Removing Photographic Scratches in Paint Shop Pro 9

Common wisdom states that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but common wisdom is wrong. Beauty is in the lens of your camera — because when you have messed-up photos, nobody looks good. Your cousin Freddy may be a heartthrob, but if your photos of him are scratched and his eyes are glowing a dim red, who can tell the difference between Freddy-your-cousin and Freddy-the-stalker from Nightmare on Elm Street? Fortunately, Paint Shop Pro has a tool to remove scratches.

Photographic scratches usually fall into one of two categories:

• Individual scratches that arise from creased photos or scratches on the negative

• Masses of tiny scratches that arise from a photo being stored in a drawer for a long time, where it has been rattling around with dusty pencil shavings and spare screws.

Paint Shop Pro is adept at handling either type of scratch. (Note that if your image has a color depth of fewer than 16.7 million colors, Paint Shop Pro needs to increase the number of colors in your image before you can use any of these tools and adjustments.)

Patching up single scratches

Having photos come back from the developer with a scratch is heartbreaking. Usually, it means that a scratch is on the negative, so making a new print can't help. Equally traumatic is having a valued print that is creased, torn, or scratched when you don't have a negative and can't replace the print. Thankfully, Paint Shop Pro has an answer for all your folds, creases, and scratches.

After you scan the picture into Paint Shop Pro, here's what to do:

1. Zoom in on your scratched area so that it fills the screen.

Select the magnifying-glass icon from the pan and zoom tool group and zoom in.

2. Click the Scratch Remover tool from the clone tool group, as shown in Figure 1.

The Scratch Remover tool is the icon that looks like a trowel (perhaps to be used with some plaster to smooth out the cracks!).

3. Position your mouse cursor at one end of the scratch and drag along the scratch.

As you drag, a frame area stretches to follow your mouse cursor and extends across the width of the scratch, as shown in Figure 2.

4. Release your mouse button at the end of the scratch.

If you're following a curved or irregular scratch, release your mouse button at the point where the curve can no longer fit within the frame. (Later, you can go back and remove remaining segments of the scratch.)

When you release the mouse button, the Scratch Remover tool picks up paint from either side of the scratch and pushes it into the scratch. If you had to stop short of the end of the scratch, drag a second time to cover the remaining portion.

That's it! You now have a slightly fuzzy band where the scratch was, but it's probably much better than a scratch.

If the scratch wasn't completely filled in, you may need to repeat your action for another segment of scratch or adjust some tool options and try again. For irregular scratches, remove the scratch in sections. To adjust options, first undo any failed attempt (press Ctrl+Z). Next, open the Tool Options palette (press F4 to toggle the window on or off). Follow one of these methods:

• If the scratch didn't fill in because the scratch was wider than the tool's frame: A value box on the Tool Options palette allows you to adjust the Scratch Remover's width in pixels. Increase the value in that box and again try to remove the scratch. With tool settings larger than 20, the frame exhibits an inner and outer zone as you drag. As you drag, make sure that the scratch fits in the inner zone and that the outer zone is completely filled with the bordering colors you want to use for filling in.

• If you end up with an unacceptably wide, fuzzy band where the scratch was: The tool's width was set too high. Lower the width value on the Tool Options palette.

• If the end points of the scratch didn't properly fill in: An outline option gives you an alternative shape to drag; one that has pointed ends rather than square ones. That shape is good for clicking in tight spaces or corners. Click that alternative shape button and then try scratch removal again.

If the scratch runs along an edge in the image, use the smallest width possible to avoid blurring that edge. For example, in Figure 6-2, the scratch grazes the guy's shoulder, where his shirt ends and the trees begin. The scratch remover blurs that edge. Rather than remove the entire irregular scratch in one broad attempt, you may do better to remove that shoulder-grazing portion of the scratch separately, with the width value set very low. If all else fails, use the Clone Brush tool.

Smoothing masses of scratches

Some photos or their negatives can get pretty seriously abused, picking up tiny scratches, pits, or other imperfections while being handled, while living in suitcases or sandy beach bags, or while being badly processed. Hey, who wouldn't get a little abraded under those circumstances?

To fix this mass of scratches, choose Adjust --> Add/Remove Noise --> Automatic Small Scratch Removal to display the Automatic Small Scratch Removal dialog box. You can see its effects on your screen, as shown in Figure 3.

If only a part of your picture is scratched, you can use the selection tool group to restrict the Scratch Removal tool to a limited area.

First, determine whether your scratches are light or dark or both. Next, select Remove Light Scratches, Remove Dark Scratches, or both. If the preview image on the right side isn't already adequately cleaned up, change the Strength setting from Normal to Aggressive. If the effect is removing things that aren't scratches or making your photo too fuzzy, try changing Strength to Mild. (A necessary side effect of cleaning up scratches with this effect is a bit of added fuzziness, so you can't be too picky.) If the effect is removing too many tiny features, try adjusting the Local Contrast Limits option. To restore low-contrast features, drag the pointer at the left end of the line to the right. To restore high-contrast features, drag the pointer at the right end of the line to the left.