- With the dusty area selected, choose Filters, Noise, Dust & Scratches.
- Move both sliders to the far left: 1 for Radius and 0 for Threshold.
- Radius needs to be adjusted first. Move the slider to the right until a majority
of the dust disappears. The goal is to remove most of the dust. Large areas
will be removed later with the Clone Stamp tool. - Threshold is adjusted after you find the best Radius for the dust. When you
find the correct Radius value, move the Threshold slider to the right as far as
possible until the dust begins to emerge. Back down a little. Click OK to
accept the settings.
If dust and scratches remain in the image, use the Clone Stamp tool. Follow these
steps to use the Clone Stamp tool to remove any remaining dust and scratches:
- Find some spots that still have dust and zoom in (Window, Zoom In).
- Click the Clone Stamp tool and then select a brush size appropriate for the
dust. The smaller the better, because you have more control and the changes
aren’t as easy to spot. - Before you can use Clone Stamp, you need to tell the tool what area to use as
a guide. Move the cursor somewhere acceptable (an area with no dust), press
down and hold the Alt (xfor Mac users) key. The cursor will change to a tar-
get. Now click the mouse once. You’ve set
the clone point. - Move the mouse over any remaining dust
and then click and drag. The Clone
Stamp tool will copy the area you selected
earlier over the dust.
The area you selected should be free of dust. The
bottom line is that even the worst scans can be
saved. Removing dust and scratches from areas
with people and other subjects is more difficult,
and requires more than the Dust & Scratches
filter.
CHAPTER 13 THE IMPORTANCE OF FILTERS 203tip
For an advanced treatment
of dust and scratch removal
on complex subjects such as
people, pick up Katrin
Eismann’s Photoshop
Restoration & Retouching
from Que Publishing.