new to photoshop, little help required pls

[Flora]

Hi Jabbr!

....If you are still trying to follow Doug's tip to solve your problem, here is where to find the elusive "Preserve Transparency" to activate....

It's on the "Fill Dialog" you open after having 'Layered via Copy' (Ctrl+J) what you loaded from the 'Grayscale' to your image....

Look here:

[Mike Needham]

Ok Flora - I know you must be muttering "Stupid Boy" in a Captain Mannering, type of voice, but as resident result producer, what is the diference between that check box and the one in the layers pallette?

btw - nice job blacknight and *grinds teeth in jealousy* nice work flora

[Flora]

Hi Mike!

...and now it's your turn to

be muttering "Stupid Girl" in a Captain Mannering, type of voice

...because I really don't know!!!!!....and to tell the whole truth and nothing but....etc....I've actually never tried the one on the layers palette.... ...there...now... I've really bared my soul...
I was only following Katrin Eismann instructions on this particular procedure....

P.S....btw...I think that your result is much better than mine!!!

[Jakaleena]

Gosh - a whole lot of great fixes here! I couldn't resist playing with it myself, so here's my offering...

First, I adjusted the levels on each channel individually, then I made a curves adjustment for color. I just wanted to get the girl to look fairly normal here. I sharpened by making a dupe, switching to Lab mode, applying USM and then copying that to a layer on my original which I set to overlay and made the layer opacity about 50%.

Then, I thought the ocean was too light, so I duplicated the layer and made a layer mask (see the layer mask tutorial). I ran a slight gaussian blur on the layer mask, and then I adjusted the levels on the ocean to darken it.

I didn't take a lot of time with the mask, so the hair and donkey fur is a bit off, but if you spend a bit more time on it you can make a better one.

[Flora]

Jak

I think it looks simply great!....

You and Mike did a splendid job not only in removing the shadows, but in cleaning the image as well in the process!!!

P.S. do you have some magic advice on removing moiré as well?....

[Jakaleena]

No, Flora, nothing magic. I hate moire. The only fix for it I've come up with yet is just to airbrush it out... I just did the latest restoration challenge last night and the moire was completely frustrating! I ended up airbrushing the whole thing...

[Flora]

Jak

.....I guess both of us will have to carry on searching for a better way to defeat moiré.....

[Flora]

.....Just went to see your restoration ....you definitely don't need to search anymore.....your airbrushing did the magic!!!!