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Participant
October 16, 2023
Question

tools for complex image flaws

  • October 16, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 229 views

I have scanned an old slide and found that the image has two major flaws - strange bright spots here and there, and one spot where it looks like the surface of the slide got damaged, resulting in a spider web of purple lines. I tried to the spot healer but it was taking too long and didn't work very well. Can anyone recommend another tool?

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2 replies

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2023

Like Stephen has said, there is no easy fix for that damage, and some of it (the nose mainly) is not especially easy to fix.

 

The clone tool is a bit of a blunt sword for a job like this.  I won't say that I never use it, but my use would be minimal.  The nose was the tricky bit, so I create the shape with the Pen tool > Ctrl click to make it a selection > select a Selection tool so I can move it to as near a patch as I can find > Copy from original and move into position.

 

Then the clipped Hue/Sat layer to get the colour and lightness as close generally as posible, and use the Dodge and Burn tools to match the border of old and new pixels.

With the other pathes they were feathered before copying the patch, but that doesn't work with the nose because the lower edge needs to be reasonably sharp.  So we use Quick Mask to paint over the dge we need to feather  

Gaussian blur the Quick Mask selection

Drop out of quick mask and we have a targeted, feathered selection.

We then selec the nose patch and blur it to soften the intersection.

Note:  This is still a fast and dirty (lazy) approach as you'll lose texture on the edge.  To do it properly you'd use a feathered Layer mask.

 

Stroke a path for the shadow under the nose using a layer beneath the nose patch, and above the lip patch.  I think the rest is a repeat of the above steps.  Lots of dodge and burn (set to Mid tones). 

 

Ignore the white template layers.  That's how I do alignment and turn off when done.

Participant
October 17, 2023

Thanks! This is definitely an improvement. I'm a beginner when it comes to photoshop so I'm afraid I couldn't quite follow all the steps that were explained to me, but I appreciate everyone's help.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 17, 2023

I think that this is more about method/technique/skill than any "magic bullet" filters. The tried and true retouching methods would be used, tools that haven't changed in 20 years and older concepts that predate updated tools.

 

EDIT: I didn't have all the time I would have liked, but you may find the attached JPG as a suitable starting point for further work (not all spots were reduced/removed and there may be other things that you wish to even out).

 

 

Edit: I wanted to keep the restoration close to the original image, without extra adjustments.

 

The blending modes most useful for retouching are colour, luminosity, lighten and darken.

 

The tools used were spot healing brush, healing brush, healing patch, clone stamp and brush tool.