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So often I get carried away with new features and filters in Photoshop that I sometimes forget about some of the oldies but goodies. This weekend I got reacquainted with one of my favorites, the Dust and Scratches Filter.
This past Friday, a friend gave me a file and asked if I could clean it up for them. It was a scan of an old movie poster that had been folded up in a drawer somewhere. Her main request was that I get rid of the fold marks but as I started working with the file, I couldn’t get past all of the dust that had come from scanning the poster (a very common occurrence with scans). My big problem was that there was so much dust that while using the clone brush for the page folds, I was cloning in dust to the areas that I was repairing. I started to clone out all of the dust, and there was a lot of it, when I remembered the Dust and Scratches filter. Sure enough, I fired it up, set up the parameters, and started knocking those little dust bunnies out of site.
There are a couple of tricks to using the filter. The first is to make a selection around the areas containing the dust and or scratches. Try to work in smaller areas with similar tonal ranges and textures to them. The great thing is that you can use any selection tool that you like. I usually just go with the Lasso or Rectangular Marquee tools to make quick selections around the dust laden areas.
Once selected, you activate the filter by clicking Filters>Noise>Dust & Scratches… This brings up the dialog box which will allow you to remove those little flecks. There are just two sliders to worry about, the Radius, and the Threshold. I usually start with both sliders at zero and then start moving the Radius to the right until the unwanted dust disappears from the scene. Upon moving the Radius slider, it will quickly become apparent why you need the Threshold. The Radius will make you entire area look blurred and without texture so the next step is to start moving the Threshold up until the original texture of the area comes back, sans dust. You might have to play with the Radius again after adjusting the Threshold to come up with the perfect balance. Once you are done, just click OK.
If you think that’s great, just wait until you start using it in high-speed mode. Now that you have your parameters set, just grab hold of that favorite selection tool and start fencing in all of the other dust on your image. Now use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+F or Ctrl+F to apply your last filter adjustment to this new selection. You can really start covering some real estate once you have the filter set up and start using the keyboard shortcut. If you find that you have moved to an area where the last filter setting just isn’t getting it done, hold down Cmd+Alt+F to quickly get back to the dialog box.
A word of warning, the filter doesn’t know the difference between an edge and a scratch so be careful not to apply it across contrasting edges.
I don’t remember how long this particular filter has been in Photoshop but I can’t remember a time when it hasn’t been around. So if you have some scanned photos that you want to clean up, break out your selection tool and give it a try.
Here are the before and after images.
BEFORE
AFTER
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mike meyer 
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Forgotten Photoshop Filters: Dust and Scratches…
Dust and scratches aren’t a huge issue with digital photos, but film scans can suffer badly. Here’s a good explanation of a Photoshop filter that can help out….