help in dust and scratches

[garfield]

I have a problem I would like to ask of you. My problem is that this set of pictures is sorta screen shots from game that my brother plays and he sorta wants to challenge me if i can repair it since i'm trying to learn how to use photoshop but i just don't wanna admit i don't know how. Pls. help. me the picture i have is bigger than 100kb so I can't post it. Have you heard of the intellihance filter? Well, I kinda use the quick enhance feature on it on a set of pictures I have on a folder using batch actions command. After doing that there apeeared some sort of dusts and usually you use the dust and scratches filter provided by photoshop itself. But I dont want to use the dust and scratches to the whole set of pictures again because it kinda blurs the WHOLE image but then some dust DID disappear but also the clarity of the images itself! How do I do it so that ONLY the dust disappears and the quality of the image still remains the same. Can anyone detail the steps one by one in order to do this? Is anyone willing to help me? Or can anyone tell me their email add so I can personally ask for help with him/her because I would reallty like to help my bro. Did anyone created an action for this kind of thing. Thanks!
P.S. why does some actions that I downloaded here don't work like the kaleidoscope, the digital deluxe, the enhance detail, the decrack? what does usm mean in the action reduceusm?

[Stephen M]

Garfield, I would go back to the original screen shots and reprocess them - rather than trying to fix a flaw that some previous processing introduced.

If the Intelihance step introduces problems - perhaps it is not the best 'correction' step?

A screen shot should not have dust or other such noise in it - and I can't think why an 'Intelihance' filtering would make the image appear to have dust spots. Do you mean it has enhanced these small flaws?

You have mentioned some of the actions that are available here for download so it sounds like you have found the 'RP Goodies' - have a look at the 'SmartDuster' and the 'AutoScanSpotting' actions, but any automated approach is often a compromise, unless the image is really bad to start with.

For many images - you can run these spotting actions and then use a layer mask to only apply these corrections to areas that do not have great detail, such as backgrounds. Important foreground subjects of interest are masked and a new layer is added for manual clone stamp use for these more critical areas. This way the automation can help with the less critical tedius areas and the critical image detail is hand worked.

Usually the clone stamp tool or the healing brush tool might be used for most common spotting of random stray spots. If you have sections that have concentrations of many more spots which are harder to remove, make a rough shaped (not marquee) feathered selection that includes the damaged area and apply the dust/scratch filter. Start with the minimum settings and gradually increase until you are happy with the effect of the dust removal - this is often a trade off on image quality vs spot removal.

In many cases a small setting will remove dust and not damage fine detail - but may soften texture...this is no problem, after filtering the dust run the add noise filter with small amounts of monochromatic or coloured noise. I like to mix both types of noise patterns using smaller settings instead of a larger noise of a single type. It is also good to add just a little too much noise and to then use the fade command to reduce the effect - you can also change the fade blend to dissolve which adds a random noise type pattern to the fade too!

Although the D/S filter can be applied to a large pixel area - it works best when the selection area is more specific to the problem area. This way it can combine the good pixels into the bad without altering too many of the good pixels. The problem is that it can be hard for computers to know what is 'good' or 'bad' - this is why a small selection of the area of concern is needed.

As to your question about my 'ReduceUSM' action - USM stands for Unsharp Mask, or the most commonly used sharpening method. This action was not designed to work with dust spots, but to help rescue an image that has been oversharpened without keeping a backup before sharpening or for any time when you need to soften the 'edges' of an image. The DigiDeluxe and other smart noise removal actions usually try to preserve edge and fine detail while smoothing flat areas, since this is the most common type of edit. One would hope that no one would ever need to use the ReduceUSM action - as this is a last resort approach.

On a related side note on some recent software mentioned here for correction of defects...The new beta plugs for the Alien Skin Image Doctor seem promising - but I have not found the Polaroid PC app to be that useful.

Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh.

[Jakaleena]

I agree with Stephen's good advice.

One point I do want to mention, though, is that it's usually not the best idea to run the dust & scratches filter and leave it at that. Check out the tutorial section for Spotting With The History Brush

[garfield]

For you I will like to ask. When can you say that a picture is already perfect or that no more enhancements can change it? Just asking. Thanks for the answer. I will try my best to learn it, but its a real hard one. Thanks anyway!

[Ed_L]

Garfield,

Welcome to the site. I'm glad you're asking questions. The more people ask, the more *I* learn. The info you were given is excellent. I'm assuming that you are not familiar with layer masks. Here is a good tutorial for using them. They just might be a man's best friend! The other question you ask about is a little harder. "When can you say that a picture is already perfect ". Although a "perfect" picture is not likely to exist, that is something that is really subjective. Go with your gut feeling is the best advice I can offer on that one. Be advised that the longer you use Photoshop, and the better you become, your views on the "perfect" picture might change significantly.

Ed

[jeaniesa]

Garfield, Welcome to RetouchPro! I'm glad you found us. I won't repeat what Stephen has already said - he's given you some great info. If you don't understand some of it, please continue to ask questions.

As far as why some actions don't work - what version of Photoshop are you running? And on what platform (PC or Mac)? When you say that "some" don't work that implies that others DO work - am I understanding you correctly?

The "perfect picture" question is a good one, and I encourage you to post that question as a separate thread. Otherwise, the topic will get lost in this one. You'll have a better chance of a focused discussion on that topic if you move it out of your thread requesting help.

Jeanie