Black and White Wednesday - color conversion

This week on Black and White Wednesday, I thought I'd follow the leader and show you this photo's transformation from SOOC (straight out of camera) to the finished product.



I was taking these shots with Hannah playing around inside an ottoman. When this was shot, she had laid back and found herself a little stuck, hence the "uh oh" face. Had to cover her up a little bit!



I fixed the owie on her head, smoothed out some eye boogies, and sharpened her eyes a little bit. Then I spent a lot of time getting the crop just the way I wanted it. Might have spent more time on the crop than on the rest of the steps below! I bought the Florabella actions this week, and they are sure pretty and easy to use! I used a milky haze and a tint from the actions. This was my first time playing around with haze and tints. Seems like my best black and whites always come from getting the color just right first, and then doing the black and white conversion.



I used one of the Florabella black and white actions for the conversion, and then adjusted the lighting to get the exposure and shadows just the way I wanted it. I flattened the black and white layer and the previous hazy color image. I placed the black and white image over the hazy color image, and then reduced the opacity until I got just the right amount of red to peek out from the flower on Hannah's head and a wee bit of warmth to peek out from her skin.

My birthday is coming up later this month, and Kevin is helping me treat myself for my birthday. I'm upgrading to a Canon 7D, decided to get my first taste of L glass with an 24-70mm f/2.8L, and a speedlight. Decided that I'd rather have camera equipment right now then a newer car! I'm really excited about having video on the 7D. My old Canon point and shoot takes great video but sucks down batteries, and I am not going to carry around two cameras at the same time.

I'm going to be selling one lovingly used Canon EOS Rebel XSi body, an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, battery grip, an extra battery, and a few photography books. Haven't finalized a price yet... but I'm watching eBay auctions to help figure out what the going rate is right now. Leave me your e-mail in the comments section if you are interested.