Damien Symonds

https://www.damiensymonds.net/trainingfaq.html

No, no prior knowledge needed at all, I promise. I will build your skills from the ground up.

I'm not aware of any way to do it all as on layer, sorry.

What are their pixel dimensions? That's the important part. Some very important info here: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/08/about-jpeg-file-size.html

What? Can't you see what it does when you turn it off and on? A gradient is a good idea, but darned hard to match up.

Usually this happens because you're not quite painting with white or black. Make sure you press D to reset the colours to their defaults.

Download PSD

It's done using this method.

Like this?

Yep, I reckon so too. Which of the two colours do you prefer?

I've moved this thread into AD, since it's not a class question. I can help you do anything you like with the background. You just tell me what you want.

Yes, that is very alarming!! What screen do you have?

As far as I can tell, you've done the channel mixer part just right *thumbs up*

This is not a channel mixer issue, it's a mask issue. Please make haste to read the class.

Signing up for a class doesn't magically give you knowledge You have to actually read it. Have you done so?

Well, can you tell me exactly which one you'd like to mimic? It seems that you were going for the second bottom one, is that right?

How do you feel about it?

You wouldn't have posted if you didn't already know I was right. Sharpening exaggerates and enhances detail that is already there. It can't magically create detail that doesn't exist. Her lashes don't exist in this photo.

Mask? Neither layer needs a mask. There should be no masking involved here.

What? No, you should be using a 5% brush at most.

No, sorry. A bit too fuzzy.

Hmmm ...what opacity of brush were you using?

Yes, isn't the dark red area the problem?

No, no, it'll just be a handyman job. Very straightforward.

Geez you're scraping the bottom of the bullshit barrel here. The next time you have a photo which you think would benefit from premature cropping, post it for me and we'll discuss why you're wrong.