Spots - I can't get the spots out!

[Anthony]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post.

I am restoring and old b&W photo. Usually, I use the rubber stamp tool to remove the spots, but this would take me several years. The photo is covered in them. I never used dust and scratches before. Is this the best way to remove this many spots? I take a snapshot, use the history brush and then I understand I am suppose remove the blur. When I do nothings changed. If I paint, do I paint over the blur? I am missing something? If anyone has any good ideas please let me know. I'm getting very frustrated.

[Bob Walden]

Sure would help to see an example of the photo.

Bob

[Hankster65]

Without seeing the photo, and assuming you're using Photoshop, here's a technique you might try....

- Loosely LASSO a bunch of the bad spots.

- FEATHER the selection 2-4 pixels

- Save the selection to a new layer via copy.

- Depending on the situation you may want to set the blend mode to lighten at this point.

- Then with the new layer selected, click on the MOVE tool and using the arrow keys on your keyboard, gently "bump" the selection one pixel at a time to the left, right, up, whatever.

Magic! Spots disappear.

This works best on fairly undefined areas such as sky, etc. I've also used it for some of those really tiny spider webby like messes you sometimes see on old scanned slides.

Hope it helps.

[Tim Edwards]

check out the newest tutorial...

If the spots have high enough contrast, the 'Decrack' action can remove them in a few seconds. I posted an example in the discussion thread (bushboy) that has lots and lots of spots...

_Tim

[Bob Walden]

Anthony, check with Doug on the best way to up load a large file. He knows best. I would be interested in seeing it.

Bob

[Anthony]

Spots

here is a copy of the image.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Anthony
I tried to download your picture and check the channel damage but it was in grayscale. You might try scanning it again in RGB and then look at your channels and see which channel has picked up the worst of the spots and replace or discard that channel. You can't change the existing grayscale file to RGB, you will need to rescan it in RGB. It may be that most of the spotty damage will be in the blue channel and the red and green are fairly good still. Or at least better. The photo is still pretty bad and it will take some painstaking efforts but this may help cut some of that time off for you.
DJ

[Anthony]

Spots

Thanks. I checked the channels and its seems to me the same. That is, the spots are in all channels.

[Doug Nelson]

Did you rescan the photo and leave it in RGB color mode first? Frequently the red channel will have less obvious spotting.

[Anthony]

Spots

I already had one scanned in RGB. The original tif file. Yes, I checked them all and they all look the same to me. I removed all the check from the channel colors and left the red - doesn't lool any different except for the color.

[Anthony]

spotsz

Here's a copy.

[Doug Nelson]

I hate to disagree with a new member, but to me the channels look very different. The blue is especially bad. The red loses some detail, so for this one my personal pick would be the green.

From that point on it's a pretty typical restoration job. Read through the Restoration Challenges, and the various tips and discussions here to see if they don't give you some ideas.

You might start with a levels adjust. From that point I believe the work to be done will be a little more obvious.

(give a man a fish...etc.)

[CJ Swartz]

Anthony,

regarding your question: "I never used dust and scratches before. ...I take a snapshot, use the history brush and then I understand I am suppose remove the blur. When I do nothings changed. ...I am missing something?"

I think you may have missed a step (I know that I did when I started learning to use it)

After running the D&S filter, make a snapshot, then in the History palette, click the left column of the snapshot -- that tells Photoshop to use it as the source for the history brush tool. (If you make more snapshots, it's best to name them to keep track of what step they represent so you can decide which one you want to use). THEN, step back one step in your history palette - click back to the step BEFORE Dust and Scratches - your image will NOT be blurry because Dust & Scratches will be applied ONLY where you touch with the history brush - allowing you to blur away small scratches and defects without cloning.

You can use the 'Search' feature of the forums using History Brush to find threads with tips on its use.

Enjoy -- it's a new toy!

[Anthony]

Spots

Doug - I still didn't see it, so I had to get away from it for a while. You know how it goes, the more you look at it, the more you don't see it. I will take a look at it later and maybe it will be more obvious.

C.J. - thanks for your help. I am sure I missed that step. I will try that later also and let you know how it goes. I've gotten so used to using the rubber stamp tool, and quite good at it I might add, but I would welcome anything that reduces the restoration time.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Anthony
Are your channels in color or black and white? It's alot easier to see the differences if you view them in black and white. If so, go to your prefrences and select Displays and Cursors and uncheck the box that says view channels in color. That may be why you can't see a difference. Also look at the faces of the guys when you look at which channel has the most spots. The major damage is throughout the channels but you should see some improvement when viewing just the red channel or even better the green channel.
DJ