Blending tree tops and eye bags

So I'm doing some PP on my first senior portrait shoot. The skies were horrible that morning so I had to go out later that afternoon to grab some sky shots to add in as a background.

This is my original picture:

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I wouldn't try to magic wand the sky - in fact, I wouldn't try to select it at all.

Just overlay your sky on a new layer, then change the layer blend mode to Multiply. Then mask as necessary.

Those eye bags sure are severe. There's a bunch of different methods, I guess. Maybe some simple dodge-and-burn would do it, or I've seen some people mention using the clone tool set to "lighten" mode.

I'm sorry but you owe your client a reshoot in better conditions and using better techniques. The bags under her eyes are exaggerated by shadows cast by her orbital bones (eye socket). You need to use fill flash, balanced with the ambient light, to minimize the bags.

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PixelMagic wrote in post #10036354
I'm sorry but you owe your client a reshoot in better conditions and using better techniques. The bags under her eyes are exaggerated by shadows cast by her orbital bones (eye socket). You need to use fill flash, balanced with the ambient light, to minimize the bags.

I told the mother that I did not want to do the shoot that morning. We were only able to shoot for about 45 minutes before it started pouring rain. I told her we needed to reschedule before we even met up that morning, she insisted that we do it then saying it was the only time they would be available. I've asked if we can re-shoot, so far they haven't been able. I'm not getting paid, it's for a my girlfriends co-worker's children.
So without being able to do another shoot, does anyone have any constructive criticism on what I'm able to do about this right now?

post a link to the 2 images so we can work on them.

The lighting was perfect for your shot that morning. Bright overcast is one of the best shooting conditions. You need to use fill flash to make your subject the most important part of the scene. I did give your image a tweak. I used a blue brush on a separate layer to color the sky, set the brush at 5%. I cloned out the little gaps to the left of the tree trunk as I though they where distracting. Her eye bags can be fixed with the patch tool in photo shop followed by edit/fade patch selection to make things look realistic. I opened a layer filled with 50% neutral gray and used a white brush set on 7% to lighten her face and hair.
If you don't have a speedlite, it might be a good early addition to your gear. Fill is most necessary on sunlit days. You could have used a reflector to help your situation here. This image is too small to really work with. I would normally have brightened her eyes and teeth a little.
A few notes for the future. She is facing out of frame and is too far to the left. Cropping some of the right side will help.
You will never get better if you excuse yourself after having trouble. Try to figure out what you can do to improve the next time you are in that situation. I too, would strongly suggest you reshoot this. Lower exposure of the background and use flash to brighten the foreground.

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as shot i'd say best thing is just to crop it close and leave out all that tree/sky stuff that as shot just doesn't add anything... it's way too blown out and even just adding a blue tint to it doesn't look natural... obv do some exposure bumps or brightness or whatever to bring her face back in...

like other people said... on a shoot like this extra lighting is 100% necessary... you would have been able to expose her well while keeping detail in the sky... a simple white fill card may have been enough (but probably not)... ah just saw you have a 430... use it next time

You migth want to try a pixel mask, turning the background into a layer first and then have the sky stacked below. This works very well with some shots. Also, I'd do big crop.