Damien Symonds

People get all hung up on enlargement method. The enlargement method doesn't matter. What matters is the sharpening afterwards. https://www.damiensymonds.net/trainingsharp.html

The clone stamp is the correct method, yes. But it sounds like you're not doing the masking with it? The masking is crucial. https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/10/role-of-masks-when-cloning.html

The V600 is quite good, yes.

Lightroom has an inaccurate histogram and clipping warnings. The histogram can be fixed with soft-proofing, but the clipping warnings are STILL wrong. Once you actually understand colour spaces and histograms, you'll understand that Lightroom is completely unusable for this reason. Anybody you meet who says that Lightroom is ok DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO EDIT.

Next, have you read this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2014/06/the-wide-gamut-myth.html

First, have you read this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/examining-the-complexities-of-an-acr-workflow/

I've moved this question into Brian's section. It's definitely not a Damien question.

PLEASE hurry up and dive into your class!

What did he say, @Eva Fifer?

Don't keep me in suspense, @meaghancarr! How did it turn out?

That's ok, it's all about the d&b from here. https://www.damiensymonds.net/simple-dodge-and-burn-tutorial/

Ok, so how about this? https://max.mailbigfile.com/2af97d8ff66f24df97f4c157c9991f86/listFiles.php

Now, talk to me. Do you still think the body needs to be darkened? Or do you share my point of view that the sweet spot is actually somewhere in between the two areas? I think the body should be darkened a bit, and the face lightened a bit.

Ok, can you update your profile details with your calibrator information? You definitely didn't need to do all that stuff with turning the blue areas to grey in the background. You're simply going to add a black Solid Color layer and carefully mask it around the whole horse. And you definitely need to do that first, before we discuss the imbalances in the coat.

No, that's ok, just checking. Can you do this for me?

Thanks. Did you shoot raw?

First of all, please read and acknowledge understanding: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2011/09/cropping-tutorial.html

What a load of old nonsense. Ctrl R is still working perfectly for me.

Oh, phew!

Those specs should be fine. Go ahead and restart, then if the problem still exists, show me a screenshot.

https://www.damiensymonds.net/thread1.html

I'm sure he will be very grateful.

I think your masking needs to be more subtle, so it blends better.

That middle layer must NOT be clipped to the base layer, by the way. The top layer should be clipped to the middle layer (which you've done correctly), but the middle layer must NOT be clipped to the bottom layer.

Can you show me a screenshot after you've added the mask to the layer?