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hark

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I am wondering what might be the fastest way to remove the dirt marks from this photo using either Photoshop CC or LR5 (this is a jpeg but I will be working with a DNG file). When I encountered this type of dirt in the bricks of a different photo, I found that lowering my shadows helped, but when I do that with this photo, it loses its depth. I know I can use the healing brush or possibly clone (not sure from where though).

I did try to straighten this in LR5 although it still looks a little skewed. Actually I have individual shots of the two shields and the vine but figured this would be easier to show.

How would you attempt this if it was yours? Thanks for any ideas! :D

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wev

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I am wondering what might be the fastest way to remove the dirt marks from this photo

Why do you want to? Is it necessary for some project reason? It is what it is, not some lens dirt or photo bombing bird and I'd just let the record stand.
 

hark

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Why do you want to? Is it necessary for some project reason? It is what it is, not some lens dirt or photo bombing bird and I'd just let the record stand.

It's part of my church's building. I just wanted to clean up the marks and give them copies of the photos. :)
 

wev

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I'd still leave it and shame them into renting a steam cleaner. It's a good picture.
 

hark

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have you tried the spot removal tool in LR5?

In the past I've used the Spot Healing Brush and the Healing Brush in Photoshop but not anything in LR5. The brush in LR5 works a little differently so I will have to check out how it works. The problem is that it will be difficult to clean up the areas around the beveled edges because it will take a very steady hand to keep those lines straight.
 

hark

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I'd still leave it and shame them into renting a steam cleaner. It's a good picture.

The building could use a power washing; however, some parts of the bricks show a few cracks so it wouldn't be good to use one. Perhaps a bucket of water and some soap--when they do a community car wash to raise money, maybe I'll ask if they can scrub this section of the wall!
 

BackdoorArts

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Took me a while to figure it out, but here you go. Easier to show than to say...


There are some really dark spots, so once you finish the first layer of lightening you may want to duplicate that layer and then paint back some of the areas that are too bright by painting black instead of white.

What I didn't mention in the quick video is that you can tweak the opacity of your painting as you go, so if you only want to lighten a little then use a lower opacity. Also, vary the softness of your brush edges as needed to preserve edges and/or blend the changes.

Hope this helps.
 

hark

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Took me a while to figure it out, but here you go. Easier to show than to say...


There are some really dark spots, so once you finish the first layer of lightening you may want to duplicate that layer and then paint back some of the areas that are too bright by painting black instead of white.

What I didn't mention in the quick video is that you can tweak the opacity of your painting as you go, so if you only want to lighten a little then use a lower opacity. Also, vary the softness of your brush edges as needed to preserve edges and/or blend the changes.

Hope this helps.

THANKS, Jake! :cool: This looks like it will work MUCH better than using the healing brush which was the only option I could envision. I was so afraid of messing up the straight lines if I used the healing brush. What you describe here is entirely new to me, but I WANT to learn more editing features. Super information!!! :victorious:
 

BackdoorArts

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You'll never be able to really do away with the dark spots, and like others here I don't think you want to. This will minimize their impact without changing the look. You could never do it with the healing brush as it relies too much on nearby information and you've got lines all over the place. You might be able to get away with some Content Aware Fill, but even that's dodge.

You can use the clone stamp tool, however, since you've got a nice clean spot to copy from.

Here's another quick and dirty, as there's always more than one way to do things...


You need to make sure you do small sections at a time and vary the size of your brush as you get into smaller areas. In the vid I have opacity at 53%, but you may want to drop it to 25-33% to allow you to cross over painted sections.

Perhaps a combination of the two would get you where you really want to be. Do the clone fixes first and then apply multiple copies of the masked screened layers to clean up the rest? Or not that I think of it, maybe the other way around. You'll figure it out!! :)
 
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hark

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You'll never be able to really do away with the dark spots, and like others here I don't think you want to. This will minimize their impact without changing the look. You could never do it with the healing brush as it relies too much on nearby information and you've got lines all over the place. You might be able to get away with some Content Aware Fill, but even that's dodge.

You can use the clone stamp tool, however, since you've got a nice clean spot to copy from.

Here's another quick and dirty, as there's always more than one way to do things...

You need to make sure you do small sections at a time and vary the size of your brush as you get into smaller areas. In the vid I have opacity at 53%, but you may want to drop it to 25-33% to allow you to cross over painted sections.

Perhaps a combination of the two would get you where you really want to be. Do the clone fixes first and then apply multiple copies of the masked screened layers to clean up the rest? Or not that I think of it, maybe the other way around. You'll figure it out!! :)

Thanks for this, too, Jake! Hopefully later tonight I can try to apply one of these and see which method works well--perhaps even a combination of both! First I need to fill up my gas can and get the yard mowed! ;)
 

hark

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I tried this on a different photo of the church, and all I can say is wow, Wow, WOW!!!!!!!!!!! ;) This technique works better than anything else I tried and is EXACTLY what I need to clean up the walls! :cool: I can't thank you enough, Jake. Many thanks for this information! :applouse:
 

hark

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Took me a while to figure it out, but here you go. Easier to show than to say...


There are some really dark spots, so once you finish the first layer of lightening you may want to duplicate that layer and then paint back some of the areas that are too bright by painting black instead of white.

What I didn't mention in the quick video is that you can tweak the opacity of your painting as you go, so if you only want to lighten a little then use a lower opacity. Also, vary the softness of your brush edges as needed to preserve edges and/or blend the changes.

Hope this helps.

I used Jake's technique on the top of the building plus I had to do a little dodging because there were some stubborn green spots that I couldn't remove otherwise. Jake's technique works wonders! Thanks again for the help! :cool:

I also added some text to the church's copy of the photo in the upper left corner but removed it for posting here.

14229712258_2e17039d47_o.jpg

Springtime Blossoms by *Hark*, on Flickr
 

STM

Senior Member
Honestly, I think the "dirt" adds dramatically to the image. That weathering gives the image character.

It might just be personal preference, but I think this image would have a lot more impact in black and white:

 
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