Image Editing - Magazine Cover

This was the original image that I then edited to make my magazine front cover.
My main issue with the original image was the ledge running along the wall. The reason I wanted to remove this was because it runs straight through the shadow and seems to appear from the characters head. This could distract the audiences attention from main image. I was able to remove it and maintain a real looking wall without any blur or colour fill in by using a range of Photoshop tools.
I also added a colour enhancement to make the shadow and the lighting effects more prominent. As well as this, I heightened the levels of the blue and red. The higher levels of blue gives the outline of the shadow more colour and the higher levels of red increase the light on the wooded banister. This gives the main image more colour and makes it more visually appealing to look at.
The various colours in the banister allowed me to take some and use it as the font colours to make the whole cover seem linked together rather than using a random set colour.