How To Make Your Own Picture Look Ugly?

How to photoshop a picture to make it look like i have done a photoshoot with a white backdrop?

• i know, i know, why dont i just do a photoshoot? because its expensive, and im a full time mum. anyways, i want to have lots of pictures up all over my house of my gorgeous daughter.. but the backgrounds are never very nice! (our cluttered, missmatched house, ect) so i just want to take a picture of her in our living room or whatever.. then edit out the background and make it look professional!! here are some examples: to take a picture like THIS: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1441&bih=603&tbm=isch&tbnid=xRrKesQ6UwGZWM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-stock-photos-baby-twins-bedroom-image2033603&docid=2zww-0kpRXXmmM&imgurl=http://www.dreamstime.com/baby-twins-in-bedroom-thumb2033603.jpg&w=400&h=290&ei=duy7T-LKI4qp8QPCz924Cg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1118&vpy=279&dur=1423&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=99&ty=138&sig=117306041958985683249&page=1&tbnh=131&tbnw=169&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:0,i:114 and make it like THIS: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1441&bih=603&tbm=isch&tbnid=iy1etSWOKB7ZCM:&imgrefurl=http://babysgotwheels.co.uk/&docid=PDh-4AqbM_N6sM&imgurl=http://babysgotwheels.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Baby-Homepage.gif&w=281&h=300&ei=p-y7T8LUB4q_8AOproTIDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=110&vpy=261&dur=1615&hovh=232&hovw=217&tx=164&ty=136&sig=117306041958985683249&page=2&tbnh=141&tbnw=121&start=24&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:24,i:202 unfortunatly.. mine always look like they have been photoshopped.. it doesnt matter how neat i am, how hard or soft any type of brush/eraser is, i can play around with the lighting, colours, colour match, everything for hours, it just looks like i have cropped out the background. also i have tried shading the background and adding shadows and it still looks fake!! just wondering if anyone has any ideas of what to do? thankyou so much for reading all of this, it really means alot to me!!

• Answer:

  Hi, the second photo has been taken in a professional studio, you can see that by the catch light in the baby eyes (made by the strobes) I think that what you are doing is correct, try to mask instead of deleting or painting... Also try to fade your selection to give a bit of blur to the edges. This will take some practice. :-)