Background effects

[jennegirl]

Hello there! I am in love with the way several photographers edit and will link some photos below. There seems to be a magic to the background where there is almost a sheen and then a light overlay? Hard to explain. It is softer and pretty. A lot is in the lens of course as I know these photographers use the 200 2.0 lens. I would like to achieve the deeper colors to the edit as well as the sheer background. And the skin...but that will have to be another time ;). Thank you. I have attached two files where I think these edits can achieve a similar look, realistically.

Links to Examples:

 

[Damien Symonds]

You've followed Points 1-3 of the posting guidelines just right.  Have you explored Point 5?

Unfortunately, you're a long way from the mark of Point 4, at least on your first photo.  Please revisit.

In the second photo, your cloning job is really obvious.  You need to revisit that and prevent the repeated patterns.

Speaking of cloning, that will be the very first aspect of these edits.  Of course, it's better to get the blurry backgrounds in camera, but we can see that even Ms Reeves  herself hasn't been able to do that.  Ironically, her background blur jobs are bloody awful, because she hasn't followed this method.