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Galveston-6.jpg

[cmpentecost]

This is a non-OPR photo, so I hope OPR doesn't mind me submitting this, since things are kind of quiet around here.  My parent's 50'th wedding anniversary is this year, and I'd like to restore this picture for them.  With so many spots all over the photo, including my Mom's dress and the wedding cake, I've had some challenges removing the damage without removing the textures of the cake and dress, as well as the rest of the photo. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks again, and OPR, if this is inappropriate, please advise and I'll remove from the forums.

Christine

[cmpentecost]

Ooops.  Here's the picture:

[kstruve]

That might be a job for FFT!!!

Kurt

[kstruve]

But maybe not, because I just tried it and it looks worse!  It might just be a case of painstaking clone stamp action.

Kurt

[cmpentecost]

I've tried the clone and stamp, and while it works, a lot of the spots are so close together that it's hard to get good "material" to clone and stamp from.  I suppose I could just make the brush very, very small and work up from there.  I can get some areas pretty decent, but the dress and cake are the toughest.

Thanks Kurt.

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Christine,

You have a real doozy there, looks like it has a real bad case of Chicken Pox. ]

Looks like a lot of tedious Clone and healing brush tool work, I find I am increasingly using the Healing Brush Tool ( herewith known as the HBT) in preference to the clone stamp, using the HBT in replace mode does the same job and preserves the texture and luminosity better, only using the clone near areas of tonal difference.

Another method that may work, you don't seem to have a great amount of tonal difference in the main areas, Dress ,Suit, Wall areas, maybe you could make a texture stamp from good areas of each and use that to stamp over the spots, or the patch tool may be the answer, whatever, I think it is going to be a lot of hard graft.

The only other suggestion I can make is that you cut the photo up into sections at 100% crop and subcontract the pieces out to unemployed OPR addicts, then rebuild the photo from the best results.

Sorry I can not be of more constructive help, each image seems to bring it own particular problems, and PS doesn't seem to come with a "Fix It!" filter.

Max

[kiska]

For lack of any other ideas, I tried the smudge tool. You could come back and add a touch of noise. STILL a lot of handwork, tho.

[Ausimax]

Christine,

I had a play around with this photo, using the HBT in replace and normal mode as needed, and clone tool, the walls came up well, the dress and suit came up reasonably, but acquired some blochieness, overcame that by adding another layer set to Soft light and painting over, this brightened the colour and blended out the blotches. As Kiska suggested, I find the smudge tool sometimes works well on B/W images.

Whether any of this is useful is dependent on the full-res detail, at this size I can't tell if the dress has a pattern in the material, if it does then it is a whole different ball game, then again with the amount of damage you may have to loose any patternation in any case.

The cake will be a whole different problem, I couldn't make out enough original detail to have any idea how to fix it.



As you can see what I have done is fairly rough, I was mainly trying out ideas, hope it may be of some help.

Max

[Kenny]

Hey Christine. It's a nice crisp image....except for the blotches. I've played around with it and I think the best way is to bite the bullet and start the painstaking process of cloning and healing.

Put on some good music, relax and start cloning    It'll take a while, but it will be worth the effort.



Kenny


*Update*

I just tried it again. Forget the clone stamp. The healing brush works perfectly for this. Using the image you supplied, I used the healing brush set at 7 px. I did a portion of the dress and got excellent results using only one sample. I also got excellent results on the cake.

Be sure to do the healing on it's own layer, with the brush set to normal and use all layers.

[marylou]

Hi Christine,

You could try this method:

Duplicate your original layer, you'll be working with that.

Go to Dust & Scratches, for this I set both the radius & threshold at 8. (or adjust it until all the dark spots have vanished)

Go to your history palette and take a snapshot, which you'll then see at the top of the palette. Now click in the box next to your snapshot. In your history palette undo Dust & Scratches.

Now in your tools palette click on your history brush and use a small soft brush and set it to Lighten.

