Section 91. Remove Scratches Automatically

91. Remove Scratches Automatically

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

74 Import Photos from a Digital Camera

75 Scan In Photos

SEE ALSO

92 Repair Scratches Manually

94 Repair Holes and Tears

Printed photographs are fragile by nature and are easily scratched, especially if they are not stored in protective sleeves. The scanning process can actually enhance scratches by introducing halos around them, making them even more noticeableespecially in lower-resolution scansthan they were on the print. By using the Automatic Small Scratch Removal command, you can easily remove small, line-shaped scratches across the surface of an image. By its nature, this command is not terribly aggressive at removing scratches, so it's fairly safe to use on just about any image without worrying about introducing fuzziness and unwanted patterns.

91. Remove Scratches Automatically

NOTE

For scratches the Automatic Small Scratch Removal command won't get rid of, try removing them manually with the Scratch Remover or Clone Brush tools. See 92 Repair Scratches Manually .

1.	Choose Automatic Small Scratch Removal Choose Adjust, Add/Remove Noise, Automatic Small Scratch Removal from the menu. The Automatic Small Scratch Removal dialog box opens. TIP To prevent details from being lost in areas that do not contain scratches, select the scratched area before choosing this command.
2.	Select Scratch Type Select the type of scratches you want to removedark scratches from a light background, light ones from a dark background, or both.
3.	Adjust Contrast By default, PSP sets the Lower contrast level to 0% and the Upper level to 50%. (PSP assumes that neighboring pixels with a contrast difference greater than 50% are intentional and not accidental.) PSP then seeks out line-shaped areas that contrast with surrounding pixels by that amount and removes them. To narrow this range, adjust the Lower and Upper limits. NOTE If scratches remain while the contrast limits are set to 0 and 50, PSP cannot identify and remove them with this tool; you should try something else.
4.	Set Strength and Click OK Adjust the Strength as needed. For example, you might change the setting from Normal to Aggressive to have PSP be less discriminating in identifying scratches, or to Mild to have PSP be more careful. Click OK to apply the changes.

TIP

Before clicking OK , check the image to make sure that no details have been accidentally erased.