What is the best editing technique to whiten a dog's stained mouth

[Kbfnsd]

I am new to photoshop cc.  I would like to whiten a stained beard around a dog's mouth.  I have tried painting with a whiter color but it does not look natural.  I appreciate any answers and advice.

Thank you

[Chuck Uebele]

Hard to say without seeing the photo.

[Kbfnsd]

Here he is.  His mouth looks darker in the picture than it actually is.  I am not sure what the best tool and technique are to lighten.  Thank you for your help.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

I would do it in three stages (note a higher resolution image would have been better to demonstrate but hopefully you get the idea)

1. Make the image a smart object and use the camera raw filter to correct the underexposure and increase the satruration

2. Add a local adjustment brush in camera raw filter and increase the exposure in the shadows and reduce saturation around the mouth

3. Add a new layer and clone some of the whiter fur around the mouth. Set the blending mode of this new layer to luminosity and turn the opacity down till it looks right

I hope that helps you

Dave

[Kbfnsd]

Dave-

Thank you so much for the detailed advice!  I did have to reduce the photo in order to post here, but do have the raw original in Lightroom.

I will follow your instructions and keep them for future use.  I have two OES and primarily ordered Photoshop CC in order to work with pictures of both of them, and I have a lot to learn.

This absolutely helps--again Thank you!

Karen

[davescm]

You're very welcome Karen.

If you are using Lightroom you can do those first two steps on the raw image before using Ctrl+E to Edit the result in Photoshop and complete step 3.

Have a go and shout out if you get stuck

Dave

[Kbfnsd]

Thank you again Dave.  That too is valuable info--

I will have time to work on this project this evening.  Hopefully I won't get stuck --but if I do I will come back and ask questions.  I truly appreciate your taking your time to answer.

Karen

[Henry5FC1]

Yes...That is very valuable information...I will try to make that type of projects for my [link removed] I will edit my dog's picture..

[default8p9e891pnzjm]

Hello, i have tried your methods but tthe cloning of fur does not look natural. It looks like patches of round fur. What should i do?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Post the image and your result so far. 

[davescm]

Clone onto a separate layer and make sure you blend the cloned fur with the natural fur using a soft brush and mask. Make sure you used the luminosity blend mode (as shown above). Also make sure your clone stamp is rotated to match the lie of the existing fur.

Dave

[c.pfaffenbichler]

@davescm , please check out this thread: 

How to neaten fur while keeping natural texture of the fur