Damien Symonds

Now it's saying 21 minutes

I'm presently uploading my version of the file to email back to you. You should get it in ten minutes or so. I'll be very interested to know if it looks smooth, or jagged, to you.

This is SO weird! Yes, when I open your file, I can see the jaggedness too. I can see that you've rotated the photo to 2.76 degrees. So, I tried re-rotating it. No matter what rotation I tried, it always resulted in a perfectly smooth result, exactly like it should. I tried 1 degree, 3 degrees, 3.76 degrees, even 2.77 degrees - a change of only 0.01 degree! No matter what I did, it always ended up beautifully smooth. Not only that, when I put it back to 2.76 degrees ... perfectly smooth!!!! Something is screwy with your Photoshop.

With the rotated smart object layer, of course. But nothing else needs to be done, no.

Wait, can you please send me that PSD?

Good.

Try these: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/09/black-boxes-and-other-weird-behaviour.html

That is very weird. I've never seen it before.

103%

Screenshot please.

Only while the transform handles are active. As soon as you hit Enter, they go away, yes?

Oh shit, duh! Never straighten with the crop tool. https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/01/straightening-horizons.html

Also, with Content Aware turned off? Also, with no values at all in the options bar?

Does it do this if you crop the WHOLE photo? I mean, draw the crop marquee so it reaches every edge, thereby not actually cropping at all?

Ok, there are a few things wrong here. The first is that you're viewing at 111%. Only view at 100% when judging stuff like edges, noise, sharpness, etc. The second is that you're cropping at 2:3 shape. I can't think of a single reason why you'd do that. Can you explain your purpose for doing so? The third is that you don't have "Delete Cropped Pixels" checked in the Crop Tool options bar. That must always be checked. The fourth is that you don't have Document Profile turned on. https://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tscs000.html

I think you need to add some broad soft shadowing to the child's back, because I reckon the light would be dimmer inside the helmet.

Yeah, much better.

It sure does. Why is there such a white glow? It looks like your masking was nowhere near precise enough.

Ok, this sounds promising. Maybe calibrate again at 90? I need you to describe the problem. First, complete this sentence for me: "The screen is _______________ (cooler/warmer) than the prints".

ALL prints need sharpening, not just big ones. You'll learn about that in the sharpening class. Sharpness has NOTHING to do with calibration. Put it out of your mind.

Yeah, I find shadows really difficult too. May I see the "before"? I mean, the photo with the Hue/Sat layer turned off?

The fact that you had to play with Gamma and Brightness so aggressively tells us that the brightness was NOT right. Yes, please start over.

To ask the question another way ... at the bottom of this page, under "How is your calibration?", which link did you choose?

Let's break this down to simpler terms. After normal calibration (before you messed with SpyderTune) your screen was brighter than your prints?

Ok, but it seems that 80 was not a good match for your prints?