Darkening the background

If I have an image where the background needs to be darkened or enhanced, how do I go about doing that?

I do quite a bit with CS2 but I'm having the brain lapse thing here and wonder if I need to duplicate the original layer, create a layer mask or something else. Is there a tutorial or helpful hint I can follow?

Or do I need to blend them from the two original images? I don't this before and it actually worked.

Thanks

quick way, just burn the background till it looks better or better way. dupe the layer, darken the whole image till sky is perfect, add layer mask and paint in the parts u dont want to darken. comes out perfect.

Yeah I think that's what I was asking. For a year or so I've been learning CS2 on the fly.

quickest way for me is to adjust the gamma under exposure adjustments...95% of the time it does what I need done.

Reduce exposure then paint out the foregraound with the history brush.

Or apply a levels adjustment layer push your blacks up to darken everything and then paint on the mask with black to restore brightness where you need it .

Rod