Damien Symonds

Gosh no, don't do that! Only ever apply it once.

Sorry, applied what three times?

It's still way too busy.

Come on, it needs to be a LOT more blurred than this, if you want it to match the one you linked above.

Gosh! Thanks for letting me know.

Rats. I don't know what to suggest, sorry

But yes, of course also try to choose photos that you can actually hang and enjoy in your house.

Advice about prints here: https://www.damiensymonds.net/cal_starthere.html

You don't have any? Hanging on your wall?

I see that your sidebar says you don't have a calibrator. Can you, at very least, compare your screen to prints and turn down the screen's brightness to match them?

This will be your first step: https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/06/blurring-background-false-dof.html

No, it'll be Levels for the first one. Can you do your raw processing on the photo then post it again for me?

Hi @AngelaT, The first one can be removed, I'm fairly confident about it. The second one can't, but does it even matter? I think that's quite a charismatic reflection. The third one can't either, I fear

Yoohoo! @Jadegirly2k?

Yes, I think that will be necessary. It's possible that Windows has over-ridden those reminders, I guess. But your new software might give you a chance to start afresh with the reminders anyway. Thank you, and the same to you and yours.

Oh, you need to look at the individual (Red, Green and Blue) channels, not the RGB one.

Yep, just the brush. I made the initial shape with a 100% opacity brush, then lowered the opacity to modify it. Have you Alt-clicked on the mask to see it in black-and-white? Yes, it will be a different levels layer for each reflection I'm afraid. You can tell that by looking at which sliders have moved on the levels layer - either the ones at the white end, or the ones at the black end.

No, you're right. There's no need for the new blank layer beforehand. Old habits die hard.

In normal circumstances you'd just duplicate the background layer, then start cloning. As you know. But in abnormal circumstances, sometimes there is an adjustment layer already above the Background layer, and it has to stay there. So in that case, you need a stamped version of the whole photo above that.

Hey Brian, I saw you mention this graphics card, and it prompted me to ask something that I've wondered about for a while ... What does it mean when there are other brands of the card? For example, on this page: https://www.mwave.com.au/graphics-cards/geforce-rtx-3070 There's an ASUS one, and an MSI one, etc. Are they all equivalent specs, or are NVIDIA ones significantly better?

Gosh yes. Turn that shit right off.

Darn! And just to check, is it also not working if you try re-running it on an older lot of photos that it worked on ok in the past?

Whaaat? Gosh, how did it go?

Handyman will work. https://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/04/the-handyman-method.html

It didn't work, for some reason. Maybe try his collar? That might help our cause, actually. Process it as dark as you dare in raw, it might give us more detail to work with in her face.