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.