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.

focal length: 66 mm
shutter speed: 1/40
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

It’s Love Thursday at SS and I’ve been holding onto this photo for a while now to share the love. I took a series of shots of this tea light candle holder and chose this one that was framed like this rather than the ones I took of the whole structure. I liked the off centre composition and the closeness of the hearts. I went a bit heavy on the processing to give it a more bold look.

After shooting human subjects all the time, it’s nice to capture something inanimate.

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

focal length: 48 mm
shutter speed: 1/160
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

This week’s Theme Thursday over at Stacy’s is “Unrefined”. I have a plethora of photos that fit today’s theme! It’s the story of my life these days. Luckily, I’m usually behind the camera and not in front of it. Even though my little one mirrors my state of dishevelment during the day, that doesn’t stop me from snapping her picture. I know. Totally unfair for her and she may later resent me for it but in my eyes, she’s still my beautiful little sweetheart.

For this image, I straightened, increased contrast and added a black vignette. One of the best features of Lightroom or Aperture is the vignette. It doesn’t add a black vignette evenly around the entire edge of the photo. You may have noticed that the shadows are darkened more while the highlights remain relatively light. I think it gives it a more natural look. What do you think?

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

focal length: 26 mm
shutter speed: 1/60
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

This isn’t my attempt at a diptych, which, by the way, I am determined to do one of these days. I just haven’t been inspired by any of my photos yet to turn them into a proper diptych. I slapped two of these photos together because I couldn’t choose one over the other. Simple as that. I know you too have been torn over choosing which photos to print or share. Every one of them are just so good! And I don’t necessarily mean technically “good”. I find it’s hard to delete all those blurry pictures or shots with terrible composition, just because… well, my baby is in them! What’s a few extra gigabytes here and there when it comes to our babies? Well, that’s just what I keep telling myself.

So, let’s be honest here. What’s the largest batch of prints you’ve ever ordered? I’ll tell you mine tomorrow.

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

*click image to download large size (1024×680)

focal length: 42 mm
shutter speed: 1/320
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

Ok everyone! It’s our second What’s Your Play assignment. Today I chose a non-human subject to give you a greater range of freedom for your processing. Go crazy! I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Remember to link to your version by leaving a comment below. You are welcome to add any specifics about what you did in your processing (software used, adjusted values, cropping etc) to help us learn.

Here’s a short slideshow of all the submissions from last week:

Let me know if you don’t want me to include your play in the weekly recaps. It may not always be in a slideshow format but I’d like to display all your work for the previous WYP in one place.

And you’re all welcome to submit your own photo for manipulation as well by emailing me a high res SOOC photo to play [at] dolcepics [dot] com.

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