Damien Symonds

It's reasonably fair to assume that, yes.

Gosh yes, lighting is most of the battle.

What? In the Raw Class Posting Area, as usual. See the pinned post in that section to refresh your memory.

Let me see a 100% crop from the SOOR.

Great! Then you did perfectly. There's not a single thing you could have done differently.

Calibrate in the dark, yes. Well, dim, at least. It certainly doesn't have to be pitch black.

No, that's 78 megapixels. No way does your camera shoot 78 megapixels. I want to know the exact dimensions of the file you shot.

Yes, follow the troubleshooting part of my calibration instructions. Yes, definitely don't allow them to adjust densities.

You haven't actually told me what your resolution was. What are the pixel dimensions of the file that came out of your camera?

Sorry, I don't understand what you're asking.

Unless you have specific reason to believe otherwise, the sharpening should be the same.

Before we get into that, can you post this photo in the Raw Class please?

Have you read this? What leaps out from your photo and smacks me in the face is the terrible mixed lighting. You MUST get that under control if you desire beauty in your shots.

You have to have them running as independent screens. In the Display control panel, have them set to "Extend" not "Duplicate".

Oh! Shit!!! No wonder!!!!!!!!! When you do that, both screens assume the calibration profile of the first screen (the laptop one).

Yes, great job.

Channel Mixer will help it a tiny bit, but there will still be a fair bit of Handyman required afterwards. Channel Mixer: Red +100/0/0 Green +120/0/0 Blue +160/0/0

Download the PSD

I think this would suffice. How about you?

Ok, and you're dragging the PS window from screen to screen?

What do you think it is that characterises the photos you like?

You painted that, then scanned it, I assume? Or photographed it at least? Then added the text afterwards?

Oh crap. No, vectors won't work here. I love what you've done, but you've inadvertently chosen the hardest design to work with.

Good job.

Great! So first, I'd duplicate the Background layer and use the Clone tool at 20% opacity to very gently clone the ends off the band, and a bit out of the middle too. Patience is the key here, and using colour from both above and below the band, to get a good blend with the result: Then it should be easy to use the Patch Tool to remove the remaining two sections: