Help: Mac, CS4, Image background

[rugrat]

My sister's partner's mum has a pic she took on hols of her dad and her son shortly before her dad died. It is just a holiday snap but of great sentimental value to her. I was asked if I could tidy it up and remove the stripy sofa from the background. I did manage to tidy the photo a little but 2 hours later my attempts at background fixing (I have viewed a lot of tutorials now!) it is getting no better.

Can anyone help or is it an impossible task?

Original

So far

 

[singlespeed]

The problem here is what to replace the striped sofa with. If just going for a plane(er) fabric effect, the difficult part is getting it realistic, instead of a flat area with no detail. It needs to be done well, at it is a large part of the image.

The other option could be to replace the background all together... But would this be in bad taste, given the original brief.

Or, just enhance what is there to bring the empasis back to the two gents, having a pint, whilst on their hols. Slightly blur the background, then darken it. Dodge and burn the gentlemen and foreground detail to gain some hopefully realistic contrast. On a larger pic, it should be a bit easier get good edges.

164175_485162117051_500167051_5711508_3587348_n by npurdie2003, on Flickr

 

[rugrat]

I agree, background replacement won't work. The lady had asked would completely black or white work (she really hates the striped sofa!), but it just looks like a cut out. Another TP member has had a go at replacing the background (not just sofa) with a fabric background and although incomplete looks good to me so far.

I am open to suggestions as even after a night's sleep I am finding this job rather tricky :bonk:

 

[Chappers]

Not sure what software you have but you could try desaturating the stripy sofa. OK it wont remove it but it will tone it down. The other option is to clone some flooring into the area, but that would be lengthy job. If you have a reasonable result with the fabric background go with that