Samantha LaRue

Delete your layer mask and try again. This usually happens when your black isn't 100% black and is actually a dark grey color.

Have you tried this? http://www.damiensymonds.net/2015/09/black-boxes-and-other-weird-behaviour.html

1 hour ago, Lara said:

 If they can't easily be used later (after global adjustments) then I'd say they don't really fit with Damien's recommended workflow, but experiment a little and see.

I've played with them before, and in my experience, you undo a lot of the "look" that the presets create while you are fixing things with Damien's workflow (removing clipping, adjusting white balance etc). 

Or try posting in the Facebook group Find a Retoucher.

Can you please check your colorspace as well? The top photo looks very green/grey to me.

http://www.damiensymonds.com.au/art_tscs000.html

Do you have a link to a design you'd like to imitate the chalky-ness of? 

We've seen this before. Let me see if i can pull up the old posts about it. In the mean time, can you fill this out? http://www.damiensymonds.com.au/thread1.html

4 hours ago, Angela Buxton said:

If you'd read my original post you'd know this is time sensitive and I cannot wait the length of time it would take to learn to do it myself easily. Hence my asking for help in the first place.

Just to be clear, you are looking for someone to do this for you? Not to show you how to do it?

You should have set that up in the original steps when you created the canvas that you added your image to.

Can you check this really quick why you wait for Damien?

http://www.damiensymonds.com.au/art_tscs000.html

Can you post the 100% crops again?

Can you post the actual image please? And maybe a 100% crop of the area that's bothering you the most too?

Can you post an example? The color shouldn't be any different at all. 

Oh, and have you seen this?

http://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tsfb000.html

All photos require some degree of noise reduction. that's not uncommon at all. But if you can post some examples like so, we can let you know if you're experiencing an unusual amount of noise:

http://www.damiensymonds.net/2013/09/grabbing-700x700px-100-crop.html

Are you 100% sure that you have a wide gamut monitor and not just a wide screen monitor? (You'd be surprised how often people mix those up) A link to the monitor specs would be helpful too.

What about your test prints? How do they compare to what you see on your monitor?

Or too dim?

Id give it at chance at the lower brightness. Your eyes will adjust to it soon enough.

I'm not sure I understand your question? The orange carrots, in particular, look duller in the bottom photo when soft proofing is turned on. Is that what you mean?

Why do you have to go there? Don't you have a window with similar light to recreate the look?

17 minutes ago, fallon.curry said:

I could take one.. But it wouldn't be the same setting, if that matters..

it might.  You need to match the focus, position, and light of this one. 

Do you happen to have any images of the rug without the kids on top?

I know that says sRGB, but the color looks off. How did you change it?

7 hours ago, Bek said:

I believe I have sorted that out now & its in sRGB 8bit...........

 

No, that's not the right place to look. Did you follow the troubleshooter all the way through?

3 hours ago, Foques said:

I think I know why.

I had to do the prior crops while traveling, and using work computer.

 

The last upload I did from my own processing station.  I wonder if the other software I used did not code the file right.

Yep, that would make a difference. It's the raw processor (ACR) that sets the color space. So if your work computer was not set to sRGB that would change how it processes your file.

It won't affect the actual editing in this case, but it does present a probably when sharing your images online. Images in AdobeRGB can appear green/grey when viewed online. And it would really suck to do all the hard work on this, just to find out the profile was wrong and that you would have to start over etc. 

I'm really puzzled why it saved as AdobeRGB though! I don't have a Mac so I don't know what window that shortcut opens. Can you take a screenshot of that? I just want to make sure we aren't overlooking anything.