Best way to get rid of textured finish

[Robert Noyes]

Hi Group, first time posting to these forum though I have gotten a lot of great information from from the experts.

I have a photo that was taken back in early 1960's that was damaged by water that became "glued" to the glass from the frame. This photo has that textured pearl effect that was common at the time. The water damage has made this much worse.

What would you do to get rid of this effect. I have used channels to isolate, masking and healing brushes and everything I can but still not happy with results. I'm sure my client would love it but I'm too much of a perfectionist.

I'm not worried about the background the facial area is what I'm concerned about.

Thanks for any ideas.

[rrustic]

Try the FFT technique as outlined in the tutorials section
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=185

[Robert Noyes]

Actually I tried that. I'm not sure if it is compatible with Photoshop CS3/Vista. Once I got to step and applied the filter my red channel was solid black. Tried to continue the rest of tutorial to see what happened and froze my machine. I have 4 GB memory and plenty of scratch disc space available. I'm not surprised if it is a Vista issue.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I used a freeware program to remove most of the texture… it is called Image Analyzer.

I saw little benefit in using channels for the damage so I just used the clone and healing brushes.

I did use a few layers set to color to even color in the face and hair.

I then used curves to adjust tone and contrast, as I liked

I used noiseware to remove more noise

Then a little sharpening to finish.

Butch

[mistermonday]

A good noise filter like Noiseware can eliminate the texture pattern with out too much blurring. A selective color adj layer reducing the yellow in the yellow channel significantly attenuates the yellow stain. You can then touch up the damaged area. I gave this a 5 min whirl with a few daubs of the clone toool and Patch tool. Adding a blank layer with blend mode set to color can fix the color of the hair and patches of skin on the face. Finally a small amount of sharpening can help or selective sharpening of the eys (none of which did I do).
Regards, Murray

[Dave.Cox]

There is a size limit on how big an image that FFT can handle, depending on whos filter you are using. You might try reducing the size of the original image that you had trouble with.

[Kraellin]

i like that, butch. well done!

[Daviskw]

Thanks Craig