Asking Letter of Recommendation

[Sury]

Hello all,

I am trying to which professors I should ask the letters of recommendations. I understand that is important to have it from someone who knows you well, and gave you good grades. One of my professors is going to give me a LoR is just like that, he is directly connected with the field, he has a good reputation in the industry, I got a good grade and I have been very active in his class.

I am trying to decide on both second and third recommenders.

The second recomender is well known in the area, and I already spoke with her about future plans for a PhD. I was a research assistant for her during graduate studies however I had bad grades in her classes (and performed poorly as well)! During my second semester I had a very bad performance due to personal hardship and this reflected on my grades. She is aware of this reason why I performed badly and still picked me to be a RA in the fourth semester.

The third recomender gave me an average grade, also knows me well and I am confident she has a good impression over me. The reason why I had an average grade was that I missed her more than twice (which she is clear about cutting on grades).

I have other options, like a professor from an elective where I performed extremely well and got a positive feedback. He is a psychologist, has a PhD and well known. However, he is not at all connected with my area reason why I am reluctant to ask him.

What should I do?

Thanks