The Extra-Strength Tips for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

With the help of researchers from seven different universities (really) and the encouragement from your survey responses, I've become much more productive, which has helped to get these tips out on a much more regular basis. I'm currently flying from New York to Denver and I've already finished two magazine articles, two tips and I'm about to start to revise my Photoshop for Photographers handbook (for details on that seminar, visit www.photoshopseminars.com).

Since I asked you to donate retouching images in my last tip, I thought I'd reward you by supplying some retouching tips. But before I get into it, I wanted to thank all the people in Australia and New Zealand. Your response to my survey was absolutely overwhelming. And to answer your question as to when I'll be back down under: that's iffy at the moment but if something turns up, I'll let you guys know. Now let's move on to the tips.

If you ever find a scratch on your image, make a generic selection of that area and apply one of the following filters: For a scratch that is darker than its surroundings, try Filter>Other>Maximum (this sometimes also works for stubble on someone's face). For one that is brighter than its surroundings, try Filter>Other>Minimum.

If you have any specks on your image, first try Filter>Noise>Despeckle. It's that's not aggressive enough, then fry Filter>Noise>Median.

If you feel like using the Dust and Scratches Filter, then start with the Radius and Threshold settings at their lowest settings. The general idea is to increase the Radius until you find the lowest setting that will rid your image of the dust or scratches. But since that makes you're whole image look blurry, you'll want to bring the Threshold setting way up and then slowly lower it until you find the highest setting that still gets rid of the dust and scratches in your image. The only problem is that this filter has the nasty tendency of thinking that eyelashes and other important content are scratches. So, right after you apply that filter, go back with the History brush (it's right below the paintbrush tool) and paint back any important detail that Dust and Scratches screwed up.

If the Dodge and Burn tools don't quite work the way you'd like them to, then try this instead: Create a new layer, change the pop-up menu at the top of the Layers palette from normal to Color Dodge or Color Burn and then paint with a shade of gray. Color Dodge will brighten your image, while Color Burn will darken it.

If you ever encounter a color moire pattern when scanning patterned fabrics, try choosing Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a setting high enough to blend the majority of the moire pattern into the image (don't worry if the image looks overly blurry). Then, to get that to just affect the colors, choose Edit>Fade Gaussian Blur and set the pop-up menu to Color. Since the majority of the detail is held in the brightness of the image, that should make the moire blend in while preserving most of the detail. If there are still a few areas where the moire shows up, then grab the Paintbrush tool and set its blending mode to color. Then, Option-click (Mac), or Alt-click (Win) on an area that does not contain the moire pattern and is representative of what the area with the moire should look like and then paint over the moire pattern. If the moire is more of a brightness change instead of a color one, then you'd have to go through a more involved process that includes copying a channel, adjusting it, and then turning that into a selection and using it to adjust your image. But that's something I'd cover in my new CD series, if someone were to send me a good example image (hint hint... check out www.digitalmastery.com/submit for details).

Finally, if you ever select an area and blur it to make it look out of focus, you might want to take steps to insure that that area doesn't look posterized when you print it. I usually just choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set the Amount to 3, the Distribute to Gaussian and turn on the Monochromatic checkbox. The most important setting is the amount, the other two do rather subtle things when you have the amount set that low, so don't stress if you don't remember every setting that I use.

If you've tried to send me any e-mail over the last week and a half and got an error message, I apologize. The excavation crew who cleared the seven feet of snow from my driveway (yes, seven feet... photos at http://www.digitalmastery.com/snow) also dug up my phone and ISDN line. So, after being snowed in for almost two weeks, my e-mail box got jam-packed and I wasn't able to clear it out. So, if any of your messages bounced back, I'd be grateful if you would re-send them. For those of you who didn't get an error message, please don't resend. I most likely received your image.

Last week, I mentioned that I talked a friend of mine into letting my Extra-Strength Tips subscribers get three free issues of Design Tools Monthly. It's the only digital imaging related publication that I read cover to cover. However, it is written purely for Mac users. So this week, because I didn't want the rest of you non-Mac types to feel left out, my friends at The PC Graphics Report (the Windows equivalent newsletter) agreed to offer the same deal. So, If you're a Windows user and would like to check it out, just point your browser to http://www.pcgraphicsreport.com/3forben.html It's not one of those cancel at any time offers either... it's just three free issues, no strings attached. I hope you enjoy it.

-Ben Willmore