OlgaR

Brian, thanks again! I ended up going with the Lenovo laptop.
No questions, but thought you might appreciate this (if anything, it should provide some mild entertainment )

I found the receipt from my current Lenovo laptop. I was shocked to find out that it was bought in August of 2014!!!!
And here are the specs and the price.  
Thanks again for everything!

Thanks so much, Brian! Appreciate all the info!

Also, forgot to mention… I use Elements, not Photoshop. Not sure if that makes a difference. 

Or do I go with a laptop? 32 GB in RAM, Intel Core i9-13900H, Video Card - 4070 with 8GB. Not as good of the configuration as the desktop but also $1,900.

Thanks so much for your reply, Brian -- I appreciate it!

I looked at Dell XPS. Here is what I came up with. Video Card is 4070 Ti with 12 GB -- Alienware has 4070 with 12GB, but no 4070 Ti. Is the "ti" part worth the extra money? Also, Alienware has Intel Core i9-13900F (not 13900K)... not sure if that makes a difference. With 64GB in RAM and 2 TB of storage, I am looking at $2,600! Alienware is cheaper but the Video Card is slightly different.

Thoughts?

And I forgot to ask, do Chassis Options matter? Is what I have above OK?
Thank you!

Hello!
Trying to replace my REALLY old laptop. Contemplating getting another laptop, but want to make sure this purchase lasts a while, so I think I'm settling on a desktop instead.
Is this build OK?:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/alienware-aurora-r16-gaming-desktop/spd/alienware-aurora-r16-desktop/useahctor16i03

A few questions:
Is 12th Intel generation OK or should I invest in 13th or 14th?

Is the Memory I have selected OK or should I invest in the 5600MHz XMP option instead?

Storage... is Single Drive OK or should I go with the Dual Drive instead?

Thank you so much!

OK.  Thank you for clarifying!

To clarify, I remember I ran into an issue of the file being too big because of all the file merging (I was using PSDs).  And we had a discussion about the difference between placing JPEGs and PSDs and I *think* the consensus was, since it's PSE and you can't have a live link to the file, there is really no difference in quality if you place a JPEG vs. placing a PSD, as both are smart objects when you place them.  I was just verifying that my memory/understanding was correct.  

Judging by your reaction though, I suppose, I should stick with placing PSDs unless I have a lot of files to merge.  Am I understanding you correctly?  Thanks!

For the sole purpose of reducing the size of the resulting PSD.  

Hi Damien, just to verify, if I need to merge two files, I don't need to PLACE a PSD and can achieve the same quality, etc. if I PLACE a JPEG, correct?

Thank you!

Hi Damien,

I have a template that's apparently in Adobe RGB.  I need to convert it to sRGB.  2 questions:

1) Does it matter if I convert the template before or after I place my photo in it?

2) I followed you article (http://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tscs000.html), and when I go to convert, it's asking me if I want to "rasterize smart objects before changing profile".  Does it matter if I select Rasterize or Don't Rasterize?

Thank you!

Yay!  Thank you so much!!

Phew!  That was much more difficult than I thought.  I ended up leaving some of the glare on the camera Right eye because otherwise I'm struggling to make the inside corner of the eye to look realistic.  Thoughts?
Thank you!

Alright..
One down, one to go.  How did I do?

(And also, when cloning, what is the best way to be able to undo what was done?  I think the eraser is destructive, right?  I've been using a layer mask, but wanted to make sure there isn't a better way.  Thank you!)

4 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Actually, it was the Patch Tool.  For the patch on the far left.

Damien, don't kill me, but where is there a Patch tool in PSE?   I have Spot Healing, Clone stamp and Sponge, but cannot find the Patch tool.

Ooh, thank you so much for both answers and the file!  I'll have to play with it tomorrow.

Last few questions: for the Healing part, you use the Spot Healing brush with Content Aware  (not the Healing brush), correct?

When you copy the chunks of the eye, you just select, copy and paste, right?  No need to worry about it being a smart object or anything like that?

1 hour ago, Damien Symonds said:

For the camera-right eye, simply patient low-opacity cloning.

Damien, stupid question... what would you consider "low-opacity"?  Are we talking about 10% or more like 3%?  And also, any tips regarding the target area when cloning?  Did you sample from the upper lid and then kept resampling as you went along or did you sample from a different area of the face?
Thank you!!

1 hour ago, Damien Symonds said:

This one is more difficult.  This is the best I can manage:

Would it be good enough?

Um, yes!!!  That's awesome!!!  How did you do it please?

Damien, what would be the best way to remove the glare from the glasses?  Thank you!

(I've done raw processing and levels work.  No sharpening has been applied yet)

Thank you, Damien!

And of course, I found the answer here a minute ago -- http://www.damiensymonds.net/how-do-i-retrieve-lost-or-damaged-images.html

I couldn't delete my question after I posted it, so adding this here in case someone else is looking for the same info.
Thanks so much!

Damien, in this article ( http://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/08/simple-but-important-reminder.html )  you specifically say to use a Card Reader vs. Cable.  I've always used a cable (connected my camera directly to the computer) and knock on wood, have not had any issues with it yet.  On the other hand, you see people asking about file issues and potentially bad card readers pretty often.  Any reason why using a Card Reader is better than a Cable?

Thank you!!

Thank you so much!  You know I will.   I have some maternity photos that were "edited" (note the quotation marks!) before your classes.  I am going to go back and re-edit some of them and the backdrop was a disaster -- this should be interesting.   Thanks again!

Thanks, Damien!  Yes, you are making perfect sense!  Otherwise, you lose the natural shadow at the backdrop crease which results in the appearance of the subject "floating".  I'll have to play around with this and see if I can get away with not using 100% opacity gradient.  Problem is, oftentimes, the piece on the floor needs to be extended/changed also, but this gives me some ideas.  Thank you so much for answering my question -- very glad I asked!

Damien, I noticed, in the PSD you created to smooth out the grey backdrop, you used the Transparent Gradient to begin with instead of the Solid one (I may not be using the right terms, but hopefully it makes sense).  In the tutorial on how to avoid banding in the backdrop, the initial gradients were Solid.  Since I am having to replace backgrounds quite a bit, I was curious if there is a reason you used the Transparent gradient on that grey backdrop.  Does it make masking easier, does it help match the colors to the original better?  Thank you so much!!

Sorry!  Another question.  If there is a question in relation to one of the discussions in the Editing forum, is there a way to reference a particular discussion?  Thanks!