How to clean up these type of sensor dust/ dirt

Screenshot 2025-04-22 at 23.07.09.png (411.36 KiB) Viewed 931 times

Tried a lot of the cleanup features in Resolve but can't quite do a good job on this type of dust. Any advice?

Hard to say without seeing the full clip in motion. In the revival category of Resolve FX there are filters to try first and go from there. Which ones have you tried?

Hard to say without seeing the full clip in motion. In the revival category of Resolve FX there are filters to try first and go from there. Which ones have you tried?

Its a completely static shot. I've used Dust Buster, Automatic Dirt removal and Paint.

Its a completely static shot. I've used Dust Buster, Automatic Dirt removal and Paint.

If you like, post the video or short sample to give it a try. Its hard to say from crop with no motion or full frame context. I assume its not just like freeze frame but camera doesn't move, and something in the shot moves, right?

Yes thats it. Here is link to shot. https://mab.to/t/RYJaeLTqHSi/eu1
Thanks for your help.

Yes thats it. Here is link to shot. https://mab.to/t/RYJaeLTqHSi/eu1
Thanks for your help.

Oh, so its literally a static shot, so no movement. That's the easiest solution in the world. All you need is work on one frame. If you want to do it in resolve, go to fusion page and use paint tool set to clone mode.

If you use multistroke mode which paints on one frame, you can set duration to be for the length of clip since there is no motion it will work. Or if you use stroke mode it will also do the same but sample from each frame, which means you also clone the noise or any light changes etc. Depending on what you want, both will work.

Personally for this, since its so static, I would just do it on one frame and freeze frame it. If you want to, add a bit of film grain to appear like its something happening. Technically you could use tools in Photoshop as well for one frame. But its easy to do in Fusion as well with paint tool. I've cleaned up the big parts in about a minute. If you give a bit more time you can clean it up nicely. You said you used paint. I'm not sure what was the problem, but its pretty straightforward clone job.

sshot-1192.jpg (190.07 KiB) Viewed 482 times

You could also try Patch Replacer or Object Removal from the OFX plugins.

Yes thats it. Here is link to shot. https://mab.to/t/RYJaeLTqHSi/eu1
Thanks for your help.

Oh, so its literally a static shot, so no movement. That's the easiest solution in the world. All you need is work on one frame. If you want to do it in resolve, go to fusion page and use paint tool set to clone mode.

If you use multistroke mode which paints on one frame, you can set duration to be for the length of clip since there is no motion it will work. Or if you use stroke mode it will also do the same but sample from each frame, which means you also clone the noise or any light changes etc. Depending on what you want, both will work.

Personally for this, since its so static, I would just do it on one frame and freeze frame it. If you want to, add a bit of film grain to appear like its something happening. Technically you could use tools in Photoshop as well for one frame. But its easy to do in Fusion as well with paint tool. I've cleaned up the big parts in about a minute. If you give a bit more time you can clean it up nicely. You said you used paint. I'm not sure what was the problem, but its pretty straightforward clone job.

sshot-1192.jpg

Thank you very much. Yes i guess i wasn't using the paint tool very well compared to your results. I could clone out the offending dirt but it was replacing it with another part of the frame that didn't look very good. kinda smudgy and a different tone, even though i was searching in the frame for a similar light and colour tone.

Thank you very much. Yes i guess i wasn't using the paint tool very well compared to your results. I could clone out the offending dirt but it was replacing it with another part of the frame that didn't look very good. kinda smudgy and a different tone, even though i was searching in the frame for a similar light and colour tone.

One disadvantage of paint tool in clone mode is that it clones, not heals. So it doesn't bland differnt colors well. While there are some ways around that, something like Patch Replacer might do better job on some area since it has option to work like clone and heal or clone with blending options. Similar to heal tool in Photoshop. If you have access to Photoshop, perhaps that would be better since its such a static shot. You can just export a frame and clean it up there, easily. And use it as freeze frame for the lenght of clip and if you like to give it some "life" add some film grain and some subtle camera shake. And there you have it.

Tried a lot of the cleanup features in Resolve but can't quite do a good job on this type of dust. Any advice?

If it were me, since it's a static shot I'd just bring it into Photoshop and clean it up there. This looks like a great opportunity to use the spot healing tool.