Dust spotting scans

[Kirk Gittings]

Curious. Why would I want it to be adjustable forever? I primarily use the spot healing brush. Once the dust is gone its gone.

[Greg Miller]

Curious. Why would I want it to be adjustable forever? I primarily use the spot healing brush. Once the dust is gone its gone.

Maybe you missed a spot, and don't discover it until later (happens a lot to people if they later add contrast and barely noticeable spots become very noticeable). Or maybe later on your realize you did a crappy job in a spot (happens to me). Or maybe the spot is in a really tricky place, and some later version of Photoshop makes it easier (or your skills get better).

But in general, using a layer mask produces identical results as the history brush in a virtually identical manner (just paint away the effect with a paint brush), but has none of the drawbacks. So I think it is better to get in the habit of just using a layer mask.

[Greg Miller]

Curious. Why would I want it to be adjustable forever? I primarily use the spot healing brush. Once the dust is gone its gone.

My normal process is to create an empty layer above the background layer. And use the spot healing brush (and occassionaly other tools like the close tool or healing brush) on the empty layer. That way the spotting is in its own layer and can be redone at any time if necessary. No original pixels are changed.

[Kirk Gittings]

Ok I am lost. That is exactly what I do and have said so above. I thought you were saying something different.

[Greg Miller]

Ok I am lost. That is exactly what I do and have said so above. I thought you were saying something different.

My original post in this thread was to Zaitz, who stated that he/she creates a new layer, apply dust and scratch filter to it, and then uses the history brush. So I was suggesting using a layer mask instead of the history brush. Same result, same amount of time, but none of the possible pitfalls.

[Kirk Gittings]

Sorry I get the flow of conversation now.

[Greg Miller]

Sorry I get the flow of conversation now.

We need a history brush for this thread

[Kirk Gittings]

need one for my brain.......

[bob carnie]

using the overlay blending mode is key to his method, I am still trying to get this right but could be quite significant for me,