New here in desperate need of crackle help

[twinkissed]

I truly hope someone can help me. I can't show the whole picture because it is for a client but I've attached a portion. This is severely crackled throughout the entire photo. I need to see if someone can be so kind as to help me remove this without losing all (of what's there anyway) of the detail. I tried the one layer mask tutorial (which has been wonderful by the way) about doing a dust and scratch filter behind the black mask but it doesn't seem to help with the detail. Then I tried the healing tool and it looked like a large sized Surat painting (Or however you spell the name) Please please help. I have been working on many photos for this lady and she needs this done by the 4th of October. I thought it would be ok but it looks just awful.

[Vikki]

I would suggest you scan in full color (not grayscale). This allows you to look at the channels for a possibly cleaner image.
Other than that, I would suggest NeatImage.
Keep in mind also, what you see on screen always looks a lot worse than how it will print. Printing on a Luster type paper could help conceal some of the pattern.

[twinkissed]

Thanks Vikki. Considering she couldn't even send it at a larger dpi, I probably won't be able to have it scanned at full color. I have Neat Image and for some reason never thought of using it for that purpose. I only think speckle noise. So I will be trying that right away and I really appreciate the fast reply.

[Billfields]

I had a family photo with the same problem. As Vikki said, it helps to look at channels. Since this one is grey scale this one tho this may help. Convert the grey scale to a duotone. I used a dark brown and light yellow. (First thumbnail) then you can convert that to RGB and look at the channels. Select the best and copy it. Convert back to grey and paste the channel layer into the photo. Adjust the opacity to the best balance between smoothing the cracks and keeping detail.

A bit of gaussian blur to the second layer may help too.

My final result is the second thumbnail

Good luck!

Bill

[twinkissed]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll give that a try and see what comes of it and keep you all updated incase anyone else is having the same problem. Everyone has been so nice and helpful here. This board is an answer to my prayers. Sometimes, you get so frustrated by a certain photo you can't even think. When I get those I know I should take a break, quit for the day, etc. but I'm a workaholic so I just find myself getting right back to my desk.

[kschulz]

Best place to start is getting a color scan, as Vikki suggested. If that's not possible, Neat Image seems to do a fair job with this one (at least I was surprised). You can apply the filter more than once with different sample areas to get as aggressive as you want, as shown here.

[twinkissed]

Update... I finally got it. Neat did the trick after some setting adjustments. Thank you everyone. I truly love this place and hope I can help someone else out in the future.