Help with Background touch up

BradfordBenn

So I have been working on trying to clean up my camera and photoshop skills. I still have a way to go on both, but I am getting closer. A couple of weeks back the family (Gently Mad, Chloe the dog, and myself) went out for a winter stroll at a local park. We came across a memorial for fallen fighters and I snapped a few shots. Chloe is a willing model but does not always take direction well.

So I got a picture that I think is pretty good. There are some things that make it still not right, such as the fact that I did not get all of Chloe or the seal in the picture. I also did not get the F/Stop right so the background is much more pronounced and busy than I would like. So I tried a few different things and was not very happy with the background still. So then I tried to replace the background following pathfinder's directions I replaced the background.

However it still doesn't look right. So I figured it is time to ask for help. So what can I do to make this pop a little more? Blur the background? Different background?

Original


Touched up


Thanks

Yes, if you feel so inclinced to make edits you can.

jjbong

I think you did a great job of replacing the background.

In case you haven't seen it, there's a good tutorial on background blurring (i.e., compensating for your F-stop selection)

[thread]117614[/thread]

There are certainly technical things that can be done to improve the image - bringing out detail in the dog, for example, where a lot of detail is plugged; some contrast in the right areas; some color contrast; etc.

But for me, anyway, the dog's pose (if you will) doesn't work with what I think you were trying for. And you can't fix that in PostProcessing (other than, maybe , putting another shot of the dog in the image).