using those programs built-in masking functions.

also, programs like paint shop pro have a filter that is similar to D&S. i'm sure photoshop has something also.

and just ask about the various controls in D&S. someone will have the answer.

I just spent some more time exploring this topic, trying Paint Shop Pro X1 (the Salt & Pepper filter results look just like Polaroid D&S, and highlights still need to be recovered), Photoshop (at anything above a radius of 1 its Dust & Scratches filter just blurs the image, bah), Alien Skin Image Doctor (http://plugsandpixels.com/imagedoctor.html) requires a bunch of selections before doing its business and ImageTrends' DustKleen (http://plugsandpixels.com/dustkleen.html) (works best on solid-colored image areas of scanned photos).

I Googled Photoshop tutorials that dealt with dust removal and they describe the same process of erasing through layers or doing blending mode and manual brush tricks. The Healing brush and Clone Tool work of course but both are a very manual process – we want something as close to automatic as you can get.

So I'd say stick with Polaroid D&S and follow the recommendations above! It's free, quick, does a very good job and the layer trick enables you to erase through and recover highlight areas that got smoothed over.

plugs, try the 'automatic small scratch remover' in Paint Shop Pro xi. it's even closer to D&S. it's in the 'adjust' menu items under 'add/remove noise'.

Thanks plugsnpixels. I'll be following your advice.

zeuster

Craig, in your honor I finally put Paint Shop Pro X2 on my MacBook (replacing X1), and you're right, the 'automatic small scratch remover' looks just like Polaroid D&S!

well, i'm honored... i think ;) :)

yes, Paint Shop Pro isnt above borrowing good ideas. and they did a pretty good job of it, too.

As a Mac user I never gave Paint Shop Pro any thought over the years, but since running Windows on Intel Macs and receiving the last few versions of Paint Shop Pro for promotion on my website, I must say I'm very impressed with it--especially for the price ($79!).

While I was in Windows I also spent more time with Filter Forge (http://www.plugsandpixels.com/filterforge.html) and was reminded how absolutely cool it is, with thousands of unique filters to play with and modify at will.

i've used Paint Shop Pro since version 4, plugs... before Jasc and before Corel. it's where i cut my teeth on graphic editors.

and as for filter forge, that is just one amazing program and it's only going to get better! :)