Many times, you do not need to spend a ton of time editing a photo in order to make some drastic changes. Whether working on post-processing model shoots or some family photos, minor editing can truly make a difference to the photo.

The above image is one that I took of my daughter. [The technical aspects of the photo are as follows: Nikon D80; Sigma 18-200; Focal Length: 18mm; No Flash; F/7.1; ISO 100; and Exposure 1/200 sec.].  Personally, I love the photo.  Naturally, it is of my daughter so that is the top reason.  Second, it just conveys fun and makes me smile.  However, there are a few things that one can do to improve the photo without spending too much time in Photoshop.

The first step for me was to remove some of the tennis shoe marks from the slide.  I cleaned up the image using the healing brush tool.  A minor tweak to the levels gives a cleaner and brighter image.

The next thing I want to do is give the image a bit more depth by blurring the image.  Duplicate the image layer into a new layer and from the menu, select Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and with a minimal amount.  This blurring method appears to have a more natural effect than other blurring methods such as Gaussian blur.  Next, add a layer mask and using a soft round brush, paint over the areas you want to remove.  For this image, I wanted to keep my daughter in focus, obvious, but I also wanted some of the main slide to her left and to her right as well.  The background behind her should have a subtle blur as follows:

Again, nothing too drastic but I feel this adds quite a bit to the image in terms of depth.

Now I want her to stand out a bit more, so I used the lasso tool to select her and promote that selection into a new layer (Control + J).  I made some minor adjustments (you can use Brightness & Contrast or Levels) to brighten the image up so it stands out even more.  Don’t get too crazy with this because you want it to stand out but not contrast too much with the lighting of the image.

The final step is to bring out the eyes a bit more.  Again with the lasso tool, I made a selection of the eyes and promoted that into a new layer.  Change the blending mode to Screen and drop the opacity down so it is not overpowering (I have the opacity set to 41%).

So while I did not touch up the image that much, the minor adjustments that I made give the image just a little more punch than what was there before.