How to clone dust spots?

Of all things, I've never had to clone dust spots. Not that I haven't gotten them, but usually I catch it and get out the rocket blower etc. But tonight after an evening of storms all of a sudden I looked out and the entire sky was yellow-orange.

I grabbed my digital camera, started shooting, had to stop and reset WB, then went uh-oh, saw the spots and realized I forgot to clean it last time I used it... Kept shooting anyway because I was losing light fast, then grabbed a film camera, but by the time I got it loaded the light was gone.

I can do some cropping and haven't gotten into PS yet to see if I can figure out how to clone out spots so thought I'd ask while I'm on here. Next time maybe I'll remember to clean it when I'm done before I put the camera away!

In Photoshop, you have 2 options ... healing brush and clone stamp tools.  Try the healing brush first.  It's easier.  Make sure it's set to "content aware," size it so it covers the spot to be removed, click on or drag it over the spot ... and "voila!" spot should be gone.  If there's some residual, repeat 'til it's gone.  Clone tool works too but you'll have to first select an adjacent area to clone from ... and take care not to introduce more spots.

Do you use Lightroom 5?  The healing brush (in the develop module) has been improved and works differently.

+1. The LR brush has lots of overhead, however, since it's non-destructive. Using PS and a copied layer is a lot more convenient in my book.

I find that using the healing brush and just clicking spots can do wonders for small areas. Don't try to heal too much at a time, or it may pull in information (content-aware mode) from all over the image. You don't want that.

And, yes, I've gotten home and discovered all kinds of spots that required attention. It's very annoying. I try to be more diligent about tidying up, but sometimes forget.

garyrhook wrote: +1. The LR brush has lots of overhead, however, since it's non-destructive. Using PS and a copied layer is a lot more convenient in my book.

Um... nothing done in LR is destructive.  You can always go back in the history and undo anything you've done.  Not sure what you're referring to when you say "since it's non-destructive" though, LR or using copies layers in PS.


Anyway, everyone is wrong.

The fastest and easiest way to remove dust spots in LR is the "Spot removal tool"

Here's a great tutorial:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

garyrhook wrote: +1. The LR brush has lots of overhead, however, since it's non-destructive. Using PS and a copied layer is a lot more convenient in my book.

Um... nothing done in LR is destructive.  You can always go back in the history and undo anything you've done.  Not sure what you're referring to when you say "since it's non-destructive" though, LR or using copies layers in PS.

Um, That's what I said, yes. And I meant the spot removal tool, also, which has a brush mode in LR5. Allow me to expand on my comment.

The problem with it is that each and every action requires recording of the spot/stroke, along with its aftermath. That's a lot of data to manage and it can bog down performance since showing an image requires compositing all of the separate actions into a single raster.

In PS you can use a single raster layer copy for your changes, which requires far less bookkeeping by the program, with the same results. If you need to undo or redo something, you just go get the original material and start over.

The performance of either application is dependent upon your machine; perhaps it also works better on a Mac than Windoze. My experience is that the LR spot healing tool is acceptable up to a point; serious work requires PS because, for me, it's faster. YMMV.

You did save a copy of that layer before you started, right?

garyrhook wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

garyrhook wrote: +1. The LR brush has lots of overhead, however, since it's non-destructive. Using PS and a copied layer is a lot more convenient in my book.

Um... nothing done in LR is destructive.  You can always go back in the history and undo anything you've done.  Not sure what you're referring to when you say "since it's non-destructive" though, LR or using copies layers in PS.

Um, That's what I said, yes. And I meant the spot removal tool, also, which has a brush mode in LR5. Allow me to expand on my comment.

The problem with it is that each and every action requires recording of the spot/stroke, along with its aftermath. That's a lot of data to manage and it can bog down performance since showing an image requires compositing all of the separate actions into a single raster.

In PS you can use a single raster layer copy for your changes, which requires far less bookkeeping by the program, with the same results. If you need to undo or redo something, you just go get the original material and start over.

The performance of either application is dependent upon your machine; perhaps it also works better on a Mac than Windoze. My experience is that the LR spot healing tool is acceptable up to a point; serious work requires PS because, for me, it's faster. YMMV.

You did save a copy of that layer before you started, right?

Sure, I'd agree with all that. For just removing dust spots though, I prefer LR and its spot removal tool.

Thanks for the suggestions, I should be able to figure it out now that you guys headed me in the right direction. I'm jotting down notes Bob, so I don't get into PS and go - now what did he say to do??

I don't have Lightroom so that takes care of that option. I have Elements, obviously I don't do too much editing. Maybe I'll remember now to clean when I first notice dust spots, I probably won't want to have to do this again!

Thanks for the suggestions.

Simon Says wrote: Welcome to the forum

Who are you talking to?

The person with about 2000 more posts than you who's been here for a long time?

Dust spots are generally in the same spot on the sensor so I select the all images in ACR and use the spotting tool and it replicate through all the images selected. I then run through to check that it has done a good job.