I am archiving boxes of family pictures and scanning is the best alternative to getting them on my pc that I know. The problem is when you blow them up, they show tons of little snow specs and light scratches that are invisible to the naked eye when they are in their original photo format. My question: Is there a software that will with a click of the mouse, sweep the captured photo and remove the snow and scratches? I am currently using the clone tool and it works, but it's insanely slow and labor intensive.
You don't state what software your using now, unless I'm blind. Are you using corel/jasc photoshop, or adobe paintshop? There is no 100% easy way. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. If you have adobe try going in to filters/noise/dust& scratches or reduce noise. This is the simplest way I know of. But remember it won't work 100% for all the pictures, because each picture is different and adobe sees them differently. Also if your using adobe can try using either the despeckle filter or the spot healing brush. hope this helps
also right befor you use the scanner, clean it with a lint free cloth and clean the photos. Also, when your scanning, just because the scanner can scan at high res doesn't mean its the best setting for your photos. Think of taking a magnifineglass to your photo, see all the little dots of colour, imagine them all increased in size when scanning at a high res. Depending on the type of scanner and the type of camera used you may fined setting the scanner at 200 or 300 res will look good and you won't see as many little spots and dust. Go to http://www.digitalretouch.org/ and at the bottom left corner under additional information click on "Scanning & Resolution"
