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nermie
nermie
Known Participant
January 31, 2021
Question

Photo Restoration - removing dark fingerprint lines and other stains

  • January 31, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 3723 views

I have a scan of an old photo that is heavily marked by dark fingerprint lines. Is there a way in photoshop to remove these lines without changing the detail and underling color. I have tried using the Spot content aware healing brush, but this is slow and tends to lose detail by smearing things out. I have also tried using the Remove Dust and Scratches filter with the History brush lighten but this also produces a less than ideal result. I find with many of these old photos they can get either dark or milky stains which are hard to remove without just smearing everything out, even the clone and patch tool are not much use in many cases. Can anyone suggest a different technique from those above. Attached is an example of the image marked by fingerprints.

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    1 reply

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 31, 2021

    »Is there a way in photoshop to remove these lines without changing the detail and underling color.«

    What detail or underlying color? 

     

    I think as the image is basically a tinted monochrome you may want to start by determining the least affected Channel and work from that with duplicates set to Darken or Lighten and painting on Layers with Linear Light Pattern Overlays. 

      nermie
      nermieAuthor
      Known Participant
      February 1, 2021

      Thanks for posting this. I am not familiar with this technique and have tried to follow your example. When I have all layers selected I only see a highly monochrome image. What pattern did you suggest and which layer are you painting on? Also, what have you done with the curves layers and gradient map layers. I think I need a more step by step description to truly follw what you have done.

      Thanks

       

       

      c.pfaffenbichler
      Community Expert
      c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      February 1, 2021

      I painted on the Layer named »paintbrush« and the Pattern used in the Linear Light Pattern Overlay is a monochrome Add Noise on 50% Gray (and upsampled a little). 

       

      The Curves Layer edits the luminance and the Gradient Map Layer (set to Blend Mode Color) is used to colorize the monochrome image (which uses thhe blue channel for all three channels). 

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