Damien Symonds

This is something I don't know anything about. Is it a template made by your lab? Or is it some kind of generic template that can be used by anybody for any lab? I guess it goes without saying that there is always risk when using somebody else's template. Well, go ahead and recalibrate your screen with lower brightness to match those prints. For now, continue to ignore the collage, just concentrate on matching those prints.

Sorry to hear about this. The first thing you must do is dig out some previous prints from the lab, and make sure your screen still matches them. The second thing is to make sure your collage file was sRGB as usual. Did you design it yourself, or did you download a template to use?

We really need a bit of variety in the prints, if possible.

That's right. Put it out of your mind. It's not important right now. Got other prints?

Remind me which Spyder you have? Lots of people get confused by this. No, it's correct. In raw, the numbers are compensatory. As the temperature number gets higher and cooler in real life, the raw number gets higher and warmer to balance it. I hope this makes sense. For now, ignore the black-and-white one. You need a lot more than just one colour photo. Really? Surely you have others lying around?

Yeah, gosh, that software stopped being supported about a million years ago. What calibrator do you have?

First, this Levels layer: R 39/1.08/178 G 28/1.09/162 B 13/1.05/174 Masked carefully to the glasses. And maybe masked partially back off the glare parts. Then add a Solid Color layer and clip it to the Levels layer. Set its blend mode to "Hue", and choose a skin colour. I used R214/G171/B146. Then lower the opacity to your taste (I didn't lower mine very much).

Terrific!

Any improvement? Hang on. You said you'd "reset Essentials". That is nowhere near the same as resetting preferences. Did you follow the link I just gave?

*sigh* This is a known glitch. It's not just you (if that's any consolation). It's a hassle, but you might need to do this: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/10/how-to-properly-re-install-spyder.html

Yeah, well, you probably should ask him to undo that shit. But first, you should try resetting Photoshop's preferences. https://seventrumpet.com/how-to-reset-photoshop-to-default-settings/

Great! How much space did it clear up? Ok, do you know how he resized the fonts?

You still there, Melissa?

Show me a screenshot of the crop tool settings that you used. This still isn't right.

Sorry, I assumed you knew how to prepare for print. It's true what they say - to assume makes an ass of u & me. You must never use the Image Size dialog when preparing for print. Only the Crop Tool. Do you know how to use the Crop Tool?

Right. See? It's the original full size.

No, check the pixel dimensions of that file.

No, on the 6x4 file!

Now, with the smart object layer selected, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Starting with the slider at minimum, gradually take it up until the moire pattern has been removed. (Of course this will blur the rest of the photo too, but we'll mask that shortly). Then show me the 100% crop again.

Holy mackerel, yeah, that sure is over-sharpened. Ok, here's what you need to do: Duplicate the Background layer Immediately go to the Layer menu, and turn the layer into a Smart Object Then resize the image to 6x4 inch size at 300 pixels per inch, as you normally would for printing Then take another 100% crop for me. PLEASE follow the instructions properly this time.

Please please PLEASE read: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/02/selling-digital-images.html

Oh! Ok, can you show me a 100% crop of the worst area?

Excellent. When you sent the print file to the lab, did you just send that whole big file, or did you resize accurately for print?

Ah, ok, pity. What size is the jpeg you have? Its pixel dimensions, I mean? (File size in megabytes is irrelevant, and so is size in inches.)

Hi Melissa, did you take this photo yourself, and if so, did you take it in jpeg mode, or raw?