Most photo cleanups take 15-30 minutes. Since this piece is intended for a large intaglio print we needed to get more aggressive. The original scan was made using a 16 passes with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro scanner at 16bit RGB.

Click on image for greater detail. As you can see, much physical damage in addition to the normal specks, scratches and discoloration needed addressing.

Some areas of the photograph were completely destroyed and needed to be discreetly added back.

Photoshop, Wacom pressure-sensitive pen and tablet and 3.5 hours later and we had cleaned it up so that no one except for those with a trained eye could tell the difference.