how to eliminate crazing?

[Toby33]

i believe that's what it's called- the small cracks that appeared on the surface of the photo over time, as in the attached example. also, how could i best approach the task of removing the stains from her face?
thanks in advance for any help!

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Toby,

The easiest way to get rid of the crazing is to use one of the various noise filters available, Neat Image seems to be popular.

Working on the basis that you don't have this, try the following.

1. Apply Median filter 1 pix radius.
2. Apply Gaussian Blur 1 pix radius.
3. Create Edge mask and then apply USM (200,1,3).

This gives the results on the attatched image. (This removes most of the minor crazing, where there are larger cracks select them and deal with them in isolation otherwise original image detail can be lost by over blurring.)

[Toby33]

hi gary- thank you for the response. actually, i do have neat image, just not very much experience with it yet. any suggestions for settings?

[Ken Fournelle]

Toby,

You may want to try Katrin Eisman's method in her book Restoration & Retouching 2nd edition. Chapter 9 - Dealing with Five O'Clock Shadow.

Ken

[Gary Richardson]

Hi Toby, I don't use Neat Image myself, I use another Noise Filter I picked up somewhere on my travels, so any settings I gave you would be meaningless. I mentioned it only because I know it is well regarded on this site, and because it is easily available. But if you've got it then have a play around with it, it's by far the best way to learn how to use it. Just make sure you work on a duplicate of your image to ensure you don't damage the original.

[Toby33]

thanks guys!

[W. Rose]

Hi Toby,
I used Grain Surgery on your photo, and finished a little with the Healing Brush & Clone Stamp.
Not sure if this is what your looking for, hope it gives you another option.

W. Rose (Wayne)

[W. Rose]

Toby,
I forgot to mention that i only had to spend about 5 minutes on the photo. I didn't do anymore detail work, because i thought you might want to do that.

W. Rose (Wayne)

[edgework]

Rather than attempting to obliterate all the scratches, this attempt settles for muting them into the texture of the image, in exchange for retaining more image detail.

I duplicated the image and applied Dust and Scratches, 5 pixels, 11 threshold. Then I applied Unsharp Mask, 124%, .07 radius 0 threshold.

Since the cracks show up much more prominently in the light areas, I copied the original image into a new layer hidden with a layer mask, then softly painted white into the mask to reveal the eyes, eybrows and lips, none of which were badly damaged by the cracking.

[W. Rose]

hi edgework,
I tried your method and i like it very much. Seems i don't even need grain surgery, do i?
Great Job

Wayne

[Flora]

Hi Toby33,

Welcome to RP!!!

I agree with edgework in trying to not obliterate texture in a picture... but I did want to remove as many scratches as possible...

Like everybody else, I used Neat Image, very soft/natural settings, applied to the darkest parts of the image in Blue and Green channels individually and to the lightest parts in the composite RGB.

To balance the shadows and remove the darkish stains I created new empty Layers (blending: Lighten, Soft Light) and with a fuzzy white or colour (picked from a surrounding area) brush (Opacity 10-30%) I carefully painted over the parts to correct.

Added a bit of noise to the corrections, and, finally, slightly sharpened the image (USM).

[Toby33]

wow- thank you all so much. this place is great; what a wonderful response. i need to digest all that you have presented me here; for sure you have helped me solve my problem.
thanks again!