Help removing water spots, please.

Lytro Illum Light Field Digital

05/20/2012 08:09:30 AM · #1

I took this photo of my wife and while it's not the sharpest thing in the world I really like it. The problem is the three water spots that show up on her shirt. I can get rid of the two on her torso, but I can't get the one by her collar to go away without it looking like crap.

Here's a small jpg:

Here's a large jpg (14.5mb)

Here's the Canon raw file (22mb)

Any help would be greatly appreciated...a step by step would be even more appreciated, so that I know how to do this later.

Thank you in advance.

yakatme

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

05/20/2012 10:09:08 AM · #2

It's gone.

I'm interested to see the solutions that others come up with, but this was a simple one for me since the spot was on an area of relatively little important detail. Because water spots and sun flares often simply result in a washed out bright area, I made two adjustment layers, one for levels and one for vibrance. I moved the middle slider of the levels to the right to darken the mid tones and increased vibrance drastically. Then I completely masked out both layers and selectively painted them back in as needed little by little.

I didn't take the time to remove the ones that you said that gave you no trouble.

I use other techniques when the areas involves important, fine details.

edit to add: Is the image that I posted showing up for you? I'm seeing an empty box that I have to open in another tab to view.

Message edited by author 2012-05-20 10:11:04.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

05/20/2012 11:27:00 AM · #3

Here's a quick take:

I approached this similarly to Robert, but I used a single adjustment (curves) and worked with the layer mask in order to localize the effect to the spots. About 10 minutes.

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

05/20/2012 11:27:14 AM · #4

A quick selection of the spots, content aware fill, quick healing brush around the circles. Less than a minute. You could make it look a little better by taking a bit more time.

JulietNN

Canon EOS R7

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

05/20/2012 11:47:07 AM · #5

I think I am blind as a bat, I can not see anything on her shirt.

05/20/2012 12:59:30 PM · #6

Here's an edit from the RAW file, taking a bit more time :-)

There are a lot of beautiful colors and detail in the rocks and water, which I tried to bring out. Fun Sunday morning project.

ETA The full-size image is there, click the view full-size image link. Processing details on the image.

Message edited by author 2012-05-20 13:04:03.

Lomography Petzval 85mm F2.2 MF

05/20/2012 01:12:14 PM · #7

Originally posted by JulietNN:

I think I am blind as a bat, I can not see anything on her shirt.

Three lighter "washed-out" blotches, two just above her waist, the third over the folds under the collar on her right shoulder.

ecmguy

Nikon D800

05/20/2012 01:40:14 PM · #8

I normally would use the patch tool for something like this, and then go to select-->refine edge and feather the edges a bit, then find a similar area on her shirt to patch it from. The methods provided above, however, seemed to work very nicely, I'll have to try those out next time!

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

05/20/2012 01:48:26 PM · #9

Originally posted by ecmguy:

Your method works great for smaller spots, and for spots that are just too light (or dark) to leave enough of the underlying color and detail. In this case, with the large, diffuse spots, it's much faster to "adjust them out of existence."

JulietNN

Canon EOS R7

05/20/2012 04:54:44 PM · #10

Thanks Kirbic, now I see them!

Why not just colour select then paint the colour in at a low op till you get what you want?

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

05/20/2012 05:23:05 PM · #11

Thank you everyone. I've never attempted to use CURVES, and my mask using is very very limited. I tried content aware fill, but the collar spot was being a pain.

Robert, yours isn't showing up for me either.
Juliet, I never thought of it. LOL

Now to go in and try to do this myself (which is why I love this site, learning new things).

EL-ROI

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

05/20/2012 05:48:55 PM · #12

Hi Nathan,

What software are you using to do your post processing?

Ed

p.s. I took a shot at a fix with your raw file. I used Photoshop Elements 9 for the fix. Dealt with water spots using the clone stamp. (Full size jpg included!)

Message edited by author 2012-05-20 20:02:50.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

05/20/2012 06:44:22 PM · #13

Originally posted by NathanWert:

Thank you everyone. I've never attempted to use CURVES ...

IMO, Curves should be your number one tool for adjusting tone, color, and contrast -- far more control than Levels or similar adjustments. I highly recommend exploring the use of this tool -- I think there is a tutorial or two here ... Note especially that you can apply Curves to the individual color channels in addition to the composite, and in other modes than ordinary RGB.

05/20/2012 09:33:08 PM · #14

I'm using Photoshop CS5. Yeah, I keep meaning to learn curves, but never seem to get around to it.

alexlky

05/21/2012 12:23:59 AM · #15

Originally posted by NathanWert:

I'm using Photoshop CS5. Yeah, I keep meaning to learn curves, but never seem to get around to it.

I guess this is what commonly do for layer mask brushing for water spot or lens flare. Anyone can advice on this?

I create an psd for you but I can't upload to my imgur account.
Here is 10s gif animation of editing steps.