Dust and Scratch Removal from 35mm Positives

[leheiner]

I am in the process of digitizing all of my parents old 35mm color slides. Many of these are riddled with dust marks. I want to produce CD's for all of the siblings as a gift one of these christmass's. What are methods for removing the dust? I am particularly interested in the best techniques for removing the dust from the people, and leaving the images with texture and as sharp as possible. I have been using the history brush to paint a dust and scratches blurred snapshot, but when there is a lot of dust on a persons face, this leaves the face blurred.

Lonny

 

[docilebob]

If you`re using Photoshop 7, the Healing patch tool works very well for this.

If it`s an earlier version, the clone stamp is your best bet. Sample close to the damage, zoom way in and do them one at a time.

Another option is the Dust and Scratches filter (or median) but many times they incurr as much damage as they fix.

All that said, a variety of other techniques may be required , depending on the condition of the image, age, etc.

Hope that helps some..

 

[Welles]

What docilebob said...

but here are a couple of great tutes which specifically deal with the Healing Brush and Patch tools from PS 7 which are now the tools of choice for dust/scratch removal.

http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html