Damien Symonds

Not a dumb question at all. Your profile should be in this folder: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color Can you check?

Hmmm ... it's actually quite lucky that the S3E even works on one of the computers. It's very old tech, and your computers are very new tech. Have you tried copying the profile from your computer to Cara's? It's not an actual solution, but if it helped at least to a degree, it would give us some clues as to how to proceed.

Hi Amanda! Hope you've been getting some rain up there. Remind me which Spyder you have?

That's more like it.

That doesn't look quite how I expected. Are you sure you have the layer blend mode on "Color"?

Oh, phew! So now just invert the mask of that layer, then paint on to the problem areas with a 5% white brush.

Hang on ... these are transparent files!!! Shit, sorry, I hadn't opened them before now. In that case, just use the Magic Wand tool to click in the space.

Don't keep me in suspense, @Lorie!

What? The hex one is much much much much easier, because it's straight lines!!!

Thanks. In that case, I'll be very very interested to hear if this method works for you, since other people with the newest CC have been reporting a problem with it. Add a blank layer, then with your eyedropper tool choose some of the nice rich skin colour from her upper cheek. Then add a new "Solid Color" layer of that colour. Change that layer's blend mode to "Color". At this point the whole photo should be that colour. But some people have reported it turns their whole photo green instead. Can you let me know what happens to yours?

Hi Lorie, can you remind me which version of Photoshop you have?

When you say "hand draw a mask" ... I fear you might actually mean that literally. I fear you're not using the Shift Key?

Oh yeah, they do that. Well, tell them you'd be happy with "near enough is good enough" and you'd happily accept today's profile.

Well, "best" is a moving target. If "best quality" is the goal, then it must be a vector file like EPS or PDF. But the average programs like email and Word and stuff might struggle with those. So yeah, PNG is probably safer, from a "best usability" point of view. In which case, no, I can't think of any special considerations.

What file format does the eventual file need to be?

Can you give me the back-story? For what purpose are you masking them?

If it's only trees and grass, that's likely to be a soft-proofing issue. Have you tried soft-proofing with your lab's profile?

This can happen if the brush tool is accidentally on a blend mode other than "Normal". Next time this happens, make sure you check that in the Options bar. I'm so darn nervous about everything you're describing. I trust you're keeping frequent backups of all your data, in case the worst happens suddenly?

Hmmm ... I wonder if there's something serious brewing behind all this.

CS5 is version 12, actually. Huh, weird. It definitely DOES accept it in the field. I wonder if this is another related problem? Have you noticed any other weirdness in your computer behaviour lately? Any other little things not working that should work?

Yep, that makes more sense. Photoshop 6 is really really old. Do you mean CS6?

Then we should ignore that for a moment. How about your normal prints (eg lustre). Does the problem exist with them too?

Yeah, I was thinking that you might need to process a bit brighter than you normally would?

On the usual paper?

Were the Christmas cards printed by your usual lab?