Damien Symonds

Have you tried switching those around?

You've got the layer thumbnail selected, rather than the mask thumbnail. Click on the mask thumbnail in the Layers Panel, so that it has the little border around it.

First, a Levels layer and move the black slider on the Red channel to 20, and the black slider on the Green channel to 5. Mask it to the circle. Then this to tidy it up.

I'm wondering if the problem is your screen. Can you view these images on another screen, and see if you see it there too?

Oh right, that's ok then. Ok, show me that file as well as the SOOR.

You're welcome.

Of course. PSD files are uncompressed, so they're much bigger than jpegs.

Ok, I'm stepping away. I want no part of an edit involving an illegally-obtained image.

Oh yeah, reduce it to a web sized jpeg as you normally would.

When you crop, do you see the photo changing size on screen? It should remain exactly the same size (apart from the removal of the cropped edges, of course).

Ok, wow. What a beautiful photo. May I see a screenshot including the layers panel? Oh, and post the SOOR also, thanks.

Just to check, have you opened a file that is a bit older (from a time when you know that everything was running smoothly) and see if the same problems are happening with that file now?

I painted on the D&B layer with a 3% opacity brush. Anything higher than that will be too brutal, I think. I used a 10% brush for the colour fix layer.

Oh, I think only that main band of shadow. Like this.

It's not you. Refine Edge is a terrible function. Abandon it. You can't blur that way. This is how it's done.

Yes please.

No, nothing else I can think of.

Sorry, I understand now. Presently the action is set up to place the watermark 10 pixels in from each edge. You can modify that easily by re-recording the "Canvas Size" step in this part: http://www.damiensymonds.net/images/actions/wmact24.gif

I have no idea, I'm so sorry.

Hopefully this will work to reduce that problematic band of shadow.

Gosh, with a bigger backdrop, of course! Edit looks great, just needs to be darker at the left.

Settings, yes. Actions and brushes shouldn't go. But make sure they're backed up, just in case.

Which one is designated as Monitor 1?

In that case, I think you'll need to reset Photoshop's preferences. Hold down Cmd Opt Shift as you launch it.

No it doesn't. Read the instructions again. Every single word.