# Can I remove water droplet marks in PP? (edit: sample added)



## sagittariansrock (Jul 28, 2013)

Recently I was on a catamaran trip off Hawaii and taking pictures with my 7D+17-55. Unfortunately, the spray was hitting the front of the lens (actually the UV filter) continuously, and I didn't have soft cloth to wipe to wipe it off, so tiny droplets remained even as I continued shooting. As a result, I have multiple small blotches all over some of the pictures. Is there a quick and easy way to fix this? I have Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 at my disposal, but I am not very familiar with photographic post-processing (although I have extensively used Photoshop for fluorescent microscopy). I will really appreciate any advice. 

On the photo below, you can see at least one spot near the top of the leftmost cliff and one on the left edge a little above the waterline where it makes the rock face details blurred.


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## unfocused (Jul 28, 2013)

*Re: Can I remove water droplet marks in PP?*

First, create a new duplicate layer so you can discard your mistakes and not affect the original.

Your best bets are the content aware fill, clone stamp, healing brush and spot healing brush tools. You'll just have to experiment to see which works best. You'll probably need a combination. 

Are we talking distinct, well defined spots or overall blurriness? The more distinct the spots are, the easier to fix. If you have lost sharpness due to the water, it will be much harder to try to get the sharpness back, but once you've cleaned it up, some of the better sharpening tools (smart sharpen, unsharp mask and high-pass filter) might help.

If the spots are on an out-of-focus area, you might be able to use a blur filter or tool and then add a layer mask to reveal the blurred areas while preserving the main subject areas on the layer beneath. 

Not an easy fix and will require some patience. May not be possible depending on what areas have been affected. You just have to give it a try. Consider it a learning experience in Photoshop.


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## privatebydesign (Jul 28, 2013)

*Re: Can I remove water droplet marks in PP?*

Post the picture, or a 100% crop of an affected area, and we will have a better idea.


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## sagittariansrock (Jul 28, 2013)

*Re: Can I remove water droplet marks in PP?*

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to look at my problem...



privatebydesign said:


> Post the picture, or a 100% crop of an affected area, and we will have a better idea.



Still trying to do that- I know it is hard to explain without the actual image... 
Can I upload on Flickr and post a link here or upload directly using the Attachments and other options? The latter doesn't seem to work, even when I downsize the image...



unfocused said:


> Are we talking distinct, well defined spots or overall blurriness?
> 
> If the spots are on an out-of-focus area...



These are pretty distinct spots, and most of the FoV is in focus because these are landscapes taken at smaller apertures (except for the ones on the sky, which are not a problem).


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## privatebydesign (Jul 28, 2013)

*Re: Can I remove water droplet marks in PP?*

A link to flickr works fine.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jul 28, 2013)

*Re: Can I remove water droplet marks in PP?*



sagittariansrock said:


> Recently I was on a catamaran trip off Hawaii and taking pictures with my 7D+17-55. Unfortunately, the spray was hitting the front of the lens (actually the UV filter) continuously, and I didn't have soft cloth to wipe to wipe it off, so tiny droplets remained even as I continued shooting. As a result, I have multiple small blotches all over some of the pictures. Is there a quick and easy way to fix this? I have Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 at my disposal, but I am not very familiar with photographic post-processing (although I have extensively used Photoshop for fluorescent microscopy). I will really appreciate any advice, and post some pictures of the issue as soon as I figure out why this site won't let me upload the jpegs.



content aware healing brush might work OK, size the brush to the right size and click over each droplet, it depends, tons of droplets might confuse it and it's not magic either


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