Contemplation

[Shadowman]

Background editing suggestions.

[gregj1763]

I'm not able to give any suggestions John but that is an image worth work.
The eyebrows, glasses on her cheek and obvious concentration on whatever she is looking at tells a story. The background?
Let the experts join in.

[chauncey]

John, the only thing worth trying to salvage in that image is the gorgeous lady with a great pensive look.
It would be a chore to select her and the stray hairs and swap out the backgrounds entirely unless...you were to chop up the image and do partial selections here and there and later combine each and every one. Only you can judge the value of that amount of work.

[Downrigger]

Beyond me.
But you'd have a lot of nice image left if you cropped - bringing the left margin in to where her hair meets her shirt, up from the bottom to the top of the rounded chair back, and in from the right to the middle of the beige post. At that point there'd be a lot less background to deal with and some sort of dodging/softening depending on software might be sufficient.

[Shadowman]

I'm not able to give any suggestions John but that is an image worth work.
The eyebrows, glasses on her cheek and obvious concentration on whatever she is looking at tells a story. The background?
Let the experts join in.

Thanks Greg.

[Shadowman]

John, the only thing worth trying to salvage in that image is the gorgeous lady with a great pensive look.
It would be a chore to select her and the stray hairs and swap out the backgrounds entirely unless...you were to chop up the image and do partial selections here and there and later combine each and every one. Only you can judge the value of that amount of work.

Thanks Chauncey.

[Shadowman]

Beyond me.
But you'd have a lot of nice image left if you cropped - bringing the left margin in to where her hair meets her shirt, up from the bottom to the top of the rounded chair back, and in from the right to the middle of the beige post. At that point there'd be a lot less background to deal with and some sort of dodging/softening depending on software might be sufficient.

Thanks Mark. I'll give it a shot.

[IzzieK]

John what about just masking the whole background with the brust ever so slightly just to separate the lady and the beige post. I kinda like the post with her but not the grey stuff (chair?) underneath it?

[Shadowman]

John what about just masking the whole background with the brust ever so slightly just to separate the lady and the beige post. I kinda like the post with her but not the grey stuff (chair?) underneath it?

Thanks Isabel,

I'll give that method a try.

[Geoff F]

I just wonder if this would be a suitable case for B&W which would also help to mute down the background?

[Shadowman]

I just wonder if this would be a suitable case for B&W which would also help to mute down the background?

I can try that as well.

[Shadowman]

I can try that as well.

First edit. Not necessarily the easiest. Black and white and slight crop per Mark's suggestion.

[Shadowman]

John what about just masking the whole background with the brust ever so slightly just to separate the lady and the beige post. I kinda like the post with her but not the grey stuff (chair?) underneath it?

Isabel,

I tried your method, wasn't pleased with the results. The masking worked but the change was too evident using PSE. Tried again using LR, which has an Auto Mask function, but I am new to that software so I'll have to experiment with it a little more. If you are familiar with the Auto Mask method, assistance would be greatly appreciated.

John

[IzzieK]

John the B/W treatment works for me...the crop is just nice and tight enough...no need to do anything. Just my opinion. It also focus on her beauty, but then that is just my old eyes looking at it...

[Geoff F]

Creating a selection/mask with all that straggly hair is virtually impossible if you want natural looking results.

Some of the more complicated, and expensive, editing options like the newer versions of CS are good, but this would still come in as difficult.

Occasionally I have had better results by editing an overall mask using a soft edged brush, in varying sizes and softness, but still tricky.

[Shadowman]

John the B/W treatment works for me...the crop is just nice and tight enough...no need to do anything. Just my opinion. It also focus on her beauty, but then that is just my old eyes looking at it...

Thanks Isabel.

[Shadowman]

Creating a selection/mask with all that straggly hair is virtually impossible if you want natural looking results.

Some of the more complicated, and expensive, editing options like the newer versions of CS are good, but this would still come in as difficult.

Occasionally I have had better results by editing an overall mask using a soft edged brush, in varying sizes and softness, but still tricky.

Geoff,

As I am slowly learning, the hair has been the biggest obstacle.

[pnodrog]

John the B&W version works well. There are some strange artefacts/shapes just in front of the nose that would be worth cloning out.

[Shadowman]

John the B&W version works well. There are some strange artefacts/shapes just in front of the nose that would be worth cloning out.

Thanks, I'll revise.