focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/400
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

I tried out Christina and Stacy’s B&W conversion method (inspired by Scott Kelby) using Photoshop and I love it! Who knew it was this easy? I’ve seen many conversion methods around the internet but none were as simple as this one.

Basically, once you have tweaked your photo in colour to the way you like it, open it up in Photoshop (Elements works too) and duplicate the layer, go to Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map and choose Black to White and BOOM! You have a very nice B&W conversion.

Once you’ve merged the layers down, you can adjust the contrast, dodge whites of the eyes or whatever you need to do to fine tune the image. Like Christina suggested, I added a bit of a tint to soften the starkness of the B&W. I don’t know if you like my edit, but I’m very happy to have found an easy way to convert from colour to B&W with great results!

I’ve always loved B&W photography but hadn’t been happy with my conversions, until now. Thanks so much ladies! Hopefully others will be able to learn from this as well.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.