Editing C&C and advice please

[juggler78]

New to editing so your advice is most welcome. i used photoshop elements and adjusted the levels first. then i selected the background and changed the brightness with smart brush. i would love to do something about he sunlight on my wife's hair, is there anything i can do? thanks for your help

Before.
DSC_0173-web.jpg by juggler78, on Flickr

After.
DSC_0173-after.jpg by juggler78, on Flickr

 

[KmH]

Re-shoot the photo. The white portion of the hair is completely blown, meaning their is no image data there anymore.

You can clean it up quite a bit though by opening the image in the Elements version of ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) and adjusting the Recovery slider, and the fill slider to add light to the shadow side of her head.

You don't say which version of Elements you have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9.

A lens hood and fill flash would have helped the capture a great deal.

As it is the photo has little contrast because of lens flare, which is what a lens hood minimzes.

The dogs face is out-of-focus. A main subject that is not in focus, is a good reason to consign a photo to the recycle bin.