Damien Symonds

You've posted in Brian's section, and that was a wise move, because this is definitely a question for Brian. I expect he might like to know what camera you have at the moment?

I hope you'll consider the Bridge Class this year. It's only ten bucks, and packed full of useful workflow info.

Now that it's finally snapped somewhere, it should be easier to slide it around.

Gosh, that sure is unusual. Usually you can drag the panel around, and it'll "snap" into place. If yours isn't doing that, I fear you'll need to go to Window>Workspace>Reset Workspace, and start over.

I don't see any option other than black for the background. Add a "Solid Color" adjustment layer of black, and mask it on around her.

There's nothing can be done about focus, I'm afraid. It is what it is. For the background, I figure plain black would be best - is that what you were thinking too?

I think it'll be excellent. Why not test a bigger print like this?

Can you start a new thread with the Jeana question? It gets too confusing trying to have two discussions in one thread.

What? It's EXACTLY the colour you asked for.

Actually, sorry, these numbers are closer: R 215 G 145 B 245

Well, why don't you try it and see? Add a Levels adjustment layer, and move the white Output slider on each of the three channels thusly: Red 210 Green 130 Blue 235 Then mask it very carefully to the dress.

Ok, I think I understand. Could you tell me an approximate colour (RGB values) that you'd like the pink to be?

That's right. If 90 is still too bright, calibrate again at 80. If that's still too bright, try 70. If 70 is still too bright, there's DEFINITELY a problem with your room lighting. Let's not worry about that for the moment. We'll concentrate on getting the brightness correct first.

When you say "painting" ... do you mean virtual painting with software?

So that we don't get bogged down any longer, let's pretend this is ok, and press on with the glasses issue. But you have a BIG problem. PLEASE don't wait any longer to take the Raw Class, I beg you. Now can you give me some 100% crops so I can see the glasses problems close up?

Wonderful!!! Now can you see how dark your photos are? Go ahead and edit them properly, then post them again for me.

Never mind. For now, can you just compare some pro lab prints to their print files in Photoshop, to make sure your screen's brightness is EXACTLY correct?

We'll get to that, don't worry. I'm here for the next 13 hours. Check your calibration first and let me know how it looks.

Not sure if you saw this question.

Are you sure your monitor calibration is ok? How long since you compared your screen to your pro lab prints?

This is grossly underexposured. You must crank that Exposure up in raw.

Once your photo gets to Photoshop, the data is no longer high quality raw data, it's just plain ol' pixel data. Photoshop is suitable for minor brightness tweaks, but overall brightness MUST be corrected in raw where the data quality is so much more robust.

Oh, no no no no no no no. That's VERY bad. You must do your raw processing properly.

How did it go, @cathm?