Making an 'OK' Picture Good

...Or even Great.

Definitely not impossible! Want proof? Here's an excellent example of an everyday picture, (much like the ones I'm sure everyone has at home) that can be taken to a whole new level with some simple editing.

The original picture - a very special memory, but a mediocre shot at best.

The background was way too distracting for me, especially with the lady peering at us at the table. So lets blur the background.

By using the magic lasso tool, we can select around the girls then inverse the selection (so everything around the gals is selected). Then go to the filters -->blur -->gaussian blur. You can adjust how much you want the background blurred.

Another perk to blurring the background is that it makes the rest of the picture appear just a bit clearer. Something else we can do to enhance the rest of the picture and make it pop is to desaturate the selected background:

A very nice photo.

But wait! There's still more that we can do.

By using a chocolate action --^ and in combo with parts of color--v ...

The picture almost looks professional.

The original and the edited pic side-by-side

What a dramatic difference, huh?

Now, is anyone ready to be really impressed? This photo was taken with a camera phone. We all know camera phones aren't ideal for picture-taking. But if it's the only thing you have on you at the time (as I did on this occasion), take a chance! Go ahead and take a few pictures. The results can be pretty amazing...