Damien Symonds

As distasteful as this is, I'll need a 100% crop of the problem area Sorry, areas plural - the butt and the eye.

It's great!

Oh yes, the albums will be different. But ignore that for now. All that matters is to establish your calibration perfectly against prints. Once you have a perfect print match, that's your part of the job done. Then, if they print an album badly, you have a platform from which to argue for a free reprint. Do you understand what I mean? Once you can say "My screen is calibrated with an X-Rite device and is a perfect match for your prints", then you can also say "So you f&*ked up my album, print it again."

Just Gaussian Blur will work fine. You won't have to redo the masking, don't worry. https://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/10/replacing-raw-edit-in-psd.html

Ah, crap. Ok, then yes, you need to get more prints. You need a variety - bright, dark, indoor, outdoor, people, animals, scenery, whatever.

Taking a new backdrop photo is a fabulous idea.

Oh yes, that's easy to fix, just blur it.

Have you never printed with Millers before? You have no other prints from them, ever?

As long as you've double-checked that the files you've been sending them are sRGB, then yes.

Yes, that's correct. This sounds like clutching-at-straws bullshit on their part. If you are calibrated with an X-Rite, and your screen is a good match for professional lab prints, they can't pin anything on you.

Once you change it, it should stick. They're damn right about that! Ok, this is great news! Then just keep supplying the sRGB files you always have. Was there a particular problem or issue that prompted this discussion?

Ok, straight away we know they're idiots, because their working RGB space is Adobe RGB. So we can completely ignore those settings they've sent you. However, your settings aren't right either. You should always be on "North America General Purpose 2". To clarify this point, are they asking you to send them CMYK files?

Shadowing, I guess? There should be shadowing on the backdrop, behind the chair. That's easy enough. Just add a Hue/Saturation layer above the new background layer, and clip it thereto. Then lower the Lightness slider to about -50, and maybe increase the Saturation a bit. That will darken the whole wall, of course, so then you invert the mask. Then with a 10% white brush, paint on shadowing where you want it.

Now it's time for you to tell me what you don't like about it, exactly.

Unfortunately, with all this time you've wasted worrying, I have to leave now to take my son to basketball training. I'll check in to view your screenshot when I return.

NO. Ange, calm down. Nothing is going to get messed up. Just load the damn profile.

We'll get to that, don't worry. For now, let's see what they've sent you.

Perfect! Keep going. Are you using the shift key? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/10/shift-while-brushing.html

It's the easiest way for sure.

Fantastic! Then there shouldn't be any need to distort the new background to impose any fake perspective on it. You should be able to drop it in exactly as is, yes? Then just mask it. It should be very straightforward. May I see where you're up to?

Well, first, can you tell me what you decided about the carpet? Will you keep it, or can it go?

That sounds like the right place for the ICC profile, yes. After you've put it in there, go to Edit>Color Settings, and load the color settings file they sent you. Then show me a screenshot of the Color Settings window once those settings are loaded.

You're right. In Color Settings, you should be able to import the color settings file they've sent you. However, it's most probably necessary to make sure you've put the ICC file in the correct folder first. Did they give you any guidance about that? I'm afraid I don't know where profiles go on a Mac, though I vaguely recall it might be Library>ColorSync, or something like that? And why are you putting up with this? Why not switch to the workflow which was actually designed for this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/examining-the-complexities-of-an-acr-workflow.html

Just "glasses"