Dust removal for macro shots

[Guest]

Hi ! I have some hard times removing dust from a product shot (actually a watch). Do you have any recommendations for the workflow ? Here is the shot (dust on the top of the rotating button) Dust on Vimeo Thanks !!

[Jose Panadero · Accepted solution]

Hi Laurec

There is not a magic filter to do this. I do a lot of removing dust on macro shots and I use the Clone Tool frame by frame. On of the best tools inside the Paint Panel is to activate the Clone Source Overlay so you can overlap the source frame and have a lot of precision when cloning. Even sometimes I need to use tracking and masking to repair the shots.

Other option is using the Median Filter if your dust is not severe but you will lose some details in the image.

The Foundry had a plugin called Furnace, but this products was stopped for AE.

I've tested other solutions out there but I have to say that there is no magic tools for this task.

[Guest]

Ok that's more or less what I thought. But I find it very hard to make a consistent cloning frame after frame. In the end, the zone that I cloned is like "blinking" because of subtle differences between each clone stamps. Any advices ? Thanks for your answer !

[Jose Panadero]

My advice is that you need to use a Wacom Tablet and use the options for pressure and opacity with the Brushes. This is what I do when I need absolute precision for cleaning a shot. Sometimes, the CC Wire Removal is a great addition when the dust is something like a line but as I said, the best way to do it is a mix of cloning-masking-tracking.

[Roei Tzoref]

I find it very hard to make a consistent cloning frame after frame.

that is absolutely right. cloning is a hard fix for many removal problems since it is frame by frame, so inconsistencies between frames could cause a problem.

if the element/shot is moving, for example let's say there is a fly moving around the shot, or dust at one point in time and not the other, then you could clone from the same exact spot but from another frame in time where its not in that spot and paste when it on a frame where it is at the exact same spot - then the removal won't be noticeable.

on other cases, you might want to use a different approach, like stabilizing the shot/element first, then cleaning it with clone or other methods like exporting a frame to photoshop and returning it back clean, then re-introduce the motion.

since the particular circumstances in you shot - out of focus, perspective shift and so on - I would approach it this way:

1. stabilize the element in the shot - I used Ae's point tracker to stabilize this area

2. in the stabilized shot I created an adjustment layer with a mask and applied the "dust and scratches" effect (yes it's an effect for removing dust and scratches!), I found it much easier to render than Median and give the same result. just a few keyframes for the path since the perspective changes the shape of the area

3. precomp this composition and call it stabilized

4. copy paste the anchor point stabilized keyframes from the footage to the precomp's position and toggle the collapse switch so the boundaries of the footage won't be cropped in the master comp.

for the other dust elements you can work from with the stabilized precomp (they are in the same area and will be stabilized more or less)

here's the project to get you going:

DustRemoval folder - Google Drive

[Guest]

So many informations ! Thanks so much for your time ! I'm going to look into it.

Again thanks, very nice from you.