Eliminate tiny spots in hair

Here’s a technique to try. If the spots are light, duplicate the background layer and change the duplicate’s blending mode to Darken. With the Move tool selected, press any of your arrow keys once. Most of the spots disappear. You’ve separated each dust mote and its twin (on the second layer) by 1 pixel. Photoshop compares the two layers and chooses the darker pixel at each location. If most of the dust is 1 pixel in size, you’ve solved your problem.

If there are still too many dust spots, move one more pixel (I choose a different direction). You may find fine dark details (like eyelashes) become too thick. You can restore these details with a layer mask, making the duplicate layer transparent just in those few details.

Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography

In article , Lou
wrote:

I’ve got an old photo I’m trying to restore. In some selected areas especially the hair, there are tiny lighter/white spots all over. I can clone over from a good area for each little spot but there are hundreds and that would take waaaaay too long. The Healing Brush doesn’t quite do it either. Any ideas ? With skin tones it’s much easier but with hair, the strands need to still stand out while taking out the light spots. Help !!
Lou –

Thanks Tom – that sounds like a great idea. I’ll give it try !

Lou –

"Tom Nelson" wrote in message

Here’s a technique to try. If the spots are light, duplicate the background layer and change the duplicate’s blending mode to Darken. With the Move tool selected, press any of your arrow keys once. Most of the spots disappear. You’ve separated each dust mote and its twin (on the second layer) by 1 pixel. Photoshop compares the two layers and chooses the darker pixel at each location. If most of the dust is 1 pixel in size, you’ve solved your problem.

If there are still too many dust spots, move one more pixel (I choose a different direction). You may find fine dark details (like eyelashes) become too thick. You can restore these details with a layer mask, making the duplicate layer transparent just in those few details.
Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography

In article , Lou
wrote:

I’ve got an old photo I’m trying to restore. In some selected areas especially the hair, there are tiny lighter/white spots all over. I can clone over from a good area for each little spot but there are hundreds

and

that would take waaaaay too long. The Healing Brush doesn’t quite do it either. Any ideas ? With skin tones it’s much easier but with hair, the strands need to still stand out while taking out the light spots. Help

!!

Lou –

Tom – very good tip. I removed most of the problem with just a couple of keystrokes. You’ve saved me a bunch of time – Thanks a lot !

Lou –

"Tom Nelson" wrote in message

Here’s a technique to try. If the spots are light, duplicate the background layer and change the duplicate’s blending mode to Darken. With the Move tool selected, press any of your arrow keys once. Most of the spots disappear. You’ve separated each dust mote and its twin (on the second layer) by 1 pixel. Photoshop compares the two layers and chooses the darker pixel at each location. If most of the dust is 1 pixel in size, you’ve solved your problem.

If there are still too many dust spots, move one more pixel (I choose a different direction). You may find fine dark details (like eyelashes) become too thick. You can restore these details with a layer mask, making the duplicate layer transparent just in those few details.
Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography

In article , Lou
wrote:

I’ve got an old photo I’m trying to restore. In some selected areas especially the hair, there are tiny lighter/white spots all over. I can clone over from a good area for each little spot but there are hundreds

and

that would take waaaaay too long. The Healing Brush doesn’t quite do it either. Any ideas ? With skin tones it’s much easier but with hair, the strands need to still stand out while taking out the light spots. Help

!!

Lou –