Something like "history marker" possible in AP

[AndrejS]

Hi, 

is is possible to do something like Suzzete did in her video (removing white and black dots on an old photo using history marker and history tool in PS, starts at 3:02) in AP? I have lots of old (damaged) photos to restore and they are covered with scratches and dots and there's no way i can clean them using dust&scratches filter, it would take forever. I know, there's no easy way to do it properly, but since i have at least 100 photos to take care of, i'd be very happy to be able to cut down the required time to do it.

 

Thanks for your suggestions,

[James Ritson]

Hi Andrej, you can do this in Photo using Snapshots and the Undo Brush. Photo's Snapshots panel is very similar to the History panel in Photoshop. There's a video that covers using Dust & Scratches and the Undo Brush, but it's not as in depth as the video you linked to:

 

 

It doesn't use Snapshots for one, so to emulate the workflow you're trying to follow, try this:

1. Go to View>Studio>Snapshots to expose the Snapshots panel.
2. Click Add Snapshot (second camera button) and name it Sharp.
3. Run the Dust & Scratches filter (under Filters>Noise) using appropriate settings. You can do this on a duplicated layer if you wish.
4. Add another snapshot and call it D&S.
5. Click and select the Sharp snapshot, then choose Restore Snapshot (first camera button).
6. Select the Undo Brush from the Tools Panel on the left (it's just underneath the Clone Tool) and set your desired blend mode settings (she uses Darken and Lighten for example).
7. In the Snapshots list, click the little grey camera icon to the left of the D&S snapshot. This will set it as the active snapshot.
8. You should now find when you hover over the image that the Undo Brush reveals areas from the D&S snapshot, just like in the video. Now you can just paint away and retouch the image quickly.

 

A couple of pointers:

• The Undo Brush has a default Hardness of 80%. For smoother retouching you might consider setting this to 0%.
• You can always swap the layers for retouching. So you could work off the Dust & Scratches layer and instead choose to restore sharp areas from the Sharp snapshot. That might seem quicker and more intuitive depending on the image you're working on.

 

Hope that helps! And it might also be time for an update to that tutorial

[toltec]

Rather than messing around with History and Snapshots, you can do exactly the same thing in Photo (much more easily) with a couple of Dust and Scratches Filter layers using Photo's built in layer masking.

 

Apply a Dust and Scratches Filter layer . Layer > New Live Filter Layer > Dust & Scratches Filter

 

Adjust the Radius and Tolerance, like in the video.

 

Set the Blend Mode to Lighten. (see bottom right of panel)

 

Select the filter layer by clicking on the thumbnail (not the layer) and invert it (Layer > Invert) so no filter is applied. Then, paint on the Dust and Scratches layer with white paint where needed to get rid of the dark spots. 

 

Repeat with another Dust and Scratches layer, but use Darken Blend Mode to get rid of the light spots..

This shows darken mode to get rid of white spots.

 

 

Bear in mind too that layers can be copied. If you have a lot of photos to do, create and adjust the Dust & Scratches layers and before you paint on them, copy and past them into a blank document, or another photo you wish to edit. There is a good chance the values will work for some of them, but if not it saves you having to create, adjust and invert the layers each time. Just double click to adjust the Dust and Scratches values (if necessary) and paint on.

 

 

 

 

[SloCan]

@AndrejS: thanks for the thread. I also like Suzette's method, so I was curious too.

@James Ritson: I didn't have much success with your method. The video method leaves a lot of detail lost and still a whole lot of dust and scratches to deal with. Thanks, regardless.

@toltec: I tested your method out with a very old photo, and found that it worked very well. I realized with that photo, it was even able to clean up some grain issues as a bonus along the way. Many thanks for your suggestion!

 

[AndrejS]

Guys, thank you for your suggestions, only tried toltec's method due to my restrained spare time and it works wonders. Will try your method tomorrow James, but right now, i've restored three photos and it went really fast. Ok, they were really badly damaged (bruised) so there's still work to be done but i've come a long way in no time. Again, thanks for your help , now my mom's photo book, she's getting for her birthday, will look much nicer.