Help with getting rid of white particles...

[ashdavid]

I have a sample pic(which is not mine) and I would like to know what some of you guys would do in this situation?

I want to take all the white particles out of the pic to clean it up, in the past I have been useing clone stamp and patch tool to keep the texture relatively the same.I have tried painting after choosing with the color picker and then palying with opacity on layers, this gets rid of some of the smaller white spots and then I go with the clone tool and patch tool. I find this does not give a very natural look, so I was wondering if there was another way to go about taking these spots out as it is a painstaking proccess which can take anywhere up to 8 hours on a pic with my 1Ds MKIII. Sorry for the long post and TIA.

Here is the pic with the white spots or should I say white particles.

http://forums.waterwolves.com/uploads/post-1539-1203992801.jpg

[tzalman]

Here's a handy little free utility for removing dust and scratches,
http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html
It needs to be resharpened after the cleaning. I didn't bother to do that, but you can get the idea.

[PhotosGuy]

can take anywhere up to 8 hours on a pic Well, that's way too long! You should be able to do that in 10 minutes or less. For instance, if you select the big area at the top-left so the clone tool only affects that area, you could clone the whole area in 20 seconds. Same thing with the hose.
Selecting areas in PS. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39994)

To answer the question, "and I would like to know what some of you guys would do in this situation?", I wouldn't take a shot with all that crap in it in the first place? ;)

[Pete]

Aye. Get a black backdrop and slip that in the tank and shoot against that.

[René Damkot]

duplicate layer (blend mode: darker might be helpfull) > *Heavy* dust and scratches filter, mask off, unmask where needed.
Or same filter, then undo, use history brush (blend mode: darker)

[rammy]

Burn tool - Set it to highlights about 75% (or more) sweep over it and minute or two later it's all gone. I'd get rid of the grey filter boxes too.

[ashdavid]

Here's a handy little free utility for removing dust and scratches,
http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html
It needs to be resharpened after the cleaning. I didn't bother to do that, but you can get the idea.
I am not a fan of that look, I know it needs to be sharpened, but the image is just too degraded. Thanks for the idea though.;)
Well, that's way too long! You should be able to do that in 10 minutes or less. For instance, if you select the big area at the top-left so the clone tool only affects that area, you could clone the whole area in 20 seconds. Same thing with the hose.
Selecting areas in PS. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39994)

To answer the question, "and I would like to know what some of you guys would do in this situation?", I wouldn't take a shot with all that crap in it in the first place? ;)
Unfortunately floating partcles scratches in the glass and air bubbles are a fact of life in aquarium photography, there is almost no way around it in some situations.
Aye. Get a black backdrop and slip that in the tank and shoot against that.
There is a black backdrop, but it is the particles in front that are drawn to attention from the flash.
duplicate layer (blend mode: darker might be helpfull) > *Heavy* dust and scratches filter, mask off, unmask where needed.
Or same filter, then undo, use history brush (blend mode: darker)
Thanks, I will give this a try when I get home tonight.
Burn tool - Set it to highlights about 75% (or more) sweep over it and minute or two later it's all gone. I'd get rid of the grey filter boxes too.Never thought of this. I will also try it tonight.
I am sure a combination of methods for different pics will be needed, but the way I am doing it now just takes too long, the effect is good at the end, but it limits the amount of pics I can proccess.

[TheSonofDarwin]

If they are your own aquariums (or friends), why not just turn off the filters temporarily? It saves tons of hassle later and won't harm the fish (or most aquatic creatures), unless the tank is grossly overpopulated. And by grossly I mean laying on their sides stacked to the brim with a cup of water to share.

[ashdavid]

If they are your own aquariums (or friends), why not just turn off the filters temporarily? It saves tons of hassle later and won't harm the fish (or most aquatic creatures), unless the tank is grossly overpopulated. And by grossly I mean laying on their sides stacked to the brim with a cup of water to share.
Almost in all cases filters will be turned off, but small (micro) airbubbles take a long time to get to surface. Granted, if you wait 30 mins it does get a lot better, but very small particles take much much longer to settle,and that would be fine if there were no fish, but there are and the fish tend to stir up debri when swimming around, especially bigger more powerful fish. Believe me, I have experiment with so many different ways to photograph an aquarium. The pic in the first pic is not mine, it was just an example of the floating debri .

This is one of mine after I have worked on it. This pic had a lot of particles and took about 5 hours to proccess. But it is worth it in the end.
http://forums.waterwolves.com/uploads/post-9939-1178919972.jpg

[TheSonofDarwin]

Almost in all cases filters will be turned off, but small (micro) airbubbles take a long time to get to surface.

Ahh yeah. It's hard to stop those unless you buy/build your tank & supplies specifically to counter that. I had pretty good luck in one of my 150s using slightly modified Eheims. Diatom filtering can help as well (or make it 100 times worse if it doesn't start right ;)).

Is that your australian(?) lungfish?

[Lowner]

If the problem is caused by direct (on camera) flash, what about lighting it from an angle, probably from both sides, so that the particles do not reflect straight back into the lens?

Let me say here and now that I know nothing about this kind of photography. But it seems logical. Would it improve things? It's how I shoot images of paintings on the rare occasion I'm asked to do it.

Richard

[ashdavid]

Ahh yeah. It's hard to stop those unless you buy/build your tank & supplies specifically to counter that. I had pretty good luck in one of my 150s using slightly modified Eheims. Diatom filtering can help as well (or make it 100 times worse if it doesn't start right ;)).

Is that your australian(?) lungfish?
My tanks are just too big to use diatom filters and such. I do try to get them filtered well so that the floationg particles are keep to a minimum.

Yes that is my Austrailan lungfish.:)

If the problem is caused by direct (on camera) flash, what about lighting it from an angle, probably from both sides, so that the particles do not reflect straight back into the lens?

Let me say here and now that I know nothing about this kind of photography. But it seems logical. Would it improve things? It's how I shoot images of paintings on the rare occasion I'm asked to do it.

Richard
Done that, but it still lights up the particles, and on top of that it does not make a good setting to get a good pic. It becomes very contrasty and looks unatural have a ligh source from the side. However most times with a soft box you can get rid of that effect.