Removing dust bunnies from images

[Adam1234]

I've just discovered trick for getting rid of shadows from dust on images that might be useful to others. People might already know it but thought I might share it anyway.

The Clone Stamp tool in photoshop - select the tool, alt click on an area of sky near the dust shadow, then left click and draw over the shadow (being careful not to go straight over a bright star).

Before and after photos below:

Before

 

After

 

 

Adam

 

 

[MattJenko]

Rather than straight up copying another area over your donuts, you could you context fill and allow PS to do a more natural job. Nothing beats good calibration frames though.

[Adam1234]

I've not heard of context fill, what's that?

Yeah that picture was before I started doing flats, managed to get the dust off the sensor too. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Adam1234

[Uranium235]

More than one way to skin a cat on this one, personally I would create a fake background (with fake noise) and bursh it in with a layer mask - blend mode ligthen (so the stars dont get touched). Takes practice, but it can rescue a project from the bin.