Need some Photoshop/Editing help

[Jamesy]

A quick hair edit that took less than 1 min. It is actually the same technique that you can use to remove bags under eyes/ even skin tones:

Assuming Photohop:

1. Make a separate layer- so you don't damage pixels and you can always then reduce effect (opacity).
2. Select Clone Stamp tool- blend mode: lighten // sample: all layers // hardness: 0% // flow: 10%
3. Sample a part of the clean background & start painting over the wispy hair!

Since your blend mode is set to lighten, the cloning will only happen where there are darker pixels- his hair.
I wouldn't use any type of selection tools on a photo with shallow DOF and soft edges, it's too obvious. paint it on soft, then you can always adjust opacity and go back in and clean up edges if you paint over his jacket or beard.

This technique is perfect for lightening bags/ shadows too.

Also note- his right eye (camera left) needs to be adjusted. look at the whites. It is darker than his left. Besides that, I wouldn't do much!

I like the technique mentioned here. I have also been successful with this type of background by doing the following:

1- Select only a section of the gray background
2- CTRL-J to jump that selection to a new layer
3- Move the gray behind the hair you want to clone out
4- Add a layer mask by holding down ALT (it will be black for conceal)
5- Paint in (low flow) the gray with white

[Quasimodo]

This thread is becoming out of control with incredibly over-the-top post processing suggestions for really basic work.

Speaking for myself, I truly enjoy hearing different people who are good at using photoshop sharing their takes and techniques. I am like the OP a beginner in Photoshop. I started wrong with buying what I was told is the bible my Martin Evening, but soon realised that you actually need som ground skills to even read the book. My best friend has been tutorials on youtube, and copying the tips until it sits. Hence learning is a very slow process of learning one thing at the time, then suddenly some kind of logic surfaces.

I would love for this thread to continue, and even more like it, where experienced users give good advice.

G.

[@!ex]

Quick and dirty. Fixed the levels, saturation, warmth, contrast, curves, and cleaned up the skin (portraiture) maybe 5 min of work.  I cloned out a bit of the wispy hair, and didn't take much time, but I feel like cloning out all of it would never look quite right, and the effort to result ratio would not be good.