Damien Symonds

ALL photos are RGB. I assume you mean Adobe RGB, and you must NEVER use that. Next step, in Photoshop, can you go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences>Performance, and take a screenshot of that window to show me?

Ooh, that's not very much. I strongly urge you to do this to clear up some space. Brian always says that a hard drive should have at least 1/3rd free space; and your hard drive is very small to begin with, so 50% free space would be a better goal if possible. And I urge you to run this as well. This kind of behaviour sounds exactly like symptoms of a too-full hard drive.

Obviously this can't be right. That's mathematically impossible. Can you check again?

But yeah, even 0% hardness doesn't make it bulletproof. You do have to gently clone at low opacity sometimes, to really get a good blend. Are you making an effort to get into your opacity shortcuts? It's well worth it.

Ah.

Hi @pbziegler, I've moved this into Ask Damien since it's not a class-related question. Were you near the edge of the image at the time? Remember to go to the View menu and turn off "Snap" if it's a bit jumpy. I suppose it's too late to show me a screenshot of that problem? Your tool should already be 0% Hardness (in the Options Bar) just like every brush-style tool. Is that not the case?

You're welcome!!

Hmmm ... do you mind doing this for me, @Jennik

Ok. Send me all the photos that need fixing, as well as some "good hair" ones that I can use, via this page: https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/BellePhotography And if you would like to learn how to use Photoshop, this is where to start: https://www.damiensymonds.net/trainingialm.html

Oh. Yeah, if you don't have a base level of Photoshop knowledge, these fixes might be beyond you. They're not technically too difficult, but they do assume a working knowledge of layers and masks. Anyway, you can download this file and open in Photoshop: Download file here See if you can understand it. Otherwise, give me a couple of weeks, I guess. The edits shouldn't be more than $10-15 each. Add a few more dollars if there are things like sweaty skin to fix.

https://ask.damiensymonds.net/topic/20402-its-here-the-advanced-levels-class/

I'm afraid I'm too busy to take on any new editing work for a couple of weeks. Are you sure you wouldn't like to try it yourself? What's your level of Photoshop experience?

Ok, can you go to your Masks panel on one of these files and show me a screenshot of that too? Maybe the Density slider isn't at 100%?

Is this what you had in mind? It's the best I can manage.

This usually happens because you're painting with dark grey, not black. Press D then X to make extra sure you're painting with black, then try again.

Ok, yes, we might be able to make the first one work for us. Now, can you check and confirm that you have the rights to edit these photos?

Yes I know, but your hair isn't big enough in that photo. I want to see the photo where your good hair is the biggest available.

Oh boy, this'll be hard. What's the closest view you have of the good hair? I mean, do you have any head-and-shoulders portraits of yourself with your hair just the way you like it?

Hi @Nuria, please familiarise yourself with the posting guidelines.

Hi @Phoebe, may I see one or two of the problem photos?

It's an Advanced Levels Class question, actually. That class isn't quite ready yet, but I'm hoping in about a week.

No, it's not the Crop Tool. Read the instructions again: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/09/grabbing-700x700px-100-crop.html

That means your screen is too cool, yes?

Thanks. There's only negligible extra benefit in the raw file, so I'll persist with the version you first sent me. Download PSD

Whatever it takes. Gotta brighten it up. If you can't, maybe only edit during the day?