Tim, I downloaded the zip file and extracted it to my photoshop actions folder. When I tried to load it, my PShop (version 5.5) refused, saying it was from an incompatible version of PShop. Are you using PShop 6.0? I've been looking forward to your tutorial, so I'm bummed that I haven't been able to make this work yet. :(

Anyone else been able to successfully load Tim's action?

View tutorial here (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=5)

Thanks Tim. I finally got around to reading the tutorial. The action looks like magic! But I'll wait to download it until I know if it will work with 5.0.

Ed

cj, i couldn't either. same message you got. i have 5.5 too. and a mac - will that make it unworkable too, i wonder.

well, tim has certainly made the roadmap well enough for us to make our own action. the other way does appeal to my lazy. :D

Yes, the action is secondary to the tutorial. In fact, relying on it might actually be an obstacle to understanding the underlying principles.

Good point!

Ed

OK, I figured it was high time to give this action a whirl. I'm running 6.0 and it worked so I guess it was created for 6.0.
For a downloaded action, it's one of the best documented I've encountered. Tim gives you messages to guide you with enough details so that you know what you're doing. Some actions I've downloaded didn't help you out much at all and are confusing in exactly what they are prompting you for. The results I got were just what his tutorial promised. I used it on the same picture he did and was impressed with the results. It really removed the smaller wide spread cracks with very little compromise to any important details. I have to admit it's a winner even if you have to do the tutorial by hand, you will be pleased with the results.

To Tim
I say thank you for a very valuable action and tutorial. I can see alot of use for this one. A big thumbs up on this one Tim.
DJ

Has anyone tried it on other photos?

OK, I gave it a try on an other photo. Actually 2 photos. First I tried it on a crackled black and white I had of a man at a bar with lots of cracks all through it. It didn't give very noticable results but Tim's tutorial mentions it's not always applicable to all photos. So next I tried it on the Family one in the restoration challenges, #7 Beyond Redemption, and the results I got were quite profound. The large cracks were all that remained.
DJ

looks like it's only for photoshop 6 it won't work with PS5.:(

Sorry, I didn't even think about compatibility issues. It shouldn't be very hard to make a 5.0 version, though... I don't think I used any 6.0-exclusive features. I'll need to find the time to install 5.0 and jump through all the hoops...

The action will give pretty dramatic results on anything with high-contrast noise, but works in some other situations, too. I ran it on an image I saw in one of the forums a couple of weeks ago (bushboy), and got good results after trying 2 or 3 settings. In 2 minutes I eliminated damage that would have taken quite some time to remove by hand (see the attached image).

I'd be interested in seeing what kind of results you all are getting! (Those of you with 6.0, anyway... I'll see what I can do about the 5.0 issue.)

Thanks for the glowing review, DJ! Would you care to post your two tries? I could give it a whirl on the one that didn't work, or at least explain why it didn't...

_Tim

Tim
I didn't save the results but it's easy enough to repeat the process. I will get them up loaded as soon as I can. Probably tomorrow.

You're welcome about the review but "I calls em as I sees em" and what I saw I liked. :D
DJ

Not sure what I am doing wrong. I downloaded the zip file. Unzipped it and I get an atn file, but it does not look like a photoshop file. I copied it into my actions folder but it doesn't show up. Please help - I'm anxious to try it.

You have to load it using the little triangle thingy in the upper right corner of your actions pallette (and you must be using PS6).

Thank you I did get it to load, but I must have done something wrong - I ended up with more cracks than I started with.

I ran it again and it worked like a charm. I still had some cracks though, so I ran it a second time - both times with a pass of 4. It removed most of the cracks, but something very interesting happened. It darked the area around everyones eyes and now it looks like everyone is wearing heavy mascara. I guess I will have to adjust the settings a bit.

Or at least paint in decent earrings and nice hair :)

Very funny Doug.:)

Anthony,

Try running a few iterations with a setting of 0.4 rather than 4, maybe ending with an iteration of 1.5 or 2. I'll bet you'll get better results... The smaller settings will ignore lower-contrast edges and focus instead on the high-contrast damage.

The idea of the action is not necessarily to get rid of EVERY crack (some of the large ones will likely remain), but to get rid of pervasive amounts of smaller damage that would take hours to fix by hand. You'll note that in the tutorial image, some cracks still remain, but nothing too hard to fix in a couple of minutes.

Regards,
_Tim

 [details (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php/?m=show&id=5)]

I am using Photoshop CS and downloaded Quick De-Crack and I have put it is several places in the program and I can't find it when I open Photoshop.

