Speck Removal Tool

[Marpel]

First, should mention that this tool works great and I am finding I am using it more and more, rather than the conventional Clone Tool. I just finished an image of backlit objects behind a frosted glass window (shelves and objects against an exterior window of a ceramics studio that I stumbled upon one recent evening in Daytona Beach) where the glass had multiple small defects and dirt spots, and it worked tremendously well.

The Help file describes "The outer circle indicates the area that will be replaced. For best results, the speck should be just enclosed in the inner circle."

Initially, when I am setting a speck circle, the cursor shows as an arrow and when I shift-click a circle appears (size dependent on the radius setting) with a "plus" sign at it's center. The plus sign remains until I shift-click another spot, then the plus sign of the former circle changes to a very small circle at the center of that larger outer circle. However, the small inner circle remains the same size for all speck spots, regardless of the size of the outer circle (or the size of the speck). And, for most spots, the inner circle is way smaller than the speck itself.

Is the above Help comment erroneous or is there a setting I am missing to be able to see this expandable inner circle??

Marv

[tomczak]

My take is that the 'inner circle' should be read as 'inside the circle' - I think that the actual 'inner circle/spot' is just a un-adjustable symbol differentiating the active Speck (with the plus sign in the middle) from all the other/previous Specks.

[doug]

My take is that the 'inner circle' should be read as 'inside the circle' - I think that the actual 'inner circle/spot' is just a un-adjustable symbol differentiating the active Speck (with the plus sign in the middle) from all the other/previous Specks.

Even though I have not yet begun to use PWP 8.0, I have been following these forum threads (virtually daily) to be better prepared to understand what I will find when I do migrate to this updated version. Meanwhile using PWP 7.0.

In PWP 7.0 I use this tool frequently for a non-standard purpose recommended years ago by DEN. But from the discussion in this thread, I do not recognize the tool. Are you saying that it is different than identically named tool in PWP 7.0 ?

[jsachs]

The general idea is the same, but the actual speck removal algorithms are different - hopefully somewhat improved. Also you cannot drag it the way you could in PWP7 -- that function has been move to a new Scratch Removal tool.

[jsachs]

The text in the help file was obsolete -- it should have read:

The circle indicates the area that will be replaced. For best results, the speck should be just enclosed in the circle. You can adjust the speck radius using either the Speck Radius slider or using the mouse scroll wheel. For large images, it is more efficient to use the slider. The current speck is indicated by a cross displayed at its center -- all others have a small circle at the center instead.

I have updated it for the next release.

[Marpel]

Thanks for the replies.

I am liking this tool more and more and find one of the big benefits is the ability to have a side by side, before and after view so you can watch the right screen while reducing or enlarging the tool size to get the optimum effect.

Marv

[tomczak]

It seems to me that the edges of replacement patch, at least in Patch Match mode, are sharp and not quite blended or softened and there is no control that I can find to adjust the level of edge blending. Should that be this way?

[tomczak]

The Speck Removal softness slider works great however, when the tool opens, with the default softness slider set to 50%, the actual softness produced by the tool seems to be 0%. Once the slider is moved, everything starts working as expected. The Scratch Tool doesn't seem to be affected by this.

[jsachs]

There was a minor problem with initializing the softness setting. Should be fixed for the next release.