Photoshopped image

[medicnai]

I have no EXIF data as these two photos were scanned from a friend who wanted a photo of his dad with his neice. I cropped the neice into the shot, but before I give it to him are there any suggestions on how to make this more realistic? I'm unsure how to edit the background as the original consisted of very dark tables and wine glasses...something he did not want into the final image.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Photologyst]

Nice photo, but very grainy and harsh so it needs PS processing, IMHO. The background could be softer too.

Can you post the original scan?

[medicnai]

Here are the original 2 photos...

The request was for the neice and dad, so I had to crop them and merge them. I basically took out the background, cloned and flipped the dad's arm, and then had to crop them really close to take out the arm from the original that was around the neice (I hope that made sense).

[medicnai]

I just tried one more thing...I added a little background (I didn't really care for the complete black) and I tried to soften their faces...but I'm not sure if I did it right. I would really like this to work, and look realistic as this photo is no longer possible to get (Dad passed a little while ago). This is going to be a Christmas present for his Mom I think, so you can understand why I'm really appreciating the help!!!
Thanks

[RLucas]

You have a pretty good start there. The light seems to be coming from the same direction in both shots, which is a big plus for you. The thing that catches my I the most, and makes it look unrealistic is that there is no shadow on his shirt behind the little girl. You may want to try to burn in an area around her. It will not need much, since the light looks fairly direct. I think that will give it a better sense of realism.. You have done a good job with it so far.

[medicnai]

How would I go about doing the shadow? I thought about that, but was really unsure how to proceed. I'm using photoshop elements (5.0 I think...it's an older version) and there are still a lot of things in the program that I haven't experimented with!

[RLucas]

Use the burn tool on a separate layer. Start out at about 15-20% opacity, and work your way up if needed. You can use the original photograph of her sitting on the other mans lap as a reference on where the shadows fall.

[medicnai]

Ironically, in the original photo she was sitting on her dad's lap, and since he was wearing an all black suit, there are very little shadows....I'll have to try the burn tool though, see if I can add a little shadow to make it look like she's actually in the photo. Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it.

[Photologyst]

So, here is my very quick rendition of that nice portrait.



In layers for each operation: First I cloned and healed most of the missing pixels, especially around the eyes. Worked on the reflections from the glasses with clone and heal tools. Cloned out shine on faces (although the child could use a bit more on the forehead. Smoothed out complexions. Lightened eyes, mouth/teeth in Hue/Saturation layers. Lightly darkened pupils and sharpened eyes.

I think that you did a good job cut and pasting. If you take your time you can of course do a much better job than I did doing quickly.

I’m not crazy about the background because a bit of color might be more flattering and bring out the people. Perhaps a soft salmon/mellon color in a gradient? Lighter around the man and darkening around the child. A bokeh blue burn might work as well. In fact, you might try that on the original background. Those wine glasses might lend themselves well to that.

Here is a tutorial on creating studio backgrounds: Photoshop Tutorials: Create A Portrait Studio Background

This will be a lovely gift and I’m sure, very much appreciated.

[medicnai]

wow! In all honesty, I was worried about it looking like a "photoshop photo", I completely forgot that I could get rid of the glare and fix the little imperfections!

Thank you so much for your help....I think he's going to love it!