Damien Symonds

Great. The focus is fine, but this troubles me, big time: Can you figure out where (in your workflow) this happened?

So is everything ok?

Hmmm ... did you shoot raw?

It won't be easy, I expect. White to black is the longest trip on the editing map, after all. But we'll see what we can do. Go ahead and do your raw processing, then post the photo again and we'll discuss the numbers.

I think you need to try being a bit more clever, and borrowing pieces (or wholes) of other people's shoes.

Hmmm ... can you save these files?

Can you do this for me?

Can you show me a screenshot? Make sure the entire screen is in the screenshot, and make sure you have the lasso tool selected.

I don't know what to tell you, exactly. This is one of those situations where, if people don't notice the edited area, they'll go through their entire lives thinking it's a lovely photo; but if they do notice the area, they'll go through their lives never being able to look at any other part of the photo.

Yes, the D&B requires a heck of a lot of patience.

Isn't blue the colour of the lace? I know you said it was going to be black-and-white, and in that case you wouldn't need the colour layer, of course, but I wanted to show you how to handle it if you wanted to keep it in colour, just in case.

Ok, let me know how you go.

Gosh, that's such a good question. Generally I'd advise doing it early in the workflow, after pixel editing but before your Levels work. However, technically speaking, you could do it any time. If you forgot to do it early, and had to do it after Levels, that would be ok too.

I'm going to shut down shortly. If you like the edit, here is the file. You said there were other photos - I'm afraid I can't promise this approach will work for all of them. For example, if she's wearing another colour.

This is the best I can manage: Would it suffice?

Yeah, that does help a little.

Gosh, this is never easy. Did you take this crop from the SOOR, or have you done some Photoshop work to the photo?

Ok, first, can you do this for me? http://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/10/how-to-properly-re-install-spyder.html

No, really, which one? Which Spyder do you have, and what screen?

Such as, hypothetically, the one with the umbrellas ...

Nobody would ever do this, of course, but let's say ... hypothetically ... if you were to google "rich blue sky photos", then open some of them into Photoshop, and check the red channel as I described earlier, you'd (hypothetically) see what I mean. Hypothetically ....

Hell no, not a red filter!!!!!!! And hell no, never put your camera in monochrome mode. I just checked with Lara, and she said yes, it's a polarising filter you need. She said it works best in the middle of the day, when the sun is highest. It's not about "trying". I can do this, very easily, once you give me the right photo.

When you're browsing your photos, and you find one with a sky that you think might work (a really rich blue one), open it in Photoshop and go to your Channels panel. Click on the Red channel to see how it looks. You'll quickly know if it's a good candidate for IR.

Well, with some fiddling you could make something a bit IR-ish, but it's nowhere near as good as really nailing that blue sky. I'm out of my depth here, but isn't there a filter you can put on your lens for that sky? A polarising filter, maybe?

Now, can you tell me, on this page, which instructions you're following?