Damien Symonds

Inconsistent, but not wildly bad either way. Looking at these images, there's nothing to suggest your monitor is badly calibrated.

No no no no no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They must be one and the same.

The Smart Object was necessary - vital, in fact - in order to be able to apply the blur as a smart filter. Smart filters can be re-adjusted later.

They're five separate lines, on five separate layers, which I then merged into the Smart Object you see in the PSD. You should have sung out before now!!!! I wanted to share the PSD to make it faster for you, not to bog you down for hours.

Come on, ya tightass This conversation is completely pointless without prints. You just need a handful of 5x7s. It's no great expense. Hurry up and get 'em done.

How did you go?

The only thing that matters is the comparison to your pro lab prints. How is it?

That looks really good at this size.

No, you really shouldn't have to do this. How old is your laptop?

No, the monitor won't change with the windows open. It's its own light source, so it won't be affected greatly by another light source. It's the PRINTS that will change. I can't answer that, because you haven't posted any for me. Not any actual files.

Please don't think I'm denying there's a colour problem. I believe you. I just suspect it's due (at least in part) to the light in which you're viewing the prints.

Hmmm ... be careful, it looks a bit repetitive in some areas.

So that proves that your internal lights are too dim, yes?

I need you to know that I'm ignoring all the photos you've taken of your photos. Sadly, they're meaningless to me. It would be great if I could trust them, but I can't. Screens don't photograph well. I just need to know the answer to my question.

Ok, I get it. Is the comparison the same in daylight (if you open your blinds during the day) as it is under your lights?

Are you saying that your monitor is warmer than your ProDPI prints?

Ok. So what I tend to do in these situations ... after cloning, I use the Spot Healing Brush tool to replace texture in the blurry areas.

Millers is always too warm, you must never use them.

Can you remind me - does your version of Elements have the Healing Brush Tool?

This is going to be insanely hard.

Gee ... you kinda need to flip the dog horizontally, don't you? So that the shadows go the right way?

You're not doing anything wrong, I assure you. That's just what the clone tool does. It's one of its shortcomings. https://www.damiensymonds.net/tut_clone.html

No, it's ok to calibrate during the day,as long as you've closed those blinds and turned off the lights.

On modern screens, Contrast should pretty much always be left at the factory default setting. It mightn't be a bad idea, just before your next calibration (which will be when you get the DVI cable) to find the "Reset factory defaults" button in your Dell's menu, to make sure Contrast is at default. Yeah, it's fairly normal for it to be in the teens for those screens.

I'm so sorry to be a pain, but it's polite not to upload other people's photos directly. None of us would like it if we found out that other people were downloading our photos, then posting them elsewhere. Can you provide links to them instead? So the photographers get the credit and traffic they deserve. Thanks for understanding.