Help please

[Swampy]

Most of you know that restoration is not my forte so I'm needing a little help.

I've enlarged a portion of a WWII era photo that I've been asked to clean up (restore?) but this close up shows thousands of blobs all over the place. Dark and light areas both. There is not a decent skin tone to work from as a clone source either, but my first priority is getting rid of all these dots.

I've tried clone, patch, blur and smudge dodge/burn tools, but either I lose detail (like natural folds in the clothing) or I end up with a blown out blob.

The best I've been able to do is select an area and run a median or various blurs, but again I lose details. This isn't much of a problem in the clothing areas, but it does tend to make the file look like artwork.

I'm lost. Help! :-)

[Ken Fournelle]

What about the Clone tool set to 10-20% opacity and Lighten or Darken
brush blending modes? You sample from the area near the "blob" and depending on if the area is dark or light, choose the appropriate blending mode.

I would have tried it, but your sample is small

k

[Frank Lopes]

Well, I'm dying to see what the wizards come up with...
I worked a bit on the forehead with the Spot Healing Brush in PS and I think, if you have the patience, it might do the trick

Originally Posted by Swampy

Most of you know that restoration is not my forte so I'm needing a little help.

I've enlarged a portion of a WWII era photo that I've been asked to clean up (restore?) but this close up shows thousands of blobs all over the place. Dark and light areas both. There is not a decent skin tone to work from as a clone source either, but my first priority is getting rid of all these dots.

I've tried clone, patch, blur and smudge dodge/burn tools, but either I lose detail (like natural folds in the clothing) or I end up with a blown out blob.

The best I've been able to do is select an area and run a median or various blurs, but again I lose details. This isn't much of a problem in the clothing areas, but it does tend to make the file look like artwork.

I'm lost. Help! :-)

[irshgrlkc]

Have you tried using the healing brush and clone tool set to lighten or darken? I used a blank layer above and used both the clone and healing brush to get my result below. I know its not the fastest way to do it though.

Also, is the picture you posted the original or after your various filters?

Another option is to use Katrin Eisman's method of duplicating the original layer twice (set one of the new layers to darken and the other to lighten). Nudge the two new layers so they are offset from the original, then use a layer mask to darken and lighten as needed.

[CJ Swartz]

Hope Flora comes back soon...

I'd just go with the Median or whichever tool of choice and remove the spots, bring back whatever detail I can with a layer mask, (there isn't any skin detail there anyway), and add some grain texture to an overlay layer of 50%gray. He's their cute guy in a uniform, and they won't be looking at his skin (after you've removed the spots). Bringing back detail in his eyes, nose etc. is difficult because the spotting is there also, but those are the most important details, of course.

[Swampy]

Obviously, the dots were not the only problem with this photo. Here's a low res jpeg of the original.

I'll give lighten/darken with the clone/patch tool a try.

[philbach]

Similar to Kerry's Post, I copied the layer and used lighten blending mode. I then used the median filter on this layer until the black spots disappeared (~18). Next I copied that layer and used darken blending mode. I selected these two layers and then selected new group from layers. To this group (blur group)I applied I applied a layer mask.

Then by painting the mask you can make both spots disappear.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

How about this... I applied dust/scratch then medium filter to a duplicate layer....Set a history snapshot... then backed up before the filters... set the histroy brush to lighten and clicked the spots away.

Butch

[byRo]

swampy, in restoration there is no "quick fix" that gives satisfactory results.

As you have observed, for clothes you can often get away with a good median blur but for faces it is clone and stamp all the way.
The filters you have applied to the face, have destroyed much of the original image and left some nasty marks behind - to be honest, best to go back and start again.

Whenever you can, always insist on the clone (J) tool and not the stamp (S) because this preserves the texture. Sometimes it doesn't give a good result first time - but try again and it might. Steer clear of edges - do these with the (S)tamp.

When stamping, although it may seem strange, best to use a higher opacity (I like 70%. This also prevents everthing getting to blurry.

Here I started on just the face (from your second post). Have to run off to a wedding now.

Rô

[Lasa]

The easiest way to clean up the large areas of the face (not eyes mouth)
Is to use the Healing brush set source to pattern.
First you need to clean a small light area (see attached sample) select it and make the selection a pattern. same with a cleaned up dark area. (see attachment)

Now use the healing brush and set the source to pattern and use the light pattern if working on light background, dark if working on the dark area.

It works very easy..
Around the eyes and lips you would probably be better of using a clone tool set to 60-75% and clone from near by..if to light just keep going over it building it up.

I only did the healing from source on my sample..it only take minutes.

Hope it helps,

Lasa

[Swampy]

Everyone has been so helpful. Thank you!

BUTCH... you are a genius! I've tried most of the techniques everyone has offered and Butch's offers probably the quickest solution. Amazing, really. I've been pecking away at the spots ("Out damn spot) all afternoon and just tried a quick low res version of your technique and I think it is going to work for me. Thank you again.

Ro.. yes, I know it's all so tedius and I did expect some tedium, but thousands and thousands of spots when I know the customer isn't going to pay the BIG bucks. I think she'd be happy with all the cracks gone, but I wouldn't. There in lies the rub. :-)

[Kraellin]

dee dee,

very do-able image. i went over the whole with clone, blank layer, and started around 40% opacity on the brush. hardness 80, density 100%, use all layers. this was to remove the spots.

i followed this up with a 20% opacity to remove my clone marks. and then a 10% for more fine tuning.

after that i did a bit of airbrushing at 2% opacity.

i followed that with a very small 'push' brush (smudge) at around 40% opacity, 80 hardness and lowered that a bit (20% opacity) for some of the corners, lips, eyes and other hard to get at areas.

i ran a light 'clarify', 2% on the whole.

i ran a usm at about 8/100/5

then i did a selection of just the cap and added noise for grain and gausian blurred it at 1% or so.

i then did a selection of the skin, not eyes, hair, mouth or cap, and added noise at 20, monochrome, uniform and guasian blurred that at 2%.

that's the basics, anyways. some of those steps may not be in exactly the right order; i'm always seeing a little something that needs cloning, airbrushing or pushing, but it's fairly close.

[Cameraken]

Hi Swampy

So you want a Quick Fix

Dupe the layer
Filter > Other > Minimum (setting of 1)
repeat
Filter > Other > Minimum (setting of 1)
Now
Filter > Other > Maximum (setting of 2)


Add a reveal all mask to this layer and then paint over the eyes, nostrils and mouth

Add a blank layer and paint in the cracks in the eyes etc.

Total time 6 mins.

These setting work on the second image posted. You will have to vary them for a larger image.

There is lots more that could be done (just depends when the money runs out)

The image you posted was greyscale. There may have been a better solution if we could see the colour scan.

Hope this helps

Ken.

[Swampy]

You people are magicians! I'm impressed with the many approaches you have used and the results you achieve.

The original was, unfortunately, scanned at 300 DPI grayscale. The customer had it scanned at the local newspaper and since it was a b/w print they scanned in black and white. (I'm guessing they scan everything in black and white and don't even deal with color unless it's a digital file from one of the reports that will print in color).

Here's where I've gotten thanks to all the help.

[unimatrix001]

I saw how you got the spots in the first photo.. that was done using decrack twice. I used the clone brush set to lighten and darken on a blank layer, used the patch tool a couple of times to smooth the edges of the clone tool. added some noise and small amount of gaussian blur.