How to visualize dust spots on scanned neg in PS without using ACR or LR

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Question on deleting dust from a photo. I scan large format negatives 4x5 and up. Short of a clean room you get dust, a lot of it.

ACR and LR have the visualize dust function, but PS does not. My images are too big for LR and ACR is too slow, like really slow with a 4gb size file.

How can I visualize dust in PS and delete as usual non-destructively?

I typically get 99% of it, but sometimes it can be challenging. And it would be nice to turn visualization off and on fir critical details like mountain sides, hair, textured things you don’t want smeared. Sky’s and clouds are easy, everything else requires some care.

Need to visualize dust in PS and still remove non-destructively as well. ACR/LR not an option.

[Peter De Smidt]

A solar layer can help.

[PRJ]

I take care of dust in Photoshop with it zoomed to 200% so I don't miss anything. Do it first before you make any layers and it is a piece of cake. Zip around the image with one hand on the space bar. And make sure you do your retouching into a new layer if you aren't doing it already.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I create a blank layer first thing and do all my dust delete at 100%. Just looking for a way to visualize it like in ACR or LR.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

A solar layer can help.


Never tried that. Will give it a shot. I take it you are referring to creating a solar curve using the curves adj layer?

[Peter De Smidt]

You have your base layer. If you use capture sharpening, then use it, as it will make spots more obvious. Above that create an empty layer. That's what you'll do your retouching on. Set your healing brush to present layer and below, i.e. so as not to include the viewing layers. Above that put your viewing layers. I mostly use a simple curves layer to darken the image, as that makes spots in bright areas more visible, but a solar curve layer can bring some problems to light that are hard to see otherwise. I use a Wacom tablet for this, as it leads to less stress on my hands. Use the healing brush for most things. Occasionally, especially near difficult edges, you will need the clone tool.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

You have your base layer. If you use capture sharpening, then use it, as it will make spots more obvious. Above that create an empty layer. That's what you'll do your retouching on. Set your healing brush to present layer and below, i.e. so as not to include the viewing layers. Above that put your viewing layers. I mostly use a simple curves layer to darken the image, as that makes spots in bright areas more visible, but a solar curve layer can bring some problems to light that are hard to see otherwise. I use a Wacom tablet for this, as it leads to less stress on my hands. Use the healing brush for most things. Occasionally, especially near difficult edges, you will need the clone tool.

With exception of solar curve this is exactly what I do. I also use the WACOM tablet though I have found that for 90% of the dust removal process, the healing brush and mouse are very quick. Right now, my right thumb is all jacked up so holding the pen for long periods sucks!

Gonna try out the solar curve today and see how that works.

[Peter De Smidt]

Yeah. Switch things up. If I'm doing a lot of work, I change how I hold the pen often. There's also an ergonomic grip for the Wacom pen. It helps. When I made my living doing post production, it was very hard on my hands.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Trying to get the VA to fix it. They did xrays and you can see a white ball of something around the tendon.

[Pieter]

A solar layer can help.
I have been using photoshop since before layers. I never knew about creating a solar curves layer until now. I just used it with the healing brush to clean a scan of a print that has a black background in no time at all. Thanks.

[Peter De Smidt]

Glad to help! Learning about viewing layers has been the biggest improvement in my PS skills over the last couple of years.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Yep, I played with it today and using additional techniques it works pretty good. Will try it out tonight on a photo I am currently still de-spotting and de-dusting. (not real words)

[Greg]

Have been restoring vintage glass plate images for our town's museum for probably the past 15 years. Few years ago even taught a college level course in image restoration. Textbook was Digital Restoration From Start to Finish by CTEIN. To be honest we only covered/used maybe 10% of the total text. Book is well worth getting. He if only for his info on cleaning up dust and scratches. I import the image into PS. Make a duplicate layer labeling it "retouching". Then simply start in the upper left hand corner and really zoom in. Retouch that part of the image then move over to the right with overlapping the first part of the image. Proceed all the way over to the right side then go down, always with some overlapping of the previous images. Zig zag back and forth across the image then always go down. I use a large WACOM and a mouse, choice is which one works best for which tool I am using. Never drink a caffeinated beverage or liquid. Always have music by Kitaro or classical music playing in the background. Definitely take a break ever half hour or so. Wearing reading glasses (for me) really relieves eye strain. Image>Adjustments>Threshold constantly go to to "enhance" the image, lots of times it indicates "very weak" spots or areas that I have overlooked. Patience is must mindset to have.

