Photoshop Question

[Deleted member 20519]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I would have posted it in the Photography forum but I thought I'd get a few more replies here.

I've been attempting to restore a badly kept seven year old picture of me and my sisters. I've managed to get rid of the scratches but I'm struggling with the white specs. I'm aware of an option called 'Dust and Scratches' which slightly blurs the photo and makes it look better, unfortunately even at the lowest setting the picture is too blurry for my liking. If anyone could help me out with how to do this, it would be very much appreciated!

 

[StuChalmers]

welll Jaz my boy - just so happens I've been using photoshop for more years than I can remember.

Firstly what version are you using. Secondly dont expect any of the automatic filters to work that well - good as a base to start the process but they wont take it to anything near a good result without you getting hands dirty so to speak.

step 1 sort out the levels, exposure, contrast and colour balance.
step 2 use whatever of the following works best to take out the white specs - clone, healing brush, content aware fill then manually touch up whatever else needs fixing.
step 3 sort out any individual areas of colour, tone or detail that need tweaked.
lastly - sharpen up if neccessary - use the unsharp mask as it works really well.

If you dont feel up to it or skills are a bit rusty - I can give it a shot for you later in the week.

Stu

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Agreed, I'd very carefully try and clone out the scratches?

 

[Black Sheep]

your edited version is looking very good.

it is just a case of working it bit by bit, I normally use the clone stamp tool to get rid of specks etc, when I've had enough of it I print it out and pin it to a wall and go make a cup of tea before looking at the print out.

if I can't see any problems with the print out then it's done!

most customers have been happy with the results, a few have spotted something I'd missed and so I addressed the omission and they were happy.

 

[HovR]

As above, manually restoring photos will come out a lot better than using automatic filters.

My personal favorite tools for removing anything from a photograph are the Spot Healing Brush tool along with the regular Healing Brush tool. This works on unwanted artifacts, skin impurities, scratches, specks, washing lines, dustbins - Anything really.

Saying that, I think you've done a really good job on the restoration, and I can't see the blur you're mentioning. As Black Sheep has said above, it helps to take a step back from the photo. Leave it for a few hours (days?) then come back and examine it - Preferably not in Photoshop.

When working on a photo, especially removing things from a photo, you can never get it perfect in your own eye, and you'll always find minor issues or mistakes that no other person would notice. I find I start 'correcting' completely natural, unedited objects/textures in a photo as they don't look natural enough after a few hours editing!