What can I do to clean this up?

[MDalby]

I am trying to get a self photo for my contact photo at my site and I would like it to look more professional.

I asked a guy to shoot a photo for me with his camera at the game tonight but there is a lot in the background and the WB is off on the skin tones.

PP is not my strong suit and I have played around with it but I am not having much success. Any recommendations on how to clean this up is appreciated.

Thanks,

MD

http://dalbyphoto.smugmug.com/photos/467920907_YWbgd-L.jpg

Cropped

http://dalbyphoto.smugmug.com/photos/467919973_85Usk-L.jpg

[jjbong]

Two issues: Color cast and background blur/replacement.

For color cast reduction, I usually follow the Dan Margulis approach of working with RGB curves in color mode. Here, there are obvious neutrals: the white stripes on your shirt, and the black on the lenses. Obviously, these should be neutral. Then there are skin tones, which should be more yellow than magenta (using LAB). So I set color samplers in the neutrals and in several skin tones. I changed the Info palette displays for #2 and #3 (the skin tones) to LAB. The objective was to get #1 and #4 neutral (R=G=B, or close to it), and B greater or equal to A for #2 and #3 (skin tones). Also, you don't want any negative A or B numbers in skin or hair (assuming you're not dyeing your hair green or blue).

http://jjbong.smugmug.com/photos/467943022_PjEuj-L.jpg

From the numbers, it's clear that there's a blue cast here, with a little bit of green also (run the cursor over your hair to see that). I used RGB curves to get these 4 points reasonable, and to remove the slight green-ness in the hair:

http://jjbong.smugmug.com/photos/467943053_qvtbx-L.jpg

These were done on a curves adjustment layer in Color mode, so that the curves affected only color, and not detail (luminosity):

http://jjbong.smugmug.com/photos/467943067_Jwi35-M.jpg

Result is here:

http://jjbong.smugmug.com/photos/467943116_d3rtW-L.jpg

This is half of the problem. There's a very good recent thread that addresses the other half (blurring/replacing the background):
116223

Hope this helps.

[MDalby]

John,

Thank you!!! I am off to learn how to blur a background.

I appreciate the tutoring and the efforts.

MD