Nice air hockey moment! But how do I remove this background?

[unfo]

Was practicing my mobile Strobist techniques at Chuck-E-Cheese's and snapped this perfect moment in an air hockey game between my son and daughter. But as this lady happened to have the audacity to walk by as taking my 2nd picture (shame on her! ) she ended up with a very well lit behind and I ended up with a very distracting background. Unfortunately my Photoshop techniques are a little behind the curve. How can I doctor up this shot to replace and/or diminish the background?



Thanks!
-unfo

[BabetteKD]

I selected the woman and part of your son, decreased her exposure drastically and used a layer mask to keep your son from being darkened out. I hope it's what you're looking for.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Since your lighting is so nice you shouldn't have much problem just burning in the parts of the background you don't want seen. You will have to go over each area with several passes, but it will be worth it in the end. Try using your burn tool on the highlights and midtones at between 10-20 exposure and work on a duplicate layer so that you can fix any mistakes.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Oh and cute capture!

[unfo]

Thanks Babette & Wannabe. Was worried it would look too unnatural if I completely blacked it out, but maybe if I do what you're suggesting plus add a selective blur (if I can control it well enough), that'll get me where I need to be.

Thanks again, this'll make a nice page in the kids' album when I'm done.
-unfo