Use Lightroom's Dehaze Tool to Locate Dust Spots

[bretedge]

Today I discovered that Lightroom's new Dehaze tool is fantastic for locating dust spots on your photos.  Crank it up to 100 and every blasted dust spot on your image is instantly highly visible.  Clone/heal them as you normally do, then reset the Dehaze tool to whatever setting is desired and proceed with processing your image.

Yes, I realize that LR has a tool just for this purpose but I'm not a big fan of it.  I find using the Dehaze tool to be much more effective.  Just thought I'd share this discovery as some of you might find it useful.

Carry on...

[Mark D Segal]

Thanks very much for sharing this finding - could be most useful. I'll try it after I download the latest LR-CC - (I'm still waiting for "reasonably safe" time to be free of installation, transitional and operational glitches). But there is one point I don't understand" where you say "LR has a tool just for this purpose" - what purpose are you talking about - is it discovering the spots or cleaning them up? The one for cleaning-up I know, but any for discovering it I am not familiar with. And using de-Haze as you suggest to identify the spots, would we not still need the healing brush to eliminate them?

[john beardsworth]

The tool he means is the mask that you can display by hitting the letter A when you're dust spotting.

I've seen this idea for highlighting spots with Dehaze suggested in a couple of places and doubt it's much more than a placebo. To the extent it's useful, it's no better than whacking up Clarity, and you can easily track down as many spots using the dust spotting mask and its slider. You might also run into performance issues if you mess with Dehaze when you're healing lots of spots.

[Mark D Segal]

OK thanks John. I can see that visualization tool generating as much confusion as insight. When I need to look for spots I crank the image to 1:1 and simply inspect it block by block on the display, sometimes temporarily increasing or decreasing exposure of very dark or very bright areas respectively to help reveal underlying spots, then eliminate them. This very simple approach has been completely successful at catching what needs to be fixed without mistaking image detail for spots. 

[john beardsworth]

The built-in visualisation tool (the mask) is just fine, Mark, and works well with the block by block method which I also use. I'll sometimes press A and switch to the mask, then continue spot-correcting in that mode, or just hold and release A if I want a quick review. As soon as the mask was introduced in Lr5 it greatly increased the number of spots I healed, and I just don't think there's much benefit from messing around with Dehaze for that job.

[bretedge]

The built-in visualisation tool (the mask) is just fine, Mark, and works well with the block by block method which I also use. I'll sometimes press A and switch to the mask, then continue spot-correcting in that mode, or just hold and release A if I want a quick review. As soon as the mask was introduced in Lr5 it greatly increased the number of spots I healed, and I just don't think there's much benefit from messing around with Dehaze for that job.

To each his own, John. Cranking up Dehaze works better for me.  If using the mask works better for you, that's great - use it.  I was simply sharing what works for me as I thought others might find it useful.  And, for what it's worth, I have had zero performance issues using this method.

[john beardsworth]

As I say, I don't think it's much more than a placebo. Not something I'd recommend others spend much time on.

[Mark D Segal]

As it takes so little time to find out for oneself, I'll just give it a whirl once I download and install the update. It is the latter that is more concerning right now.

[john beardsworth]

A similar idea is to whack up clarity and go beyond the 100% with a bunch of grad filters (saved to a preset). It used to go higher, but I think it now tops out at 200% effect. I just don't think any of these voodoo methods is as good as toggling the mask and setting the tool overlay to auto - you just mvoe the cursor in and out of the image to see the healing spots.

[bretedge]

A similar idea is to whack up clarity and go beyond the 100% with a bunch of grad filters (saved to a preset). It used to go higher, but I think it now tops out at 200% effect. I just don't think any of these voodoo methods is as good as toggling the mask and setting the tool overlay to auto - you just mvoe the cursor in and out of the image to see the healing spots.

Call it a placebo, or voodoo, or whatever you want, John.  Just because it isn't YOUR way doesn't mean it's the wrong way.  I couldn't give a crap what you think or how you clean dust spots.  If it works, it works. Get over yourself.

[Mark D Segal]

  I couldn't give a crap what you think or how you clean dust spots.  If it works, it works. Get over yourself.

I think a bit of decorum would be helpful to the discussion. Let's keep it technical.

[bretedge]

I think a bit of decorum would be helpful to the discussion. Let's keep it technical.

I don't think calling my method "voodoo" and a "placebo" is keeping the discussion very technical.  I quickly lose patience with those who claim the only right way is their way.

[Mark D Segal]

The difference is that he was attacking a method, while you were attacking the person. Let us end this agreeing that any method which gets the job done is fine. We all know there are umpteen ways of doing almost anything editing photos and no-one has a monopoly on truth.

[Alan Klein]

Does this work to find dust spots on scans of film?

[Mark D Segal]

Does this work to find dust spots on scans of film?

The thought crossed my mind, but I can't test it till I download the upgrade, which I'm not doing for the time being. One aspect I would want to watch for when I get to it is whether it provides a reliable distinction between grain clumps and spots. Normally I recommend - for those with scanners providing an IR channel, to use SilverFast's iSRD tool which very efficiently and correctly identifies and removes blemishes right at the scanning stage.

[Alan Klein]

The reason I asked Mark is because I find the Epson ICE does not remove all the spots during the scan.  So I have to go through it after the scan anyway.  And the ICE scan (similar or IR) triples the time for the scan at least.  So now I keep ICE off and just go through the scan at 100% zoom and hit each spot.  It takes about 10 minutes for a 6x7.  But you only have to do it once.  And I'll only spot photos that are keepers. 

There was another adjustment someone once told me that brings out the spots in Lightroom.  But I forget what it was.

[Mark D Segal]

ICE is very dated, and relatively limited technology. You wouldn't need to redo it if you were using up-to-date software such as iSRD in SilverFast. One of the reasons why Epson bundles SilverFast with a number of their scanner models.

[john beardsworth]

Call it a placebo, or voodoo, or whatever you want, John.  Just because it isn't YOUR way doesn't mean it's the wrong way.  I couldn't give a crap what you think or how you clean dust spots.  If it works, it works. Get over yourself.

Looks like it is you who needs to get over yourself, Bret. Have I called anything "my method"? How does describing all the built-in tool's features become "my" way? Where do I supposedly "claim the only right way is [my] way"? Voodoo, which I apply equally to "my" old >100% clarity idea, conveys the psychological aspects of such methods, while placebo by its nature is harmless but makes you feel better....

[pegelli]

Sometimes a picture tells more then a thousand words, why argue?

Zeroed import:


"Official" (=A during clone/heal brush)


"Voodoo" (=200 clarity)


"Placebo" (=100 dehaze)


All are crops of about 1 MP from a total 16 MP capture

Take your pick, but for me the placebo seems to be a pretty potent medicine to locate dust spots in even areas, so thanks for the tip Bret  

[Martin Kristiansen]

Yes many methods. I have been using dehaze to find spots for the past weeks. Works quite well except for one thing. After using dehaze LR becomes quite slow to respond to various tools. I tend to jack up the dehaze to get a feel for where the problems are then zero it.

I have found several slightly odd uses for dehaze actually.