Removing Photo Scratches ?

[i.spring]

Hello everyone.
I wanted to ask, what is the best way of removing scratches from a photo.
I scan all my images to my scanners maximum resolution 3600 pixels but many of my photos appear with hair line scratches.
I have played with photoshop and ACD systems but they seem to just blur the images and not really remove just the scratches?
Does anyone know of good software for removing photo scratches?
Many thanks in advace.
Ian

[BlackWolf3945]

When you say that you've 'played' with Photoshop, what do you mean? Have you simply used some of the provided filters to automatically remove dust and scratches, or have you actually gone in with some of the tools and done any work by hand?

If you're serious about removing imperfections in a scanned image and retaining its quality, you have to do the work yourself. I've yet to come across any program or filter that does an acceptable job all by itself.

For dust and scratches I generally use a combination of the healing brush and cloning tools in Photoshop. I believe that the healing brush first appeared in Photoshop 7... so if you have an earlier version, you're stuck with the cloning tool only. I used to use clone exclusively, but the healing brush is much more flexible and does a superior job in most instances. The patch tool is also quite useful for certain things, especially cleaning up larger areas. There are still some situations in which cloning is the best option, but if applied correctly the healing brush will suffice for the majority of tasks.

If you're unsure about using various tools in Photoshop, or any other program, do some online searches for tutorials. There's tons of 'em out there. Once you learn how to do something, practice it over and over, if you have the time. You can read all the tutorials you want, and take all the advice from others that you can stand, but there's no substitute for actually sitting down and doing it yourself. That way you'll find out what works for you, and you'll discover the limitations of the tools at your disposal.


Fade to Black...

[seekwhence]

Are you BS'ing us yet again...?!

What kind of blarney are you shoveling now?! On the one hand you boast to everyone about your "degree in industrial design" and what an expert you are with Photoshop and that you're going to post advanced tutorials about using that program (refresh your memory with this thread)

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=97822

and yet you can't even do a simple procedure like removing scratches?! What a joke! Haven't you ever heard of the Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp Tools?! I'm no "graphics guru" like you claim to be but at least even I know how to remove scratches, dust and mold spots using Photoshop!
OK it's obvious you need some real basic help (and not just with image restoration...) so I'll give you some real basic advice. Find a copy of Polaroid's DSR (Dust and Scratch Removal) Program. It's free and so simple to use even a 5 year old can get good results. Perhaps that's more your speed. Oh and by the way, it can also be used as a Photoshop filter (You do know where they can be found don't you?). And keep looking in Photoshop - eventually you may find the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tools. If not, there's always the Help Function (that's the drop down menu at the very end of the selections that start with File)!
Go n'eiri an t-adh leat... Ian or Joshua or whatever your real name is!

Dave (seekwhence)

[i.spring]

Thanks Steve ! for all your great information.
I was just curies if there was some software designed for this task. There always seems to be software designed for almost every other computer task now.
Much of my collection is in film form and so, many of the images suffer from hairline scratches. So a quicker process would have saved me literally hundreds of hours work, but if there is no software solution, i think the only option would be to careful pick my favourite images for this delicate retouching process.
Many Thanks.
Ian

[Sturmgeist]

I don't know if this would help, but I went to a local photo store and this is what they could do for me. Here's the example:

[Freggel]

that is a remarkable result sturmgeist.
Do you have any idea how they did this? Computerprograms or so?

[Sturmgeist]

I'm not sure. The total cost was about $30.00, but they doubled it in size as well as several other photos and put them on a disk. I think a small area where you can see they messed up is the medal loop on the left pocket, but that could have originally been a scratch.

[i.spring]

Thats a superb result !
I use photoshop CS3 which is very good and its sharpening ability is very good and how the user can readjust the levels and contrast.
But i find its lacking when it comes to scratches.
Also i dont think i help the matters with the scanner i use.
I have a 35mm slide scanner that is very good but it seems like the camera and lense is very close the film and captures almsot at a angle and dark of the hair line scratches.
I have a theory that the system Akira illustrated before might avoid much of this. Where the photo or film is laid down flat on a white surface, then a good digital SLR camera is fixed to a stand and focused onto the image. Then the user could control the capture focus much better.
I have seen results of this process and they seem to me to be much better for getting a good digital output.
I have my suspicies that maybe this is the method that these good photo shops use.
And this is the way im thinking to moveing also.
May i ask, does anyone know what type of lense a digital SLR camera would need to capture somethine so close up in good clarity?
Thanks.
Ian

[Garry M.]

Like Blackwolf I use Photoshop to get rid of scratches and blemishes etc. in my photographs. If you get in nice and close you can achieve really good results. Here's the 'before' scan:

[Garry M.]

After 10 minutes with the clone tool you can see that most of the blemishes have gone. You could of course keep going and spend quite a lot of time getting a picture just right if you wish. I've filled the riffled edge of the photo just to show that that tears etc can easily be removed. This really isn't difficult at all.

[Sturmgeist]

After 10 minutes with the clone tool you can see that most of the blemishes have gone. You could of course keep going and spend quite a lot of time getting a picture just right if you wish. I've filled the riffled edge of the photo just to show that that tears etc can easily be removed. This really isn't difficult at all.

Amazing result!

This is not really about scratches, but I swear, whenever you double the size of a photo, you always find something new in it!

For instance I had a photo doubled belonging to the same man and only after the fact did it seem there was a Combat Chaplain hiding in the back. I still have to get rid of the scratches though. There are quite a few.

Before:



After:



Also, was it none regulation for a soldier to keep a pen in his pocket?