Sarah_

With your 'levels 3' layer, how did you know to do that at that point? I'm assuming that's the next step in this process. 

Thanks.

Starting with correcting the tree top... is this ok?

I think I mean in my pixel layers.

You usually recommend not cropping until the very end - last step (from memory), however, in my adjustment layers, from my 'perspective' layer upwards I have resized the image...

Sorry. I have duplicated and zoomed in my original layers from the perspective layer upward (top three layers). Should I continue working on the zoomed in top layer or delete the clone, liquify and perspective layers and start from there? Hope that makes more sense!

Thanks. I don't know how to approach this. Should I keep my original layers and the scale (crop) I have created or minimise it all down as close to the original size as possible?

Yes, I did - the top looks great, thank you. The trouble is when straightened (which I should have taken care of at the beginning) it looks off...

I feel like the distorted tree should be fixed. (Happy to hear if you feel otherwise). Should I do this first? Can I keep the original layers or start from 

Ok, now to do this myself. Can I keep my original layers or do I need to start from scratch?

Wow - that's great!

Thank you!

Hrmm, it's better than having the cords isn't it? tree looks wonky.
What do you think would be a happy medium?

It is a tough one. That looks pretty great. Would it be easy enough to pop in a gradient on the LHS to even out the background?

Thanks & happy new year.

Hello,

Please help me remove the air-conditioning unit, cords & TV unit (background clutter) for a clean background.

With thanks!

I totally understand if this isn't your cup of tea. Could you please show me an example site that you love for comparison?

Hi Damien,

Thanks for the reminder to post. I really need some help with pushing my raw files to the max. I see the work of some amazing (natural light) photographers and wonder if I can get the same results with a little help from ask.damien...

Here are a few photographers whose work I admire:
Danielle Trovato (if she's in this group - bravo!). Website is currently down so here's the Facebook link.
https://www.facebook.com/danielle.trovato/

Amy Rushbrook
http://amyrushbrookphoto.com

For both examples I love the brightness and detail - even in the highlights and shadows.

I'd love to know the best way to get the most detail out of shadow areas - particularly for indoor portraits. 

With thanks

Thanks.

Is this because it has opened in Quick Mask mode?

Thanks

Hi Damien,

I'm using your client sharpening action and it won't seem to work on one image in a batch. It has worked fine on all the others.

I have gone back into the history to undo the action and gone into USM to manually input and the same thing happens.
- It flattens
- It zooms into 100%
- It brings up the USM window with the correct numbers in each part, however, no sharpening occurs.

I have tried closing the file and PS and retried and the same thing happens.

Please help!

Ta.

It's not perfect, but better. Hoping this is good to go in your eyes. 

It still does the same thing.

Should it look like this when using the Line tool layer?