Hi all,
Here's a sample of the photo I'm working on and I'm beginning to run out of ideas for removing all these white dots where they are thickest. I assume this is the dreaded mould growing on the photo?
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Rimmer8/OPR/SampleFootdamage.jpg)
I've resorted to painting over the top of them in plain areas and I can clone them away or heal them where they are more widely scattered but when they are densely packed cloning is not possible and the healing just makes an unpleasant grey blotch as does the burn tool. The spots/flecks are greyish white so they appear in all the channels fairly equally.
At the moment, in the areas where there is pattern or texture, I think I'll just have to paint over each speck, which is getting really labour intensive!
Is there a better way?
(http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/6036/samplefootdamagecopyrt8.jpg)
There is a way, but sometimes it takes away a bit of the definition with the process if it is on a larger scale as this seems to be. Let me know if this is something you might think would help and I'll write it out.
Candy
Thanks for your reply. It looks like you did some kind of blur and re-sharpen?
Edit: Please tell me what you did to make the white specks so much brighter. That could be useful.
Hi RT
Here's another possibility, using the patch tool. I didn't spend too much time, but the idea is to patch the small dots with contiguous areas of the color you want, and as you progress you can use larger and larger areas for patching. I wouldn't recommend making your patch areas too large, because you begin to lose definition. This is tedious, but I think it does a pretty good job of keeping texture and getting rid of the light dots, especially in areas where they don't virtually cover the area you're trying to repair. Circle the dots and the area slightly outside the dots and move the patch to the closest area in size and color to what you want replaced. For this kind of damage, I've had the best luck using mostly patching, but also cloning near edges where I want more definition.
Here's the D & D version -- the patched areas are obvious, and some look better than others.
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/SampleFootdamageG.jpg)
Hope this helps. You have your work cut out, for sure.
Bless,
Glenna
P.S. The remaining blotchiness can be minimized by patching several times in the same place, especially if there's a lot of color difference between the dots and surrounding areas. (Healing is another possibility once you get to that point.)
Thank you Glenna. Your 'patches' look pretty good. Unfortunately I don't speak Photoshop so I'm not sure what the equivalent of a patch tool is in Paint Shop Pro?
I'm guessing, since you talk about selecting sampling areas, that:
Clone = Clone
Heal = Makeover
Patch = Object Remover???
Hi RT. I took the pic into PaintShop Pro and used add/remove noise-automatic small scratch removal. I chose only white specks and agressive action. Then ran a high pass sharpen on it. It's not perfect but it gives you much more to use the blemish tool on.
(http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/948/speckstw5.jpg)
Hi Rockthumper,
Here's my 2 cents worth on the white dots, I use Photoshop but maybe you will recognize what settings you have to use in Paint Shop Pro.
You can use a Dust and Scratches filter. Move the radius slider almost until you can no longer see the white specks. Then move to threshold slider until you can start to see the texture of the background reemerge but don't see much of the specks.
Create a Snapshot in the History Palette. Change your state back to the original (damaged) layer.
Now move the history brush icon to your snapshot and click anywhere with the History brush on the white specks (brush blending mode on Darken).
(In the example I only cleaned up the dark patch in the upper left corner and the top part of the leg in front, due to lack of time...)
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/whitespots.jpg)
Rock,
Could you post the original full size showing the area below ( not the whole image). I have the closeup of this one and need some help with the saddle. If I remember, it was pretty good on your version.....or was it?
http://upload.pbase.com/image/85226454 (http://upload.pbase.com/image/85226454)
(http://i.pbase.com/o6/93/579993/1/85226454.II79m1It.AdamT_21_12_5x7WIP1copy.jpg)
Kiska - yes the saddle was pretty well untouched in mine. Here it is:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Rimmer8/OPR/Saddlecopy.jpg)
Tassie D - Thanks that looks handy, I'll hold it in reserve.
Hannie - What you've done looks really good. Unfortunately I don't have a clue how you did it. I don't recognise those functions at all. :-(
THANKS! Got it. kissee kissee!
Hi Rockthumper,
Unfortunately I don't speak PSP so I don't know the equivalent tools, I did this mainly with the Healing tool and clone tool and a touch of smudge in places.
I worked with a small brush about twice the size of the spots with the healing tool, a slow, tedious procedure but it gets you there in the end.
(http://www.divshare.com/img/thumb/1892549-178.jpg) (http://www.divshare.com/download/1892549-178)
Hope it is of some help.
Max
I am having the similar problem. I believe mine was caused by the texture of the paper.
I am trying to use Dust and Scratches noise filter then mask the eyes and the teeth.
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z298/schen_album/AdamT_21_15cropped.jpg)
(http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z298/schen_album/AdamT_21_15cropped2.jpg)
Have you ever tried to use the FFT RGB filter? It works very well for the textures on pictures and news print.
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=185 (http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=185)
(http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8560/adamt2115croppedhi5.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
By klassylady25 (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/klassylady25)
Ausimax - Thanks for that. Your edit looks good but sounds like a lot of hard work. I was hoping to come up with something Extremely Clever which avoided that. Still working on it ...
Schen - you've cut the snow back pretty well.
My older version of PS7 does not have FFT. I read somewhere that I might be able to download a plug-in but I have not found a free one yet. If I have to pay for one, I will save the money toward upgrading my Photoshop.
schen, here's the download link. It's free.
