Significant dirt on photo - ideas?

[Leah]

Looking for some pointers here... I have this important family photo to restore that isn't generally in too bad shape -- some stains, splodges, minor tears, easy enough to handle -- but it has this ingrained dirt all over it (see attached sample). On the background I can use dust and scratches filter with no problem, but that won't work for the face.

My feeling is to try the Healing tool in Lighten mode, but I wondered if anyone else here has any tried-and-tested techniques for dealing with this kind of grime?

[Gary Richardson]

Try selecting areas where grime is bad, copy and paste to a new layer, change blend layer to lighten, then move new layer by 1 or 2 pixels. This will get rid of grime in large areas with not too much detail, detail areas must be done by cloning/healing brush. Hope this helps.

[Mike]

I have had a couple of jobs like that, after making the best copy I could, I gave them a good gentle washing with water and photoflo. A good deal of the dirt came off thereby making the retouching much easier.

Hope you have already tried this.

Mike

[Doug Nelson]

Try using d/s, select all, define as pattern, restore original, healing brush set to pattern and check aligned.

[Duv]

Hi Leah

I tried to treat it as noise. Ran it thru a program called Noiseware Community Edition. I think it's freeware. Other software would do the same. Not sure if this moves you forward.

Cheers
Dave

[saby]

Hi Leah!

make a mask (better than mine) of eyes lips nose
duplicate layer dust and scratches radius: 16- 25
treshold 0
blending option luminosity fill 60%
duplicate layer blur 6 pixel radius
blending option color fill 100%
some dust and scratches need on each channels
and stamp

Saby

[Flora]

Hi,

I run Polaroid Dust&Scratches Removal filter (can be downloaded free here) on Leah's picture twice, adjusting the settings.

Added a new empty Layer and used the Blur Tool (40-60% Stenght) on the remaining noisiest parts. (adjusted Opacity)

Run Neat Image on the individual Channels adjusting the settings for each Channel.

[Bob Walden]

Flora, any reason for using Polaroids D&S over Photoshop D&S?

Bob

[Flora]

Hi Bob,

the only reason I sometimes use the Polaroid D&S instead of Photoshop D&S is that the Polaroid Filter lets you target light and dark noise individually ....

[Flora]

Just tried another approach:

• Duplicated the Background Layer.
• Working on the same duplicate I run Maximum and Minimum Filters.
• Still on the same Layer, I run Dust & Scratches.
• Used the Patch Tool to clear up.
• Run Neat Image.
• Run Levels on each Channel.
• Run Selective Color to improve the colour.
• Slightly blurred the image: Gaussian Blur Radius: 0.3 pixels.
• I used USM to lightly sharpen the image.
• Finally I added a little Noise.

[saby]

Hi Flora!

Do U know about neat-image for Mac?

saby

[Flora]

Hi Saby,

I just had a look at the Neat Image site ... this is what they say:

Q: Are you going to release a Mac OS9 or OSX version?

A: A Mac OSX version of Neat Image is under development.

[saby]

Tanx Flora

saby

[Leah]

Thank you all -- I am about to head off on holiday for a week but I shall be giving some of these a go as soon as I get back. Some of them I'd already tried and they give too soft a result for my personal taste, but there are some very promising avenues to explore...

[WendyW]

Flora,

Neat Image have been saying that about a Mac version for a long time ... but nothing has ever appeared


Wendy