How to avoid these imperfections? (Newbie Alert)

[Aurock]

I just realized color washer is a commercial plugin, not something part of photoshop. $50... wow. How would I go about color correction without that?

[chillin]

You could use some tutorials posted in this forum... like this one

[Lasa]

Just for fun I used "lowly" variations Adjustment. A bright curve adjustment finished up running it thru Noiseware.
Some times I can't really pin point what color is causing the problems so I'll run the variations adjustment since it gives dif. sample of adding or subtracting colors.

Lasa

[Aurock]

Okay, the colors still look a bit off, but I've gotten it better. Here are 2 versions I've been working with, what do you think?

I used a LOT of healing brush on these to try and clear up the white spots all over the photo, is there a better way to do it? How'd I do?

[Aurock]

I think I'm getting pretty close, especially with the last one, but it seems like I've lost a bit of focus/detail, especially on the left face.

[ogee]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Aurock, welcome to Retouch Pro!
Scanners pick up tiniest specks that the eye can not see without a magnifying device. You should examine the image under a magnifying lense or jewellers loop to see if the specs are actually spots on the paper where the dyes are missing. The other thing to ensure is that fine particles of dust are not on the photo surface. If they are you should wipe them off or blow them away with compressed air.

You may not like the following suggestion, but here goes.
"Auto" anything in scanner s/w can be dangerous because when it guesses incorrectly, it often damages certain attributes of an image and the damage is often not reversible (over sharpening, blurring, contrast increase, etc). My recommendation is to turn off ALL scanner auto corrections - auto color, auto contrast, descreen, dust and scratches, auto levels, sharpening). Take a raw scan at a high resolution and bring it into Photoshop or other editing s/w and use the tools in the editing program to make all the adjustments.

Regards, Murray

Yes, exactly and a big consideration is that you should save a scan that is as close to the original photograph as possible so that in future you can work from a duplicate of this scan...never from the original scan. That way you will always have a digital "original" for later in case you want to do something different or lose the photo. If you have used any auto settings on your scanner this will not be possible.

Another consideration is in which file format to save your scan and at what resolution to scan photographs for future printing...I save my original scan in .bmp and generally scan at 300 dpi...this makes for a big file but you don't lose any information...

After I have made an "original scan" and saved it, sometimes I will play with the settings in my scanner, but I always make a straight scan first.