Mastiff Picture with Lake Background

I would like some help enhancing this picture. This is Brandy who is a mastiff "special". They need a good marketing picture of her. I would like to make the background look bluer with the lake and clouds. How do I do that? Also, any other critiques are welcomed:

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Jewel,

the lake is blown out.

If you do shots like this, try to use fill-in flash and shorter shutter speeds.

Best regards,
Andy

I find the magnetic lasso is too hard to control & tell my students to use the polygonal lasso tool. After all, if you blow the pic up a lot when you're selecting, a curve is just made up of a series of short straight lines. And, they go exactly where I want them, & I don't have to spend time cleaning up the magnetic lasso's mistakes.
Use a 1 pixel feather, or 2 pixels on a high res file.

Making the sky more blue will look ridiculous if youi don't do something with the lake as well. I don't think you have chosen your background wisely. Best option is to schedule a re-shoot.

What you can try is select sky and lake with the magic wand, copy it in a different layer and play around with curves.
Another option is to have the lake in one layer and the sky in another. Use the fill with a gradient to add color and add some noise afterwards.

Another option is to put the dog and owner in a new background.

Note that you will never be able to get details back in a blowout area.

Thanks for the tips so far. I agree it isn't the most ideal backdrop, but we were at the East Orlando Fairgrounds, and believe me, that was IT. It was either that or go inside one of their metal buildings. Yuck.

It was also really hot - like 80 degrees already and extremely humid at 8:30 am! I was really lucky to get anything at all because the dogs were so hot, their tongues were hanging out and I couldn't get any expression (I don't like tongues out but had no choice in this case). I tried making I don't know how many different noises to get them perked up - I have become quite good at that!

I told the owners we need to wait until this Fall when the weather cools down some. It is just ridiculous right now in Florida.

Jewel

Jewel like the others said, use flash to light the subject and slow down your shutter speed so that the background is not blown out. Another option, if this is not possible, would be to put the camera on a tripod and take two different exposures. One exposed for the dog and one for the background. You can later use a blending technique in PS to combine the two into one. Lastly make sure the dog is in the shadows (looks like you did) so that you do not get any blown out highlights on it.

Ovi

Thanks. I did use a flash, but you're right - should have used a tri-pod (which isn't that easy when you are photographing dogs since they don't normally sit still that long). I will take 2 exposures next time of the foreground and background.

Hey, I am going ghenuing tonight with my husband in the Indian River. Hoping to get some great shots.

Jewel

Good try at trying to use the lasso tool, but i find it extremely hard to use.
I find that the Pen tool offers the best control.

As far as the picture is concerned, it really doesnt appeal to me. May if he was close to the dog smiling, or squating next to the dog, to show the "mans best friend" theme.

I actually edited that 2nd shot again not using the magnetic lasso because I could see the edges. I "layered" it and got a better look overall.

The pose with the man and dog is how you are supposed to "stack" a show dog. This is how it's done in the "dog world" for show dogs for advertising purposes. The dog is supposed to be stacked just the way she is in that picture. I do also like a more casual look, though, for pictures that are for personal uses.

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I disagree. If you have good subject/background contrast the mag. lasso is great, nothing works quite as quick. As a general rule I spend about 5 seconds with magnetic lasson and then I switch to quick mask to tidy up some spots. The whole process is quicker then when I work with the poly lasso. This is of course dependant on subject/background contrast.

In general I think it is a bad idea to say 'don't use that tool' because there are situations where it is valuable. I do use the poly lasso as well in certain situations. Every tool has its place and knowing when to use it is the hard part.

Vince