Before and After - Photo Editing

I was going to post up a picture that I had taken recently but thought that in the process I would also show you how awesome and fun photo editing is! 

I find it so exciting to take a good picture and then transform it into a great one... So here goes!

I will start by showing you the original (straight out of the camera) and then my final result after.

I took this picture  this past Sunday of a grandfather and his grandaughter at Huck Finn day.

Such a sweet pic eh? Ü

But I am freakish with two things when it comes my pictures and one of them is spots and the other is backgounds. I am rather obsessive when it comes to anything that distracts the eye when veiwing my photos.

I slapped my forehead when I saw this as I realized that I neglected to change the aperature (from the f/9 I had it at) to a lower f-stop which would have made the subject more the focal point and the background more blurry (blurrier?).

The other thing that stuck in my craw was something I really had no control over and that was the obnoxious red stroller behind the table.

But alas... all was not lost!

I imported the picture into photoshop CS5 and cropped it in close to an 8x10 and got to work on that background!

First, I rubberstamped the offensive stroller out of the picture... (Whew, I'm feeling better already!) 

Then I selected the part of the picture I wanted blurry using the Lasso Tool and then used the Lens Blur tool under the Filters tab and... Viola' instant blurry background!

 

Of course then I cleaned up the spots, like the food on the girls face and the pencil stuck behind granpa's ear (what was up with that?)

Also I took the buttons off his shirt... why? because they bugged me, and I could, so I did! hehehehe

I'm feeling soooo much better now!

*Sigh*

Ü