Now you're ready to brush away all the dark spots on on your duplicated layer.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask. I used the image that you posted and it worked just fine. I would post mine to show you but I don't know how. Could someone explain how I can post an image here?

[cmpentecost]

You guys are awesome!  Thanks so much!!   

I've had this picture for almost 2 years and have made several attempts at it, mostly doing the healing brush and cloning, but you've all given me some great ideas to work with.  I'm fiinishing up with an OPR restoration, and then want to try and get this wedding picture done so they can have it for their anniversary party.  Fortunately, it's not until September!!

Thanks again.  And if anyone else has ideas, by all means.....let me know!

Christine

[Kenny]

Hi Christine,

You could try this method:

Duplicate your original layer, you'll be working with that.

Go to Dust & Scratches, for this I set both the radius & threshold at 8. (or adjust it until all the dark spots have vanished)

Go to your history palette and take a snapshot, which you'll then see at the top of the palette. Now click in the box next to your snapshot. In your history palette undo Dust & Scratches.

Now in your tools palette click on your history brush and use a small soft brush and set it to Lighten.

Now you're ready to brush away all the dark spots on on your duplicated layer.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask. I used the image that you posted and it worked just fine. I would post mine to show you but I don't know how. Could someone explain how I can post an image here?

Nice technique, thanks for posting that!

To post an image, first upload the image to the image host of your choice. I personally use Imageshack because it's fast and easy. Then, copy the apppropriate code suppled for your image. In this case, you'll want the one for forums. The code shoud begin with [img]. Then, just paste the code where you want it to show up in your post. You can always come back and edit your own posts later, so don't be afraid to try new things out to see what they do. If you get a result you don't like, click the modify button at the upper right of your post and then make whatever changes you want.


Kenny

[marylou]

Thanks Kenny, I just registered at Imageshack so here goes, let's see if I'm able to upload this image.

I did it, oh finally I learned how to upload an image here. Thanks again so much Kenny. 

[Ausimax]

Hi Christine,

You could try this method:

Duplicate your original layer, you'll be working with that.

Go to Dust & Scratches, for this I set both the radius & threshold at 8. (or adjust it until all the dark spots have vanished)

Go to your history palette and take a snapshot, which you'll then see at the top of the palette. Now click in the box next to your snapshot. In your history palette undo Dust & Scratches.

Now in your tools palette click on your history brush and use a small soft brush and set it to Lighten.

Now you're ready to brush away all the dark spots on on your duplicated layer.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask. I used the image that you posted and it worked just fine. I would post mine to show you but I don't know how. Could someone explain how I can post an image here?

marylou, I have been trying to use your method and it just ain't working for me.I will work through what I am doing then you may be able to tell me what I am doing wrong.

Open image and dupe.
Activate background layer and run Dust & Scratches Filter.
Create snapshot, then click in box of snapshot to set history.
Undo, dust & Scratches  - this may be where I am coming unstuck, the only way I can find to "undo, dust & scratches" is to go to the Edit menu and click "Undo Changed State". This leaves the background layer blurred.
Activate dupe layer, select History Brush, small/soft lighten and paint out dark spots on dupe layer.

Absolutely nothing happens, the dark spots remain untouched. Have I missed something?

Thanks,

Max

[marylou]

Hi Ausimax,

Your duplicated  background layer shouldn't remain blurred. In your history palette there is a list of everything you do in Photoshop, so when you use dust & scratches it becomes the last on the list. You need to click on the step before dust & scratches in the history palette after you take your snapshot.

I tried it with undo in the Edit Menu and it doesn't work at all. So I believe that's where the problem is. You need to only use  the history palette. I find it a lot easier while I'm working to use that instead of using the undo in the Edit menu. Try it out and you won't be able to get by without it.

It would be a good idea to see this link because it explains the whole procedure and there's also screen shots. On the home page click on Scanner Dust Spotting CS. Hope this helps, if you still need anything just ask.

http://www.eddietapp.com/e_techniques.html