Wilfred's
Photoshop actions (last updated April
17, 2005)
Shadow noise reduction
NEW: Dust
and scratches removal using the
infrared channel generated by VueScan
About Shadow noise reduction
This file
contains a Photoshop action to reduce the specks that many scanners and
digital cameras produce in shadow areas. To see what it does, check out
the example. This action intends to
deal with specks in shadow areas only and to leave other parts of your
image unaffected.
Installation and use
To
install, download and uncompress the .ZIP file
by double clicking on it (if this doesn't work, install a decompression
utility such as Stuffit Expander or WinZip). The decompressed
file is an .ATN file. In Photoshop,
select Window>Actions. Click on the right-pointing arrow next to the
word 'actions' and select 'Load Actions'. A window opens that allows
you to navigate your disks and locate the .ATN file. Select it and
click 'Load'. Now
you should be able to select and run my action from the actions
palette. 'SNR' works with slide scans and processed negative scans
(i.e., negatives that have been inverted to normal colors). It will
probably also work with digicam images. I wouldn't
recommend using it on so-called raw scans or RAW camera files. Refer to
the Photoshop manual for further details on using
actions.
The action explains itself through dialog boxes. You can run it
multiple times, but depending on the settings you use, this may affect
other areas in your image (see, for instance the example,
where the default settings have been used once again to obtain the
final image)
The action was
written for AdobeTM PhotoshopTM CS. I haven't tested
but it may also work with Photoshop 5.0 - 7.01 (full edition).
However, using older versions you may have to convert your image to
8-bit mode first (Image > Mode > 8 bits / channel).
Use the action at your own risk. Save your original image before
running it and make sure you don't overwrite it with the
cleaned version.The actions will not save your altered image, so
that you can decide upon your file names by yourself. For large files,
processing may be time consuming.
So far, the
actions have only been tested with Photoshop CS on
Mac OS X. I would like to receive feedback on attempts with
other versions.
Download
(4kb)
About IR dust and scratches removal, version 0.3
(update June 16, 2005)
This file
contains two Photoshop actions to automate dust and scratches removal
using the infrared
channel generated by VueScan
(Professional Edition) if used with a scanner that is able to produce
an infared
channel (Kodak/ASF Digital ICE or Canon FARE/QARE).
I wrote the
actions because VueScan's built-in dust and scratches removal doesn't
work very well with my scanners. However, unlike most scanner software,
VueScan can output the infrared data as a separate channel that can be
used to locate dust and scratches to facilitate removal. That is
exactly what my Photoshop actions do in a more or less automated way.
The actions works with VueScan-generated files from various scanners,
but the actions as can be downloaded are 'tweaked' to work with a
Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 (original version). It might be needed
to tweak the actions
for your particular scanner.
Installation
To
install, download and uncompress the .ZIP file
by double clicking on it (if this doesn't work, install a decompression
utility such as Stuffit Expander or WinZip). The decompressed
file is an .ATN file. In Photoshop,
select Window>Actions. Click on the right-pointing arrow next to the
word 'actions' and select 'Load Actions'. A window opens that allows
you to navigate your disks and locate the .ATN file. Select it and
click 'Load'. Now
you should be able to select and run my actions from the actions
palette. There are two actions in the folder called IR-based Dust & Scratches 20050617:
one for images with cleary defined dust specks and scratches and one
for images where part of the dust appears as smears or mold. The
actions can be used on slide scans, reflective scans, raw scans and
negative
scans. There is no readme file: the instructions are here on
this web page (see 'Optimizing and tweaking').
Refer to
the Photoshop manual for further details on using
actions.
How to use
To prepare images for these actions, scan your reflectives, slides or
negatives with
the following settings in VueScan Professional:
- Output >
Output TIFF file: ON
- Output > TIFF
file type: 64 bit RGBI (or: check Output > Raw file)
- Filter
> Infrared Clean: None (this setting is not necessary if you want to
clean a raw file)
These
actions were written using AdobeTM PhotoshopTM CS1. I
haven't
tested
but it may also work with Photoshop 5.5 - 7.01 (full edition) and CS2.
However, using older versions you will have to convert your image to
8-bit mode first (Image > Mode > 8 bits / channel).
Use the actions at your own risk. Save your original image before
running it and make sure you don't overwrite your image with the
cleaned version.The actions will not save your altered image. They will
keep a snapshot of the original image before cleaning in the History
palette until you delete it or close the image. For large files,
processing may be time consuming.
So
far, the actions have only been tested with Photoshop CS on
Mac OS X. I would like to receive feedback on attempts with
other versions.
Optimizing and tweaking
Some of the settings in the actions are likely to be scanner
dependent. This is most obviously the case for the radius settings for
the Contract and Expand Selection commands, the
radius
setting for the Feather Selection command (must be smaller tan the
expansion radius) and especially the settings for the Dust &
Scratches filter.
To change settings permanently, select the action in the Actions
palette, and select Record Again in the Actions palette menu.
You can also run the actions on multiple images in batch mode (File
>
Automate
> Batch). Make sure that you
don't overwrite your original files with the 'cleaned' versions.
Frequently asked question:
Q: I noticed that there
is an 'unsharp mask' command in your actions, but I don't want any
sharpening applied to my image.
A: The unsharp masking is only
applied to the infrared channel. It will not affect your RGB data.
Changes in version 0.31
- No distinction between positive and
negative scans (black and white specks)
- Reduced
number of steps and reduced processing time
- Improved
cleaning
- No
manual adjustment during processing needed (except for tweaking), no
interrupting dialog box
Feedback is appreciated. The e-mail address is in the 'contact' section
of this website.
Download
(4 kb).
Version 0.2 - Version
0.1