Horrible Markings

[Vco]

Hey,

I have this photograph to complete and it's full of these horrible markings on the subjects face.

Are there any ways to remove these markings?

Thanks in advance

V

[Mike Needham]

Use either a two curve adjustment layers positive and negative and add a black mask, then use a white brush at low opacity and reduced flow on the mask to lighten or darken, or you could resort to good old clone. I would steer clear of heal or patch tools in this case.

[Chain]

Auch. Glad it isn't my picture...

Mikes' method would probably give you good results, but requires the patience of a saint (and a wacom tablet would help a lot).

I tried a quick and dirty method (for reference if nothing else).
Added heavy Noise Reduction and some blur to remove the pattern (destroying all detail). Masked it to the highlights/surfaces only. Dialed back opacity a bit to let some "texture" show through. Brightened using a masked curves adjustment layer.
Not happy with my result; it looks too much like it is "glowing".

Ps: FFT will not work here as it's not a regular repeating pattern.

[0lBaldy]

Do you have the original, if you have the original or can get the original or want to inform your client on how to scan for you.. maybe this will help.... scanners-textures-scratches-cracks-silvering (Sometimes just flipping the picture and scanning again then combining the two scans and maybe changing modes and opacity will reduce the effect quite a bit)

[John Wheeler]

I did not have a clue on how to work on such an image. My usual attempts are usually too blurry. Hopefully other members will jump in with ideas.

On the fly here is what I thought. Since the eye picks up on edges and especially long edges, what if the patterns were locally put at right angles with each other. I took the clone panel, rotated 90 degrees, and then cloned a layer (where desired) at this 90 degree angle and then lowered opacity to 50%. Such a pattern could be created for the whole image through an action and then just paint the mask where you want the effect.

The image below of course is just around the eye and really magnified. It looks better at lower magnification and with a better original copy not through so much jpeg compression. I put it in a 1 second GIF loop between before and after. I will have to develop this further

Click Thumbnail and wait for image to change.
fdfsdfs-copy.gif

[Tony W]

I agree that if you have the original you should try and scan again this time in 48bit with high ppi. Try different orientations of the scan and combine.

What software do you have to attempt this?

The image is pretty challenging at least for a one or two click solution and would require much more time than I have available but I made a try and came up with the following.

1. Ran Noise reduction to blur/blend some of the marks away
2. Masked back in areas that needed more detail e.g. eyes, mouth
3. Use patch tool to clean up larger areas
4. Still not happy with overall look so used the smudge tool low opacity to smooth skin a little
5. Dodge and burn where appropriate
6. Added a little noise to disguise my work somewhat

[0lBaldy]

Double WOW! Tony.... NICE!!

[John Wheeler]

Very nice Tony!!

[Cupcake]

I copied the layer,changed to screen.
Blended in painter 12
Nice job Tony

[chillin]

Before eliminating the noise, I tried to break down the lines by adding some noise.

[Kraellin]

very nice job, tony

[Vco]

Thankyou, very helpful - Very nice work guys!!

[frankecu77]

I removed the noise with Neat Image Pro and retouch the skin adding some blur.