Christina Keddie

It stops working. You have to be connected to the Internet at least once every 30 days so it can check in with Adobe and maintain your license. If it can't verify your subscription, it locks you out.

FYI, it would be different color mixer numbers for every photo, unless you happen to have the exact same color of both the fabric and the moire, so old numbers D gave you or someone else for another photo wouldn't work. Wait here until he has a chance to see this post and chime in!

What was the color profile of the image prior to you reading the troubleshooter, and how did you change it to sRGB? Make sure to convert the profile, not assign it. Go through the second troubleshooter linked at the very end of the first one for steps on fixing a file already saved in the wrong color space.

Happy to help! This is something that takes a bit of a conceptual shift to wrap your head around, so we've had to explain it to many others as well -- which is why I can pull this out fairly quickly.

But you photographed her against a wall, not a window... Are you asking Damien to help you remove the shadows entirely to get rid of the wall, and then fake a backlight as though she were against a window instead?

The prints are the standard. You sent files to your pro lab, and the lab printed those files. If the prints come back and your screen is off from them, that means your screen is not showing you what the file truly looks like. "What the file truly looks like" is determined entirely by how the lab printed them (assuming you didn't ask for color correction, and assuming they're a reputable pro lab and didn't mess up the print). So the purpose of calibration is to fix your screen so it renders your files the way they truly look. You calibrate and make sure the calibration is correct by checking your screen against the prints -- which, again, are the true indicator of what the files actually look like. Once your screen matches the prints, you can be confident that what you see on the screen is in fact what the file actually looks like. Now you can edit the files knowing that what you see as you edit is in fact what will come back when you print. Also: calibrating your screen only changes the way your screen renders the file. It does not change the file itself. So if you send a file to print before you calibrate your screen, and then send the same file to the same lab to print after you calibrate your screen, the lab, having received the exact same file again, will send you back the exact same print. So it's a waste of money to send the same file to print a second time.

CleanMyMac is the one we recommend around here. And the classes are such a wonderful way to learn your way around post-processing!!

Yes, please never use the adjustment brush. Selective warming should be done in PS, after all of your raw processing is done, like this. Assuming you don't have any other wonky settings on that brush that aren't visible on this screenshot, though, it shouldn't be behaving this way. Can you fill this out for us and post the results here?

OK, so -- restart your computer first. And then check your hard drive stats again -- looks like you gave us your RAM instead of your hard drive specs (you can't have 366.4GB free out of 4GB). As a general rule: shut down your computer every night, or at least every other night. And keep at least 1/3rd of your hard drive clear at all times. And run a good cleanup program on a regular basis. But it sounds like this was mostly, if not entirely, about you learning how to remove noise?

You've got to remove noise from all your photos, always. So here's a tutorial on how to do that: http://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/07/raw-noise-removal.html If you aren't sure that you were viewing your photos earlier at 100%, you cannot confirm that this is a new problem. Honestly, it sounds to me that you're just now discovering that you need to do noise removal in your raw processing. But just to try to troubleshoot any potential software or hardware problem, please fill this out for us and post it here: http://www.damiensymonds.net/thread1.html

Were you checking for noise (on your old photos, prior to noticing this issue) at 100%? What about when you open one of these files in another program? I see you don't have any version of PS or PSE (I'm a huge fan of LR, but I strongly encourage you to at least get PSE -- LR is only for raw processing and workflow management), but what if you export a file as a JPG and then open it in Preview and check it at 100%? Still noisy there?

Mary, you know Damien can't answer these questions here. Thankfully, the Raw class waitlist is about to explode open, so you'll be getting in soon!

The same file viewed on your iMac in FB is "ghost"-like compared to the file viewed on your iMac in PS? (Same monitor both times?) No, that can't be right -- sounds like you saved the file with the wrong color space embedded. Go through this troubleshooter to rule that out.

Cmd+shift+S is just the "Save as" dialog box. @Foques, make sure the "Embed Color Profile" checkbox at the bottom of that screen is always checked!

You need to use a SOFT brush -- set the hardness to 0%. Much more importantly, though, you have a major color space problem. Please go through every single step of this troubleshooter to fix it!

Have you since closed this file? If not, just hit undo until you get back to the unflattened file. If you've already closed the file, I'm afraid you're out of luck. Unless you happened to have continuous backup systems running and backing up your files, in which case you can try to retrieve an earlier version of the file in a backup?

Do you have any photos of the backdrop setup all by itself in the same lighting?

Personally, I don't think so, for precisely the reasons you identified. I do use LR Mobile on my iPad, but only for very specific (non-editing) parts of my workflow -- I'll often do my initial cull of a wedding on my iPad while sitting on the couch next to my husband. But I don't use it for any editing.

Hi Jamie, could you post a 100% crop of some of the stretch marks? I think that might be necessary for Damien to see what method would be best. Thanks!

Have you given this a try already?

Thank you!! I'll keep at it with the catchlights, though probably not till tomorrow.

Plausible? Should I try to do more with the camera left side? (I'm getting a little tired of staring at gums right now! )

Which "above" -- the same (correct) size as it was right after you cropped, or the 300ppi size? And like Damien asked twice... Are you sure Resize was unchecked in Image Processor?

Run the actual calibration in dim or dark light. Compare your prints to your screen (and do your editing, when you edit) in light bright enough to do homework in -- bright, white light.

Of course you want your monitor to match your prints. Our point is that the prints are the actual standard, so you need to get your monitor to match them, not the other way around. Once your monitor matches your prints, then you'll KNOW that what you see on screen is what will be in the print, so you can edit them accordingly in full confidence that they'll turn out as you expect.