[SergeyT]

I see no value in doing the 'healing" on a separate layer. If I, by working on the base layer, made a mistake I would Ctrl-Z (undo) and try to make it right this time. The extra layer just eats the RAM when open and HDD space when saved. I never wanted nor had the need to so far, but if I ever want to see my scan with the "original' dust spots that I previously removed on my PSD I will open the original TIFF.

[Mark Sawyer]

"How to visualize dust spots..."

In large format, it's traditional to pre-visualize your dust spots...

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I see no value in doing the 'healing" on a separate layer. If I, by working on the base layer, made a mistake I would Ctrl-Z (undo) and try to make it right this time. The extra layer just eats the RAM when open and HDD space when saved. I never wanted nor had the need to so far, but if I ever want to see my scan with the "original' dust spots that I previously removed on my PSD I will open the original TIFF.

It is a non destructive edit and if I get 10 layers deep and hours into editing an image I can go back to this layer and fix something or do final dust edits etc. I have often needed that at some point. Also, if I do as you say, then if I get several layers deep into an image and find more to edit out and do that on the current layer I destructively alter image and it may prevent me from being able to go back to a previous adj. layer.

But if it works for you then I am all for it.

I just prefer to be able to go back to any point in time and change anything I want and have it work for entire image and even move sideways in time on my edits. Ctl Z just simply undoes a step and then you may have to go back to beginning undoing hours of work.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Have been restoring vintage glass plate images for our town's museum for probably the past 15 years. Few years ago even taught a college level course in image restoration. Textbook was Digital Restoration From Start to Finish by CTEIN. To be honest we only covered/used maybe 10% of the total text. Book is well worth getting. He if only for his info on cleaning up dust and scratches. I import the image into PS. Make a duplicate layer labeling it "retouching". Then simply start in the upper left hand corner and really zoom in. Retouch that part of the image then move over to the right with overlapping the first part of the image. Proceed all the way over to the right side then go down, always with some overlapping of the previous images. Zig zag back and forth across the image then always go down. I use a large WACOM and a mouse, choice is which one works best for which tool I am using. Never drink a caffeinated beverage or liquid. Always have music by Kitaro or classical music playing in the background. Definitely take a break ever half hour or so. Wearing reading glasses (for me) really relieves eye strain. Image>Adjustments>Threshold constantly go to to "enhance" the image, lots of times it indicates "very weak" spots or areas that I have overlooked. Patience is must mindset to have.

Exactly what I do. Although I listen to Metallica or have History Channel on in background. Kinda adhd.

[Alan Klein]

How do you select visualize spots? I'm using LR 6.14 purchased version.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Ckick the healing clone brush at top. Then I believe just above bottom right you will see a selection box for visualize dust or similar with a slider. Check that box and move slider to right. As for the selection below to show mask, uncheck that box so the little circles do not show. This will make the clean up easier. Also you can choose between healing and cloning I, typically use healing, sometimes I you clone.

[Alan Klein]

Ckick the healing clone brush at top. Then I believe just above bottom right you will see a selection box for visualize dust or similar with a slider. Check that box and move slider to right. As for the selection below to show mask, uncheck that box so the little circles do not show. This will make the clean up easier. Also you can choose between healing and cloning I, typically use healing, sometimes I you clone.

I don't see any selection box for visualize dust. I'm using the purchased version not the CC version.

[Molli]

I don't see any selection box for visualize dust. I'm using the purchased version not the CC version.

Hi Alan,
Hopefully my set up looks similar to yours. I've circled the healing brush [top right], and placed a rectangle around the "Visualise Spots" option at the bottom of the image, around centre stage. I hope this helps:

187174

[Alan Klein]

Molli Yes I found it. Thanks.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I found that isolating a color channel and changing brightness/contrast etc you can make the dots pop out. Do your dust deleting, then turn on all color channels and make a final pass. Be sure to use an adjustment layer for whacky brightness and contrast adjustment to make the dust stand out so you can delete it when done. I also use a blank layer just above my base image layer and do all of my healing, spot healing and cloning on this layer. Only the patch tool will not work, but unless I am doing something drastic, like removing a park bench or annoying sign, I don't use the patch tool.