Filtering noise

[tjudy]

I am trying to figure out how to use PhotoShop effectively. Here is an image that I took that has a few dust spots and such in it. I tried using the PS noise filter (dust) and all it does is blur the picture. Is there a way to get rid of the spots in the black area around the fish without affecting the image of the fish?

http://webpages.charter.net/tedjudy/fish%20images/smtripleredartshot.jpg

[paradise]

Ted, I do it manually. I like having 100% control. You can't just do the dust and not lose some detail, to me it's not worth it. I magnify till I see pixels and just stamp them out.

BTW, this image is actually better than you think, want to know how I did this?

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/9/4/ted2.jpg

[tjudy]

YES!!!!!!

[paradise]

Ted, It's REALLY easy. I always talk about the most underused tool in PS CS2. Shadow/Highlight is a great way to fix uneven exposures and situations just like this one. You gotta play around with it abit to get it right, to get the feel for it. Adjust both ways. After that, I did a smart sharpen with a small diameter to bring out the fine details. Now, imagine after this, there is about 20 times more dots on the black background. I do a 4x magnification and use the stamp tool to fix the dots. Takes a few minutes but once you get an area fixed, you just use that as a sample area, uncheck the box that tells the brush to follow, and it's very easy.

[jhoetzl]

Ted, I do it manually. I like having 100% control. You can't just do the dust and not lose some detail, to me it's not worth it. I magnify till I see pixels and just stamp them out.


Stamp or healing brush...


http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?page=3&cid=4799F

And some more reading if you want:
http://www.digitalretouch.org/download/healing/healing.pdf

[Travis Bickle]

I love the new spot healing brush! I use that alot now.
I also like clonestamping to a new layer somtimes too.

[tjudy]

I tried to find the shadow/ highlight tool, and only found something in the color balance adjustment. I cannot seem to get close to the same results you are with that... am I in the wrong place?

What I really need is A) newer version of PS, B) someone to sit with me in front of a screen and show me how its done. I know next to nothing about eh software, and the help menu is the most confucing thing I have ever read.

[paradise]

Ted, you need CS2 for that. :)

[reefrunner]

The shadow/highlights tool was introduced in PS CS (PhotoShop 8) and is found under Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlights. FWIW, there are some free shadow/Highlight actions that work very well with earlier versions of PS, try looking at atncentral.com