Help on PS skills on scanned photo

Hello,my first forum post and of course its PS work.I shot film and

I get some proofs back I know I can improve on PS but Im not sure

how?I attached this one photo for discussion.My main problem on this

photo was the washed out background.I wanted to either burn it in or

do something to alter the whiteness...any help would be appreciated.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3439798

also I used the magic wand tool but it chose too much of the image to burn,whats the tech to chose a certain subject to change?

i think the picture is fine, but the question will be answered. there are several methods to select things in PS.

 

1. the one i use the most is either the magnetic lasso or the lasso. when the tool is selected you can select freehand drawing mode (i will call it this), or if magnetic is selected, the line will snap to contrast change areas. with any lasso tool or marque tool (these can be shapes) you can use the boolean buttons at the top little boxes that are grey or grey and not grey etc. these are methods of selection.. like add more when you select more or subtract from selection or take the intersection of the selected.. once you have selected your area. you can do a Select>feather if you want the edge of your selection to be blurry (which you will most of the time. you can also inverse your selection or save it. anyway once you create a selection you will apply an effect. Since i usually use layers the affect will be on a layer and a mask is automatically applied. a mask is a like a peace of paper or something layed over with a layer determining where it will affect. white is showing the affect and black is not... shades between affect how much of the affect is showing through. which gets us to another way of doing this selection stuff

 

2. apply the change you want like a curves in your case on an adjustment layer. then click the create mask button when the adjustment layer is selected. this is the little button second from the left on the layers pallete. next take a paint brush and paint the part you want selected white. or grey for partial affect or select the area you want and use the paint bucket again you can feather the selection and fill with the paint bucket.

 

hopefully this will help a little. ps should also have some help and tutorials that will give more detail.

Joe,

 

First of all, the picture looks green. If that's what you're after, than that's fine. To see what I mean, just click on Image - Mode - Grayscale.

 

A quick and dirty fix for the washed out background: from the tool box at left choose the burn tool and select "Midtones" in Range and make it about 20% in Exposure.

If this is close to what you want let me know. It was a relatively easy technique. It will work with most photos that are both under and over exposed.<div></div>

Thanks everyone for the response,I tried some of the methods you mentioned and it helped a great deal.I still dont have a grasp of the layering method but I suppose I need to get a book and sit down and read it.Thanks again.