Damien Symonds

NO. This must be done in raw. Only your raw file has sufficient data to do this. Once data is in Photoshop, it doesn't have enough range. Start again. Get your raw processing right. Your layers panel makes me cry. I know I've taught you how to edit properly, but you've abandoned it COMPLETELY.

PLEASE let me help. Tell me what you're attempting here - why you think you need to take this course of action - and I'll help you do it properly and safely.

Trust me, you want to re-join anyway. The new content will blow your mind.

Sorry, what part of "never" is unclear to you?

Dafuq???????????????????? You must NEVER do this. Camera Raw is for raw files ONLY.

I'm so sorry, I can't discuss print sharpening here, only in the class.

How did you go?

Well, just darken it!!!!!!!!! Don't overcomplicate this. Just use Levels to darken it.

I don't understand. It looks like you're just replacing a grey background with a slightly darker grey background?

Yay! Ok, here's what the layers panel looks like: The setup is easy, but the masking is as tedious as hell. (That's why I didn't do much of it!) Let me take you through the steps: 1. Add a Channel Mixer layer, check the "Monochrome" checkbox, and enter 0% for the Red and Blue values, and +100% for the green value. This will turn the photo black-and-white. 2. Then add a Levels layer, and immediately clip it to the Channel Mixer layer. On the Red channel of the Levels layer, move the middle slider to 2.00. Then on the Green channel, move the middle slider to 0.85. (You can tweak these values to your taste, if you prefer a different shade of pink). At this point, the whole photo will be pale pink. 3. Click on the mask of the Channel Mixer layer and invert it to black. 4. Zoom way in, and choose a small 100% opacity white brush, and start the very tedious process of masking onto the flowers. This will take ages. Pour a drink to help you through. 5. Once you've finally finished masking, all the flowers will be pink. However, you'll see that the rug and baby will still have yellow cast on them from the original flower colour. So, drop the brush opacity to 10%, and enlarge the brush a bit, and start gently painting on those yellow casty areas to turn them into pink casty areas. This will also take a while. Here's why my mask looks like: See how there's the solid white area of the flowers, then the gentle painting for the casty areas around? 6. Finally, return to 100% opacity with the brush, and switch to black, then zoom in and check all the little green leaves. Your 10% painting might have started to turn the green leaves pink, or at least greyish. So you have to restore them to their proper green. Good luck!

Something like this colour? Be as critical as you like. If you want it a different shade, please don't hesitate to ask.

Ok, the clipping is still there - bummer. Never mind, it just means we have to take the harder route. It's still feasible. I need you to guide me on what colour pink you'd like - pale, medium, or really rich. Maybe if you could google "pink flowers" or something, and link me to a shade of pink you'd like?

Ok, so I started by duplicating the arm, then running Dust on it (I settled on 20/4). I masked that on. Then I used the Handyman method to even it out some more.

Do you reckon this might be good enough?

Am I right in thinking you want to remove the eczema but keep the freckles if possible?

Whoa!!!! Crap!!! I just noticed that your file is Adobe RGB!!!!!!!!!!

I'll need the 100% crop.

I don't understand the question. I just told you, it needs no clipping at the shadow end of the histogram.

Interesting. Ok, thanks.

Right at the very end, at the same time as sharpening (after flattening).

Are the other tools (eg the clone tool) doing the same thing? Or is it only the brush tool? Also, is it the same if you paint on a layer, rather than a mask?

Hmmm ... 2700 is a very big brush, of course. If you take it down in size, is it still the same? Has this additional problem cleared itself up since the restart?

What about before that? How long had it been? Got a screenshot for me?

Can you do this for me? http://www.damiensymonds.net/thread1.html

I've read that 400 is considered a good contrast ratio - roughly 0.25 black to 100 white. However, I've never thoroughly explored this myself. And you need to own a REALLY expensive screen (such as an Eizo) to be able to properly control black luminance. With your screen? Forget it.