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/%7Eavc25/archive.htm#FFT (http://www.pages.drexel.edu/%7Eavc25/archive.htm#FFT)
This may be handy: A translation site for Photoshop to Paint Shop Pro!
http://paintshoppro.info/tutorials/photoshop_to_paintshoppro_dictionary.htm
Hannie
Thanks kiska. I got it downloaded.
The restoration is always more difficult than it seemed. I only notice the paper texture flakes at the top center hair region in the lo-res thumbnail at Photoshelter. After downloading the hi-res photo, I see them all over the face.
I also have an FFT star brush to share if you want it, just drop me a note.
Quote from: Hannie on September 08, 2007, 11:46:50 AM
This may be handy: A translation site for Photoshop to Paint Shop Pro!
http://paintshoppro.info/tutorials/photoshop_to_paintshoppro_dictionary.htm
Hannie
Thanks Hannie, that's really helpful. I didn't even know PSP
had a history palette!
You're welcome Rockthumper! It looks like the PS Dust and Scratches filter is the same as PSP's Add/Remove Noise. Can't find what a snapshot would be in PSP but there must be a way in PSP to use these 2 layers to paint out the white sports. Any PSP users maybe?
Hannie
I've been working away at this white spot idea and have written a group of scripts that work on the light, medium and dark parts of an image to remove the bright spots automatically. I'm sure this must have been done before but I haven't been able to find any reference to a good technique for images as messy as the ones which I've seen in the OPR galleries. There is a process of selection which has to be gone through but after that it is basically a 'one-click' result for each area. Poor initial results can be treated again for further improvement. The idea is to automate the donkey work, getting rid of most of the white dots while still retaining some surface texture, leaving the restorer an easier path to finishing the photo. Here's the result I got when I applied the scripts to the example I posted earlier:
Before:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Rimmer8/OPR/SampleFootdamage.jpg)
After:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Rimmer8/OPR/SampleFootrepair.jpg)
Some of the areas I had to 'treat' a couple of times and there was a small amount of layer cleanup to do but I think the 'after' photo is a lot further down the track to restoration than the 'before' photo but I then could be off with the fairies.
Does the 'after' photo look like a useful starting point to you? Your opinions would be appreciated.
Goodmorning RT,
I think you have done a good job so far. You got rid of a lot of white, that will ease the later use of cloning/healing a lot.
I had a go at your original picture with the Neat Image plug in (I call it the lazy women's FFT RGB filter) but the results were not satisfactory enough to be posted here.
My humble opinion is that you are on the right track!
Hannie
Goodmorning Hannie. :) It's actually goodnight for me, my eyes have just about fallen out anyway...
Thanks for your comment on my scripts. I'd better get back to restoring the real photo soon or I'll never get it done.
Cheers,
RT.
:up: Nice job RT. You wrote your own scripts?
Tassie - No, I can't claim to have 'written' them, I just recorded some actions as a script. What I did in the above example is select a dark area of the pic and run my script. The script then makes three copies of the area, turns one into a mask using sharpening, curves and threshold to emphasise the white dots. It turns the second copy into areas of colour, without dots, using the Salt&Pepper filter and then applying an Arts Media effect . The third copy has the second added to it as a new layer and uses the first copy as a mask. The script then merges the layers, takes a copy, tides up the workspace and pastes the result as a new layer (into selection so the registration is correct) in the original image. Not bad for one mouse-click hey?
I'd like to learn more about writing scripts as then I can get PSP to do some analysis of the image and work out optimum values for itself rather than have me select general values (hence the reason I need three scripts, one each for dark, medium and light areas - they are the same script just with different average values set).
Cheers,
RT.
I know about the white dots...took me forever to do mine on the Adams pic...then I still wasn't 100% happy with the results..but when I printed it out at the 8X10 size it said was it looked fine..so I didn't want to overkill it!!
Sanbie
Sanbie - So what technique do you use to get rid of them?
Rock, when I have severe damage like this, I PAINT ( the frowned upon "P" word, almost as dreaded as the "V" word ;)). Sample surrounding color, about medium opacity. It does not have to match, just close to avoid the splotchies when healing. Then sample some good texture with the healing tool to get a source area. Again, the colors DON'T have to match, just the tone needs to be close. Experiment. Around the edges where the contrast is great, clone and build it up slowly. Hope this helps.
http://upload.pbase.com/image/85427670 (http://upload.pbase.com/image/85427670)
(http://i.pbase.com/o6/93/579993/1/85427670.DssiP8zr.dots.jpg)
What I did was use the make over tool (Healing tool in PS) then when it was done as much as I could do I got the clone brush and at 45% opacity just gently went over the area to shade it more in...
Sanbie
Thanks for your comments Kiska and Sanbie, that gives me a better idea of how to approach this kind of problem.
Well the white dots on my pic have nearly driven me insane - I'm so close to finishing but I just can't get rid of the lint! I have resorted to straight out Painting (shhhh! don't tell anyone) and here's what the feet look like now:
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c137/Rimmer8/OPR/Footrepair7.jpg)
- on the full size image the floor has been cleaned up as well and the right foot darkened a little. It will have to do. I still have to work on one arm and maybe add some texture to the floor and then it should be done.
Oh no, not he "P" word! :knuppel:
RT, that looks really good, I like it that you managed to keep the details of the feet intact. Looks like you've solved the problem!
Hannie
That's looking great RT...Oh and I agree the white dots drive one nuts!!
While waiting for my next pic I am going to bring up my duplicate and do some experiments!!
Sanbie