The studio I use gets a lot of wear and tear, especially on the floor. Cleaning this up is tedious; I recently discovered a technique that makes this fast and easy:
What I didn’t mention is that once it’s cleaned up to my satisfaction, I generally collapse the layer created. As I work with a copy of the DNG I always have the original, and I see no point in saving unnecessary layers especially with a high pixel density camera – the files can get quite large.
Also, I went over the shadows on the floor. This did not eliminate them (which I don’t like because there needs to be some shadows to “ground” the subject), but muted them which is more to my taste.
Isn’t it easier to just use the dodge tool? It can be for white floors. But that will still leave issues with any defects (scratches, scuff marks) in the shadow areas, which this technique can address.