Quick De-Crack

[CJ Swartz]

Tim, I downloaded the zip file and extracted it to my photoshop actions folder. When I tried to load it, my PShop (version 5.5) refused, saying it was from an incompatible version of PShop. Are you using PShop 6.0? I've been looking forward to your tutorial, so I'm bummed that I haven't been able to make this work yet.

Anyone else been able to successfully load Tim's action?

[Doug Nelson]

View tutorial here

[Ed_L]

Thanks Tim. I finally got around to reading the tutorial. The action looks like magic! But I'll wait to download it until I know if it will work with 5.0.

Ed

[kathleen]

cj, i couldn't either. same message you got. i have 5.5 too. and a mac - will that make it unworkable too, i wonder.

well, tim has certainly made the roadmap well enough for us to make our own action. the other way does appeal to my lazy.

[Doug Nelson]

Yes, the action is secondary to the tutorial. In fact, relying on it might actually be an obstacle to understanding the underlying principles.

[Ed_L]

Good point!

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

OK, I figured it was high time to give this action a whirl. I'm running 6.0 and it worked so I guess it was created for 6.0.
For a downloaded action, it's one of the best documented I've encountered. Tim gives you messages to guide you with enough details so that you know what you're doing. Some actions I've downloaded didn't help you out much at all and are confusing in exactly what they are prompting you for. The results I got were just what his tutorial promised. I used it on the same picture he did and was impressed with the results. It really removed the smaller wide spread cracks with very little compromise to any important details. I have to admit it's a winner even if you have to do the tutorial by hand, you will be pleased with the results.

To Tim
I say thank you for a very valuable action and tutorial. I can see alot of use for this one. A big thumbs up on this one Tim.
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

Has anyone tried it on other photos?

[DJ Dubovsky]

OK, I gave it a try on an other photo. Actually 2 photos. First I tried it on a crackled black and white I had of a man at a bar with lots of cracks all through it. It didn't give very noticable results but Tim's tutorial mentions it's not always applicable to all photos. So next I tried it on the Family one in the restoration challenges, #7 Beyond Redemption, and the results I got were quite profound. The large cracks were all that remained.
DJ

[Sanda]

looks like it's only for photoshop 6 it won't work with PS5.

[Tim Edwards]

yes, I'm using Photoshop 6

Sorry, I didn't even think about compatibility issues. It shouldn't be very hard to make a 5.0 version, though... I don't think I used any 6.0-exclusive features. I'll need to find the time to install 5.0 and jump through all the hoops...

The action will give pretty dramatic results on anything with high-contrast noise, but works in some other situations, too. I ran it on an image I saw in one of the forums a couple of weeks ago (bushboy), and got good results after trying 2 or 3 settings. In 2 minutes I eliminated damage that would have taken quite some time to remove by hand (see the attached image).

I'd be interested in seeing what kind of results you all are getting! (Those of you with 6.0, anyway... I'll see what I can do about the 5.0 issue.)

Thanks for the glowing review, DJ! Would you care to post your two tries? I could give it a whirl on the one that didn't work, or at least explain why it didn't...

_Tim

[DJ Dubovsky]

Tim
I didn't save the results but it's easy enough to repeat the process. I will get them up loaded as soon as I can. Probably tomorrow.

You're welcome about the review but "I calls em as I sees em" and what I saw I liked.
DJ

[Anthony]

Having trouble loading

Not sure what I am doing wrong. I downloaded the zip file. Unzipped it and I get an atn file, but it does not look like a photoshop file. I copied it into my actions folder but it doesn't show up. Please help - I'm anxious to try it.

[Doug Nelson]

You have to load it using the little triangle thingy in the upper right corner of your actions pallette (and you must be using PS6).

[Anthony]

Cracked up

Thank you I did get it to load, but I must have done something wrong - I ended up with more cracks than I started with.