What else could/should I do

BananaRepublic · May 12, 2015

Hi people,

I am learning photoshop again because I have not being using for months and I have forgotten a bunch of stuff. Anyway the image below is what I want to tackle as an exercise and I reckon that before I get frustrated and end up making a pigs ear of it I would ask for suggestions about what I should do.

I know that there is a couple of things that are distracting like the log formations in the back and the leave on the left but perhaps there are other things. Is there anyway of creating a shallow depth of field in PS, yes I should have done it at the time but I didn't.

binga63 · May 12, 2015

I like the shot, but because you asked....first a copy then quick mask the swan, another copy,then I cloned in the background slightly into the swan...why?...because when you blur the swan blurred will leave a tell tale ghost, once I have cloned around the swan I then lens blurred it....A gradient fill set to soft light lightened the b/g ...sharpened the swan slightly, change the colour balance slightly to blue in the shadows...only due to taste than any other reason ....exported it and here it is...hope I made sense

BananaRepublic · May 12, 2015

Thanks binga I will have a go at what you suggest.

BananaRepublic · May 19, 2015

binga63 said:
I like the shot, but because you asked....first a copy then quick mask the swan, another copy,then I cloned in the background slightly into the swan...why?...because when you blur the swan blurred will leave a tell tale ghost, once I have cloned around the swan I then lens blurred it....A gradient fill set to soft light lightened the b/g ...sharpened the swan slightly, change the colour balance slightly to blue in the shadows...only due to taste than any other reason ....exported it and here it is...hope I made senseView attachment 100908 View attachment 100909

I cannot do any of the steps as laid out and it driving me mad. Is there a tutorial video you could point me towards.