Many, many small black granules

[3pco]

Hello to all. I am new here, and an amateur and beginner at restoration. I was given a portrait of my mother in law and her brother that is about 75 years old. There is a plethora of small black granules all over it. They appear to congregate in shadows and, curiously, they seem to align at various interfaces. My attachment is a closeup of one face - see the granules along the shoulder, and at the crease of the mouth.
Could these be silver grains? How do they arise? And is it possible to deal with them? There are places where it is really hard to clone. I don;t know how to fix that mouth.
Thanks for any help!
3pco

[InfinityWork3]

Re: Many, many small black granules

To me they look more like artifacts of a scan. Ultimately, I would try to repaint the line in a tone you want. So maybe you want to keep all those shadows black, or really dark grey and just paint that color with a brush at an opacity like 30 until it starts looking more even. Since they make the lines bumpy, I'd just clone out the bumps.

Have you tried this yet?

[3pco]

Re: Many, many small black granules

I didn't do the scan myself, I got this as a digital file. I haven't tried painting -- I'm not very good at that and it would be a last resort. I tried cloning, worked okay in some places but in others, such as the mouth, I had less success. There's no place to source the juncture of the lips.
I like your suggestion of darkening the shadows. That will work in a lot of places. THanks

[nrsm]

Re: Many, many small black granules

Never paint in information - you should always use cloning and healing to keep the texture and integrity of the photo, painting in shows.

What do your color channels look like? Are the spots as obvious in the red? Scan in really high (at least 600) and go in at 400 res to repair if needed by using the healing brush or clone stamp (sampled).

[Cupcake]

Re: Many, many small black granules

I make the contrast darker & added some grain.

[philbach]

Re: Many, many small black granules

I used Define a noise reducing filter and photoshops healing brush tool. It took about five minutes.
In addition sharpening could be used and careful correction of residual problems. The black outline can be addressed by cloning if desired.

[3pco]

Re: Many, many small black granules

I make the contrast darker & added some grain.

This is an interesting idea. It works around the mouth, but not so well around the collar, but I suppose that part would be easier to clone.

I had put this aside for a while, but I want to go at it again. Thanks.

[0lBaldy]

Re: Many, many small black granules

cloned the dark regions using 'lighten' clone mode then fading when necessary after each stroke (where lips meet and around eyes) also used FFT filter to remove paper texture and a bit of noise reduction to finish it off