Help with background...

Here is a picture of baby Sabrina that I am mostly happy with my post processing efforts. However the background is still bothering me. It is a tad grainy, which usually dosent bother me but the grain is really ugly, just looks dirty.

Any help would be great!

Taken with 300D w/50 2,8 CZJ Tessar. raw processed in DPP and Elements 2.0

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Also...
For this image I am trying out a layer mask technique like the one here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/t...-blending.shtml
but am not able to get it to work in Elements 2.0

I take 2 raw images one exposed for the highlights and one for the shadows and am able to get them togother ok. one as the background and one as layer 1.

However I am unable to paint on the top layer and get the bottom to shine through. I just end up really painting! Someone said I need to select the layer as a mask? How do I do this, I canot find such a command. I can create a blank mask but it dosent affect the other layers....

What am I doing wrong?

used the Extract filter to isolate the background, 3 passes of despeckle and then slight lens blur. one pass of despeckle and very slight usm on baby Sabrina. what do you think?

-alex

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Or use one pass thru Neat Image....and it's free. I'll post the results if you would like.

what a beautiful girl...
here's my take on it.

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kalee, very nice. What did you do?

usm... my best friend.
i just wanted to make the eyes pop.
then i blurred the background a bit and ran softfocus at the lightest
setting possible... and cropped out the ?blanket? at the right.
my eye kept going to it, and i thought the focus should be on
that beautiful girl, not the blanket.

it's a stunning photo.
i really like the warmth.

What USM settings did you use?

Mal

I may have gone a little far here, but I think it's a nice effect. I selected her with the magnetic lasso, contracted the selection by a pixel and feathered by 2. Then duplicated the selection of her to a new layer and inversed the selection. Chose the bottom layer (original image) and used an extreme amount of Gaussian blur. Cleaned up some edges around her with blur tool. Then applied USM (amount around 200-250, radius .3, threshold 0) on the layer that just had her on it. adjusted just her eyes with a curves adjustment. Saved, and ran through Neat Image with the ISO400 profile for the Digital Rebel.

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hmmm... i don't recall exactly.
i usually go pretty high.
60 or so

Could you explain where to find the Extract filter in Elements 2?

Jim

hi jim, i did this in PS CS. it's under the filter menu. i do not know if this is availabe in PSE. -alex

Job well done MG, I like it, hopefully so does he. Really wonderful!!

Great shot, MG you did a great job. I think the color suits her very well.

it was a great photo to begin with for sure. That's the only way to end up with good results, regardless of Photoshop skill. I forgot to mention that I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer(-6 saturation,+2 lightness) and a photo filter layer (cooling filter 80 at 25% density)