Suggestions and such

[piratewench18]

I took this pic a few years ago when I first got my camera. I don't know very much about settings and all, and knew even less then. I'm still trying to figure out all the things I can do in Photoshop when I have spare time. (Not very often considering there's a baby in the house.) Anyways, I've always liked this picture, but it definitely has issues. I posted the original to see how others might crop it. I'm also concerned about having shadows on her face and then the bright sun on her arm. I would like for someone with more knowledge than me to look at it and help me out. If you could walk me through what you do, that would be very much appreciated, too. Thank you all in advance for any help.

[texxter]

Heather, I don't mean to discourage you, but this image is kinda hard to fix, dependng on what you mean by fix. There are problems with distracting people in the background, plus the ones you mention with blown highlights and bad lighting. Certainly the woman can be selected out and the background blurred more or replaced, but then the image would be totally different. What is it about this image that you find compelling to justify the postprocessing? And are you talking about color and light correction or major doctoring?

If you just want to "fix" the exposure you can do selective masking tone donw the arm, and lower the value on the background, perhaps with a blur to reduce the distracting elements. This is kinda hard to explain step by step, but I am sure some photoshop user with some free time can add detail. I'd personally invest time in creating new images instead of fixing this one, but that's just me. If I have a few minutes tomorrow I can try to fix some problems with it.

[CaptainTom]

Almost like doing a sculpture. "Just chip away everything that doesn't look like a horse"

Crop out everything that doesn't contribute to the idea/concept you want the viewer to experience.

[piratewench18]

Thank you for taking the time to look. I was just wondering if anything could be done with it, but that pretty much answers my question. :) It was a very early attempt. I'll keep toying with it and see if I can at least learn something from it. I'll try your suggestion if not just for the learning purposes. Thanks again.

[texxter]

Here is a quick and dirty attempt. No idea what you're looking for, but this is the kind of thing you can do. Not sure it's worth it.