Help bring a diver out of the blue

i took this pic http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=131820183&size=o

and i got a 10 x 15 print of it but you can hardly see the diver in the water, i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to make the diver stand out a bit more,

oh and i have PS

OK...

Open the image in PS and use the "magic pen" to select the tones that correspond to the diver: use only, say, a range of 5/255 tones, and select several times in "additive" mode until you have a selection that includes the diver and nothing else (this is sometimes a bit fiddly). Then make this a new adjustment layer, and try different combinations of whatever you like, in levels or, better, curves or even contrast.

I find this easier than drawing a freehand marquee around the diver, then playing with the layer created from that because the selection is less precise. If you do just draw a marquee, then save the original image as a snapshot and make this the target for the "history brush". Ensure that the marquee is a bit bigger than the diver. After adjusting the image you can carefully paint back the background with a small diameter history brush. This is much easier with a graphics tablet than a mouse!

These techniques are in several of the PS books, so you can look up the details and other ideas, too.

The best answer, though, is to take a different image with a really wide angle lens and much closer to the diver to avoid what Jim Church called the "blahs".

Tim

B)

thanks ill play around with the magic pen and see what i can do.

i would love to have a really wide abgle lens but i dont think i can get one with a port for my 8080

There's an easier way to select the diver using the quick selection tool. It's the two circles in a rectangle at the bottom of the toolbox. Click on the right one, and use the brush to paint over the diver, then click on the other "circle-in-a-box" and your diver should be selected. Go to Select>Feather and choose 2 or 3 pixels. Finally, use the burn tool set to "Shadows" and 5% to 10% to brush over the diver a few times to darken it to your liking. This will make it stand out more and in a natural manner.