What am I doing wrong and how can I fix this?

Thank you in advance,

John
j.staples@sbcglobal.net

I am using Photoshop CS also, Shironex, and the action works just fine. It downloads as a zip file though, so maybe that's the problem you're having..... did you click on the file to unzip it before installing? After unzipping it, place the Decrack.atn file in your Photoshop Actions folder (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Presets\Photoshop Actions)

I realize the action was written for version 6, but CS handles it well..... I really recommend trying it:-)

Sharon
http://www.pbase.com/photofixer

I really would love to try this action, but it's not working in PS CS 2. Anyone know how I could make it work?

What I am running in to is this:
Load ATN and run

At Step 3 (Copy) I get a message that says "The command 'Copy' is not currently available".
I pressed 'Continue" and then at Step 6 (Paste) I get a message that says "The command 'Paste' is not currently available".

I pressed continue again (just to see what happens) and it can't do anything because the active layer is empty.

If anyone could go through the action to see if it can be fixed, or if you know of an updated action that is PSCS2 compatible, I'd love to get a hold of it to see if it will work for me.

You can download the action HERE (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/decrack/Decrack-action.zip)

Thanks :)

In case anyone runs into this thread... the Decrack works if the image is flattened and there is just the 'Background'.

Thanks for Flora for assisting me with this.

:)

In case anyone runs into this thread... the Decrack works if the image is flattened and there is just the 'Background'.

Thanks for Flora for assisting me with this.

:)

Would love to see the results from the action that you got. :happy:

I just downloaded it and am praying that it helps cut down time on restoring Katrina images that I'm working on.

Skyarcher:

Check this thread:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=113832&postcount=48

I posted my result there as Flora had helped me out with some action issues.

I am going to try some different tweaks later today to see if I can get better results. It works pretty well on the small cracks.

Well I didn't make an action but that could easily be done. I took the image and copied it to a higher layer using a darken blending mode. I then used a median blur filter to eliminate most of the scratches.

Then to apply the blur to the white areas only I used a blend if Gray greater than some number like 210. It only took a minute and could be fine tuned and could be turned into an action. Only the real bright areas i.e. the white ones got blurred. You could probably follow up with a layer mask and touch up too.

Thanks Natalie!

While over in other thread, I noticed that you asked about how Flora split it up, into minimum/maximum - light/dark

Open your Actions palette, click on Decrack.atn to open folder if not already open. Then click on the very first line in that action. Go up to the top right arrow - click, then click Duplicate.

What I did here, was to change name of first set of actions to DecrackDARK, scrolled down and enabled Maximum. Then changed name of second set to DecrackLIGHT, scrolled down and enabled Minimum.

What I also did and it has helped me, was to enable Brightness/Contrast for both.

I'm working from smallest High-Pass settings up on both sets. And so far getting pretty good results, I think. :)

Hope this helps. And again, thank you for response.

*Listening to you music - how wonderful! Thank you! :D *

Skyarcher,

Thank you so much for explaining how to split the actions. I will attempt to do that later this weekend.

Glad you are enjoying the music :)

I really would love to try this action, but it's not working in PS CS 2. Anyone know how I could make it work?

What I am running in to is this:
Load ATN and run

At Step 3 (Copy) I get a message that says "The command 'Copy' is not currently available".
I pressed 'Continue" and then at Step 6 (Paste) I get a message that says "The command 'Paste' is not currently available".

I pressed continue again (just to see what happens) and it can't do anything because the active layer is empty.

If anyone could go through the action to see if it can be fixed, or if you know of an updated action that is PSCS2 compatible, I'd love to get a hold of it to see if it will work for me.

You can download the action HERE (http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/decrack/Decrack-action.zip)

Thanks :)

I flattened mine and only have one bg layer called Background and it still doesnt work. :( (PS CS2)

Hi,

I'm having trouble downloading Quick De-Crack. I get an error message saying that it's "forbidden". Any ideas?

What a great web site! I appreciate the tutorials and everyone's input.

Hi 6789,

welcome to RP! :pleased:

I've tried downloading the Quick De-Crack action just now and it worked perfectly .... but, lately, I'm familiar with this kind of error message when trying to download images as well...

A possible workaround:

copy the 'Link Location', paste it on a new window/tab in your browser and try to get to it this way ...

Thank you, Flora! I turned off my default downloading program and was able to get the De-Crack action without any problem. I'm excited to try it out...