Damien Symonds

May I see a screenshot showing your Layers panel?

https://ask.damiensymonds.net/topic/107-read-this-first-posting-guidelines-and-download-files/

May I see a screenshot of your layers panel for one of the photos?

After making that switch on the monitor setting, did you recalibrate?

Do just the raw processing part, then show me the photo. We'll discuss the approach from there, we'll take it very carefully.

Make sure you process it in 16-bit, not the usual 8-bit.

As you said, D&B is really hard in this case. The colour goes all screwy. So instead I used Channel Mixer to make a black-and-white version, THEN did some D&B on top of that. D&B is so much easier in black-and-white. Download PSD

Excellent work, well done!

Excellent. So can you show me a screenshot of your crop tool, as if you're about to crop a photo for a 5x7 print? I need to see that that is correct. What??????? Of course I'm not suggesting you would show uncropped images for online proofing. You crop them to 11:15, exactly as we've just been discussing. Do you need to read this article again? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/02/trash-those-jpegs.html No. You do NOT show the master file in a gallery.

Oh, sorry, I forgot about that. You'll need to re-mask the Levels layer too, of course. THAT will be the tedious part - you need to make that mask as accurate as possible.

Of course, any cropping lowers your file size. NEVER crop in raw, ever. What resolution does your lab require for print?

Yes, absolutely. https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/11/colour-modes-vs-colour-spaces.html This is exactly right. Have no fear, you're doing the cropping to 11:15 perfectly. However, please assure me you're not actually saving your master file cropped? 11:15 is only for client files, the master file on your computer must remain whole at all times. And PLEASE tell me you're not sending 11:15 files to the lab to print? That would be catastrophic. Print files must be cropped to the exact size and resolution they need to be.

May I see? It's not fixed in your new screenshot.

Oh crap!!!!!! https://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tscs000.html

No, that sounds perfect. Can you show me a screenshot of that?

Great. Please don't wait too long to take the Bridge Class. I cover this in great detail.

Just to check, you understand that this is completely stupid and very damaging, yes? You've stopped doing this, I trust? It sounds like you're cropping to 11x15 at a certain resolution? You MUST NOT impose a set resolution. Have you read this one? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html Also this one? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/02/trash-those-jpegs.html

Then I'm really sorry You'll have to start again from the raw file

Yes, but you'll need to do the D&B manually.

Download PSD (My masking is rough on the Channel Mixer layer, sorry)

Oh gee. Tough one!! This is about the best I can offer, would it be good enough?

Sure!

I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Be very thorough with this checking process. When I tried this fix, I found I very easily messed up the fingers a bit. So I had to zoom in and fix it very carefully.

This will make the whole photo crazy washed out, but importantly, it will give you a very clear view of where the flaws are in the background. Return to the Color Fill layer, and with a white brush (100% opacity) very carefully paint over those flawed areas until they disappear entirely. Once you've finished, turn off the Levels layer, so you're viewing the photo in its normal state again. Turn the Color Fill layer off and on a few times to make sure you haven't accidentally painted over the baby in any places.