2nd attempt at photoshop

[kellymo]

A photo of my daughter and her bud needed a rescue and gave me a chance to try out photoshop for the second time in my life. Have to say I was using Scott Kelby's photoshop for digital photographers (a life line and the only reason I attempted an edit of this pic) as a walk through for what to do. Other wise have no idea what to do in photoshop, pretty much followed things from page 237 to 240 to the best of my ability to get the direction I thought would aid in improving the photograph. (cropped on my own, at least I've got that figured out; though maybe not to all the rules)
wanted to:
-Blur the adults in the back ground
-leave in some depth of field
-add a vignette to highlight the kids and remove some of the back ground - sure I added too much, most will agree?
-remove red eye
ORIGINAL

ALTERED


Would LOVE some feed back on how it turned out, if there we're TIPS that might make it a better picture they would be GREATLY appreciated.

could post exactly what I did if need be.
Thanks in advance for any/all reply's
Sincerely Kelly

[zona5101]

I think you made a great improvement to the shot. I would agree the vignette is a tad heavy as it starts to darken the boy's head. nice work for your second time!

[bigwater]

I would say that you accomplished your goals and also agree that the vignette is a bit heavy. Assuming you have PS extended a simple suggestion that I would make is if the photo was captured in .jpg format convert it to .tff in Photoshop (single layer) then from Bridge you can right click it and open it in Camera Raw. Their are some real easy to use tools in there that can give you great results in minutes.
Otherwise I think it's worth spending some time learning to use 'levels' adjustment layers and masking to add contrast and depth to specific areas.

[cyber3d]

As you learn and experiment, you might want to try using magnetic lasso and cutting out her friend and moving him closer to her. That will also allow you to crop closer in.

Hmmm, I wonder if you can use the clone tool to move him? Give it a try. That way his reflection on the floor can be moved closer at the same time.

[v_1848]

Very nice capture... Great Editing... And a Really Cute Pic